International Year of Youth: their year, their voice

The International Year of Youth, commencing on the United Nations annual Day of Youth, 12 August 2010, celebrates and focuses on the importance of youth around the world. The contributions of youth to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are fundamental for success and Youth Conferences with the United Nations reflect the role youth play in achieving development. Youth are the future of the UN, and the future of all development. Events surrounding this year aim to make young people more visible in the international development agenda. Read more

Investing in women and girls: a key to achieve the MDGs

In the framework of the 2010 Substantive Session, the Ministerial Declaration was adopted at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) High-Level Segment on 2 July, calling for greater investment in women and girls in order to strengthen and advance gender equality and women empowerment. Under this premise, the 54 member Council supported the creation of the United Nations Entity for Women. Read more

UN Women entity to accelerate empowerment of women

On 2 July, the General Assembly voted unanimously to create a dynamic new entity to merge four United Nations offices focusing on gender equality.

“I welcome what will be an historic move by the General Assembly today in establishing UN Women, an entity designed to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide,” said the Deputy Secretary-General. “UN Women will give women and girls the strong, unified voice they deserve on the world stage. This is a positive and exciting moment for all the UN family and, I believe, for the world,” she added. Read more

Statistical compilations

World Statistics Pocketbook

The United Nations World Statistics Pocketbook 2009 is an authoritative and comprehensive compilation of over 50 key statistical indicators in convenient country profile format. This edition presents available data from 216 countries and areas, from over 20 international statistical sources, generally for the years 2000, 2005 and 2008.

The topics covered include: balance of payments, communication, education and culture, environment, health, industrial production, international trade, labour force, largest urban agglomeration, national accounts, population, refugees, surface area, United Nations membership, etc. The notes on the sources and definitions of the indicators are provided to help users perform further research on the statistics. Read more

Mr. Donald Lee was appointed Chief of the Social Perspective on Development Branch in the Division for Social Policy and Development, DESA, effective 1 August 2010. With this move, he returns to the Division for Social Policy and Development where he had earlier served as Chief of the Poverty Eradication and Employment Section from 2000 to 2007. Currently, Mr. Lee is the Officer-in-Charge of the Communications and Information Management Services (CIMS), a position he has held since July 2009. He has served as Secretary of the Executive Committee for Economic and Social Affairs since June 2007, and was also a member of the Strategic Planning Unit in DESA when it was launched in late 2009. Read more