In the lead-up to the Second UN Global Road Safety Week, UNO Baku joined students and educators, as well as parents, of secondary school №46 in Baku to boost community involvement in road safety promotion.

This awareness-raising session was organized in close cooperation with the Traffic Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on 25 April, and was also an opportunity to praise the youngest students for their exceptional knowledge of traffic rules and signs and to encourage them to be good messengers and share their knowledge with others. 

“We are very grateful to the UNDPI Representative, Ms. Envera Selimovic, who continuously supports our year-long activities, and we are very much looking forward to teaming up with the DPI for the upcoming Second UN Global Road Safety Week", said Vagif Asadov, a spokesperson of the State Traffic Police.

Although the number of traffic accidents in Azerbaijan has been decreasing, still more than 1000 people died last year in road accidents; among death by road user category, pedestrians make up 36 percent of fatalities, according to the 2013 Global Status Report on Road Safety.

The Second UN Global Road Safety Week will be held 6-12 May 2013 and is dedicated to pedestrian safety. Requested by the UN General Assembly, the Week will draw attention to the urgent need of better protection for pedestrians worldwide, generating action on the measures needed to do so.

“We are also using these UN-led promotions of road safety to exchange experience and knowledge on what has been successful around the world, with the hope of applying this so-called proactive approach in our country,” added Asadov.

“Today I also learned very useful safety tips for traffic and the event once more inspired me to be good role model for my child,” added Malahat Bayramova, a teacher and a mother of two schoolchildren. “I am thankful to the organizers of this session and hope that this campaign will reach as many parents and children as possible,” she added.

With the aim of improving the visibility of the non-governmental sector by enhancing the communications skills of its leaders and Public Relations (PR) people, the UNO Baku team conducted a master class titled “Effective Communications: Public Relations Training for NGOs” on 25 April.

The main objective of the training, which also served to boost NGOs’ efforts in meeting the challenges of modern times with an open mind and readiness, was to demystify the media and empower participants with sound working knowledge of the various “dos & don’ts”  in their dealings with journalists. The session took place as part of the long lasting awareness raising and capacity building work of DPI with large, small and mid-sized NGOs and other local partners in Azerbaijan.

For the workshop trainer, Rovshan Bagirov - “PR is the key to efficient organization management and it is essential that civil society groups build a healthy relationship with the public to achieve their goals”. To show ways of building effective communications with public, as well as to expose common mistakes made during the press interviews, Bagirov delivered an interactive presentation with case study samples. Vibrant discussions over what should be avoided during a press conference followed the demonstration of the video episode from a controversial press conference.

“This training offered practical know how about the communication tools and sparked true enthusiasm to work further on my own presentational skills”, said Mrs. Valida Abbasova, Head of the Public Union for Support of the Disabled People. “I am genuinely thankful to the DPI team for this opportunity and certainly look forward to participate in similar training in the future to further improve my skills and the overall external affairs of our NGO.”

“We also very much appreciate the partnership with the non-governmental sector which provides us with valuable links to ordinary people and helps them to better understand the work and aims of the United Nations,” said the UN DPI Representative in Azerbaijan, Envera Selimovic. She also brought into the training session tangible examples out of her unique experience from the extensive work as journalist as well as working from the other side of the camera as UN spokesperson and communications specialist. Selimovic also underlined that for the DPI office, “these sessions clearly anticipate building further the capacity of NGOs, and providing as many as possible NGO representatives with tools beyond the basic dealings with media. We want to boost their unique role in facilitating development and encourage them to share acquired knowledge and help the wider community.”

The UN in Azerbaijan, in close partnership with the Academy of Public Administration, brought together leading scholars, researchers, senior government officials and policy-makers on 23 April, to discuss economical, social and environmental issues. The forum took place within wider consultations in Azerbaijan that incorporate different stakeholders including civil society organizations, disadvantaged and minority groups, the private sector, academia, women’s organizations and youth, and other constituencies to identify priorities and to formulate a national vision for the Post-2015 Development Agenda that will succeed the MDG framework.
 
“In Azerbaijan, we are fortunate that the Government, in its ‘Vision 2020’, has been already been putting into perspective many relevant issues, enabling us to narrow the discussion on sustainable development goals (SDGs) and make it rather ‘locally colored and more focused,” said Mr. Antonius Broek, the UN Resident Coordinator while addressing the session.
 
Representing the UN Department of Public Information (UN DPI), Envera Selimovic said that the latest Baku forum, “enriched by the speeches and initiatives of renewed specialists, also provided a great platform to discuss challenges that ordinary people face on a daily basis that should be considered while going that extra mile towards ‘working together – finding solutions,’ for the post-2015 world.”
 
The UN DPI office gave strong media support to this session, similar to other forums held within the national consultations, and will be a close partner with the office of the Resident Coordinator until the results of consultations on Azerbaijan’s contribution to the SDGs, are presented to the Government of Azerbaijan at the end of May during the validation workshop.
 
“I am very happy to be part of this joint thinking for sustainable development and especially pleased by the deepening connection between environment and development in the ‘world we want,’” said Mr. Huseingulu Bagirov, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources. “Let us hope that this dialogue will further stimulate creative thinking on how to put our nation on a more environmentally sustainable path and that our innovative ideas and inputs can be transformed into solutions that promote environmental sustainability and ‘green’ the Post-2015 future,” Bagirov added.

To rediscover the beauty of the English language which was spoken by only three tribes 1,500 years ago, but has today become the most flexible mode of intercommunication for nearly two billion people, UNO Baku brought together students, teachers and performers on 23 April, the date traditionally observed as the birthday of William Shakespeare.
 
The Azerbaijani University of Languages (ALU) hosted the celebration, which overflowed with music, pageantry and drama, and participants enjoyed this vibrant UN-led celebration of multilingualism and cultural diversity along with the commemoration of the life and works of one of the greatest writers in the English language.
 
Sevinj Jafarova, fourth year student at AUL, took part in the celebration for the third time since the global observance started in 2010, known as “Language Days at the UN”, an initiative by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI). “You cannot help but be mesmerized to see so many young and talented students from Azerbaijan celebrating the life and legacy of Stratford's most famous son, and I believe love and respect for other nations’ cultures is key to better the world,” said Jafarova.
 

UNO Baku, as other UN duty stations around the globe, celebrates six separate days dedicated to the six United Nations official languages, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. With this particular observance, the Office highlighted the power of the English language in bringing people together and also emphasized the importance of this language in creating understanding among different cultures.
 
“Let us celebrate the richness of the English language, the modern lingua franca, which is giving us many opportunities to express ourselves no matter where and on what continent we may find ourselves,” said the UN DPI Representative in Azerbaijan, Envera Selimovic. “We resort to English here today, taking our hearts along to get closer in this room. When we want to speak to Japanese people for instance, we usually start with English, or when the Spanish talk to the Russians, or the Germans talk to the Chinese or the Arabs talk to the French, all with the hope that the language brings us closer,“ Selimovic added.
 
“I am thankful to UNO Baku that brought us together and once more generated such an enthusiastic atmosphere for our students. They will surely be leaving this place with eyes wide open, enriched with new friends with whom they will share newly acquired knowledge, brought from English to their native language,” said Rena Alekserova from 21st Century International Education Center, whose students were main performers at the UN English Language celebration.