Civil society key to helping promote development goals, UN official says

A senior United Nations communications official has urged civil society media organizations to play a key role in helping to promote the aims of the Organization, particularly the set of targets adopted by world leaders at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit to address such global ills as poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS.

"Our associated [non-governmental organizations (NGOs)] reflect the growing and increasingly well-organized network of civil society organizations providing the UN with the support and energy required for facing the enormous communications challenges before us in crossing the global-local divide," Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said in a keynote address to the 53rd annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) on Sunday in San Diego.

Referring to the set of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted at that landmark summit, Mr. Tharoor stressed that none of them could be met without the support of ordinary people around the world - the informed publics who sustain the political will of their governments.

"The [UN] Department of Public Information (DPI) works to gain the support of people around the world, by reaching out to the public at large through the media, non-governmental organizations, and other institutions of civil society," he said. "This growing relationship arguably holds the key to the continued effectiveness of the UN in today's world."

To support that notion, Mr. Tharoor announced the creation of an award sponsored by the UN Foundation, which was established by philanthropist Ted Turner, for the best research on the effectiveness and impact of UN public information and communications activities.

"As it attempts to do so, the United Nations provides an indispensable forum to bring states together to tackle the great problems of our time," Mr. Tharoor stressed, noting that multilateralism has made the world a safer and better place for states and peoples alike.

"We must work together to ensure that people understand the many ways in which the global interest is the national interest; how the individual interests of states are often more effectively pursued in concert with others; and how a rule-based international order will provide each member with greater security and greater prosperity," he added.