UNICs promote UN Issues

Millennium Development Goals (MDG)

Soccer Goalpost to Raise Awareness of Millennium Development Goals among Young Visitors to VIC: On the occasion of the observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on 17 October, and under the theme "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Empowering the poorest of the poor" UNIS Vienna added a nearly life-size soccer Millennium Goalpost to the exhibits at the VIC.

Done in cooperation with the Austrian NGO Jugend Eine Welt, the exhibit aims to raise awareness of the MDGs among the 50,000 children and young people who visit the VIC every year.

UNIS Vienna

On 17 October 2005, UNIC Sanaa organized a children's drawing competition in order to promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the UN 60th Anniversary.

UNIC Sanaa

Nobel Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai, boxing champion Conjestina Achieng, and artists from the world of music are joining with the UN System in Kenya to launch a communication and advocacy campaign focusing on the need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Kenya by 2015.

The MDGs, adopted by the world’s governments at the Millennium Summit in 2000, are a set of eight time-bound measurable objectives for reducing poverty and hunger, improving health and well-being and protecting the environment.

The UN-led campaign, developed and produced in Nairobi, is built around eight one-minute public service announcements (PSAs) that highlight the role of the UN in assisting Kenya achieve its MDG objectives, including preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

National television and radio stations KBC, KTN and Citizen will begin to broadcast the PSAs in the run up to the 2005 World Summit, which takes place in New York on 14-16 September. At the Summit a record number of Heads of State will debate essential UN reforms and review progress towards the MDGs.

"The year 2005 is crucial in our work to achieve the Goals" said the Acting Resident Coordinator of the UN in Kenya and UNICEF Kenya Representative, Mr. Heimo Laakkonen. "Instead of setting targets, this time world leaders must decide how to achieve them."

"A major push is needed if we are to achieve the required objectives by 2015," Mr Laakkonen continued, noting that while most regions were showing good progress toward most of the goals, results are much less encouraging in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Kenya, significant progress has been achieved on MDG 2, to achieve universal primary education. Headway is also being made on health, with no recent deaths from measles and a reduction in HIV infection being seen in many areas of the country. On the other hand, poverty remains a significant obstacle to achieving the country’s development goals.

A major focus of the PSAs is the importance of partnerships for achieving the MDGs, including the participation of the private sector.

"Sustainable development and poverty reduction cannot occur without the active participation of the private sector" said Eric Falt, Director of the UN Information Centre in Nairobi, expressing the UN’s appreciation to the TV and radio broadcast stations that will broadcast the PSAs.

"Communication plays a significant role in effective human development. Therefore, we are extremely pleased that these national broadcast stations have partnered with the UN to explain the meaning of the MDGs to ordinary Kenyans. With their reach and wide audience these stations are well positioned to effectively deliver these critical messages to those who need to see and hear them".

Some 30 million potential viewers and listeners will be exposed to the eight PSAs, which will be aired by the three national broadcasters every day in the three weeks leading up the 2005 World Summit.

UNIC Nairobi

On Sunday, 24 July, 2005 was the start of the Austrian eco-relay rally, which drew attention to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and in particular to the eradication of extreme hunger and poverty and on ensuring environmental sustainability. UNIS Vienna supported the event.

The rally would cover over 3000 kilometers. Any environmentally sound method of locomotion (such as cycling) was permitted.

Information material on the 2005 World Summit, MDGs, the Year of Microcredit and the International Year of Sports was distributed to several organizations to be used during the eco rally throughout Austria. The material was well received.

UNIS Vienna