Today, February 21st, the UN put on a communications workshop for NGO's entitled "Expanding Opportunities for NGO's to Network Locally and Internationally". It was moderated by Juan Carlos Brandt who is the Director of the UN Information Center in New York, Carolyn Schuler Uluc who works in the Department of Public Information, and Nyi Aye who is the the Officer in charge of the Informations Management Unit. They were joined on teleconference by The Directors of the UNICs from Mexico and the new center in Brussels.
The workshop began with an explanation of the new types of technologies and services which the UNIC's are starting to use and how they can be of use to the NGO's and civil society. The new teleconference system that was being used was the main example of how the UN is moving into the future. Although actually working that technology seemed to baffle them, prompting the Mexico City Director to comment that even in the 1st world we can't get things to work!
The NGO's are a very important part of the outreach work that the UN does all over the world. They are the ones who go out into the communities and are on the front lines of addressing the most pressing needs. Therefore, it is imperative that the UN be able to better connect these NGO's so that they may be able to communicate and share solutions to the problems that they are facing in the field.
The representatives from all of the UNIC's stressed the fact that they are compiling databases and information on all of the NGO's with whom they work and making that information public. With the new information centers, individuals will be able to contact their local UNIC and find organizations in their area focusing on any number of different issues. These databases, will hopefully encourage 'horizontal communication' between NGO's who are working toward similar goals. Effective networking and communication is essential if we are to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. There was a special focus on youth participation in particular, because as 18% of the total world population, they are uniquely positioned to take on some of the world's biggest issues with new perspectives, as well as greater knowledge of new technologies.
That is why organizations like Global Youth Action Network are so important. They network and provide links between community organizations all over the world. The Mexico UNIC recognized this when she mentioned GYAN in discussing how to connect isolated NGO's to the resources that are available to them.
All in all it was an informative workshop that demonstrated the increasingly vital role that new technology, along with organizations like GYAN, will play in solving current issues by connecting people!