Celine, Monica, Elizabeth, Petra, Mariotte, and Dunja.

64th UN Department of Public Information (DPI) Conference

The  DPI Conference which convened from 3-5 September 2011, in Bonn, Germany was organized around the theme “Sustainable Societies; Responsive Citizens.” The conference provided an opportunity for NGOs and civil society groups to interact in preparation for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012  or Rio+20 (20th Anniversary of the original Earth Summit). It was also the 10th year of Volunteerism and more than 100 volunteers with 25 languages were helping the conference.

The MMS delegation included Elizabeth Vadakekara, Mariotte Hillebrand , Monika Ballani and MMS Associates, Petra Schrey and Dunja Maria. Prior to the Conference Celine gave an overview of the MMS involvement at the UN and Elizabeth briefed about WHO.

One of the keynote speakers, Vandana Siva from India remarked “Volunteerism is freedom “Responsibility means that to take action, one has to look at the consequences. To volunteer, you have to have freedom. Slaves don’t volunteer,” she continued, cautioning, “We can be volunteers but polluters can’t be volunteers. They have to be regulated.”

Flavia Paniseiri, Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme emphasized "Achieving sustainable development is not just the job of governments and the United Nations. Sustainable societies need responsive citizens – people who rise to the challenge, who take action of their own free will, and work towards a better and brighter future for everyone around them.” She explained further “It also needs Non-Governmental Organizations and a strong civil society who organizes and empowers people to do that. It needs people-centred approaches.

In a nutshell, for sustainable development to work, we’re going to need to get as many people as possible involved in a coordinated way and with a collaborative spirit. We’re going to need a lot of volunteers. Because sustainable development is everyone’s responsibility.”  She quoted Ban Ki-moon during Davos this year “…. that sustainable development is about a revolution – a revolution in our lifestyles, politics, societies as well as our economics. We need a revolution to energize governments, change mindsets.” Once again we are reminded to take responsibility ‘to act and to walk the talk’.

A key outcome of the conference was the declaration approved by 1500 participants from 70 countries, which will be forwarded to the organizers of Rio+20 for consideration.

United Nations 63rd DPI/NGO Conference

The 63rd United Nations Annual Department of Public Information (DPI) /

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Conference was held in Melbourne,

Australia, from 30 August, to 1 September, 2010.It is only the third time in the Conference's 63 year history that the conference has been held outside New York.

Australia has winter when the northern hemisphere has summer. I was ‘warmly’ welcomed by Mr. Joseph a friend of my brother and his wife Rani whose hospitality we thoroughly enjoyed during our one week stay.

Melbourne is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia and is home to around 140 cultures, many of whose people came through waves of migration dating back from the first people to European settlement, and other countries  to the more recent refugees from the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Last year approximately 180,000 people immigrated to Australia. It was there fore fitting that the first ever major UN conference to be held in Australia.

Participants:  17,17 participants, representing 350 NGOs from more than 70 countries met in Melbourne.

 Elizabeth Vadakekara and Celine Paramundayil were the two MMS Participants.

Theme: “Advance Global Health Achieving the Millennium Development Goal” (MDGs).

At the end of the conference NGOs came out with a 2 page Declaration supported by 1,600 participants representing over 350 NGOs from more than 70 countries, underlines that “it is unacceptable that so many children and adults in low income countries continue to suffer preventable illness, disability and premature deaths each year.

This Declaration highlights the central role that individuals, families and communities must play in fostering global health. It compels all governments and health actors to respect the rights of communities while also maximizing the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of their work by leveraging community knowledge and support.

NGOs left Melbourne inspired and reinvigorated to advocate with governments, businesses, researchers and the wider public to galvanize each to contribute meeting the Millennium Goals and improving global health.