To highlight the role of women in Azeri journalism, the First Republic Forum of Women Journalists brought together representatives of various governmental bodies’ specialized agencies, women Members of Parliament (MPs) and representatives of diverse non-governmental organizations and UN agencies on 15 July 2009. The role of women journalists in the society, the difficulties they face, and the ways to eliminate these difficulties were debated at the forum. While addressing the event the UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Bruno Pouezat stressed that all over the world the media are natural partners of the UN in bringing about positive change and supporting development. He also emphasized the importance of empowering women journalists and encouraged them to be active agents for all disadvantaged women in the society. Women journalists have contributed greatly to the development of Azerbaijani media Aflatun Amashov the Chairman of the Press Council said. The number of women journalists in the country had almost attained the number of their male counterparts, Amashov added. In his turn Vugar Aliyev, the representative of the Azerbaijan Presidential Administration, said that Azerbaijan paid particular attention to the development of media and self-regulation of journalism. The Fund of Governmental Support to Media Development would help to boost media outlets, Aliyev promised. Journalism had been a very difficult profession and women working in the sphere had undertaken a great responsibility and made a great contribution to Azerbaijani journalism, said a former prominent journalist and current Member of Parliament Ms. Ganira Pashayeva. According to the local sources, more than 3,300 media outlets were registered in Azerbaijan. Currently only 600 of them function. Nearly 400 newspapers and magazines are published and more than 20 television channels function. There were about 50 electronic media outlets, 20 news agencies, and the rest are the internet resources in Azerbaijan.

The UN Department of Public Information Office in Azerbaijan (UN DPI) and the Fund for Monitoring Ecological Standards of Azerbaijan (FMESA) conducted a roundtable on 9 July to present the newly released Millennium Development Goals Report 2009, along with the results of the FMESA survey assessing the degree of awareness and perception of environmental issues among the local population.

“Knowledge is the beginning,” said the DPI Representative, Envera Selimovic, as a starting point to the DPI team’s presentation of the individual eight millennium development goals (MDGs) in the Azerbaijani language as an effort to ensure enhanced understanding of the MDG Report. This was greatly appreciated by the representatives of the various governmental bodies, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations and mass media as collaborations such as this make it possible to ensure maximum benefit to the Azeri society.

Please visit the website of the UN DPI Office in Azerbaijan for a full report on this event.

World Refugee Day was observed in many different ways around the world, from rock and classical music concerts to conferences and memorial services, and in Azerbaijan, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the government of Azerbaijan organized a joint event on 18 June 2009 at the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Concert Hall with the theme: “Real People, Real Needs.” 

The audience had an opportunity to watch a short video produced by UNHCR with images of refugee and internally displaced children around the world. This event also included singing, traditional and national dancing and poetry recitals by Afghani, Iranian, Iraqi, Chechen and Azeri refugees and displaced children. Attendees included representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers, members of the Parliament, ambassadors, representatives of the UN and other international organizations, civil society, refugees and internally displaced persons and the media. The Department of Public Information (UN DPI) Office in Azerbaijan provided messages of the UN Secretary-General and the Commissioner for Refugees along with the press release in Azerbaijani, English and Russian languages and offered complete media support to the UNHCR office for the occasion.  

For a complete report on this event, please visit the website of UN DPI Office in Azerbaijan.

The United Nations Department of Public Information (UN DPI) Office in Azerbaijan, in close cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Ministry of Ecology and the National Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum, conducted a roundtable on 4 June 2009 in the Kurdamir region of Azerbaijan, 280 kilometres west of Baku. The event, entitled “Towards improving the access and the quality of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities”, was organized to discuss Azerbaijan's progress in achieving the seventh Millennium Development Goal, which deals with environmental sustainability, and to discuss the challenges faced in access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

The participants of this event came from various government bodies, the non-governmental (NGO) sector and from villages in the Kurdamir region, which suffer from shortages of drinkable water.

As for Azerbaijan as a whole, considerable progress has been made regarding adequate supplies of safe drinking water; nearly three quarters of the population access drinking water from improved water sources. Nevertheless, there are still some trouble spots, mainly affecting the rural population. While 76% of people have access to piped water in urban areas, only 19% have access to piped water in rural areas. Additionally, the infrastructure and services related to water delivery have deteriorated due to insufficient investment and maintenance. In many secondary and small towns, water treatment facilities are dysfunctional or lacking completely. The situation is similar for basic sanitation services as many areas do not have functioning sewage collection and treatment systems.

Participants discussed various projects their organizations were involved in aimed at ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation facilities. Some of the projects discussed included the design and installation of a 261-kilometre long potable water pipeline through the regions of Oguz-Gabala-Baku, awareness and education programmes to promote better hygiene practices, a project for solid waste management improvement and facilitation of hydropower development.

All participants were grateful for the opportunity to meet and discuss challenges rural areas faced with access to potable water and to discuss ideas on how to communicate and raise awareness on these issues to encourage relevant government institutions and international organizations to take action to look more closely at what can be done in rural areas.