On 3-4 February 2009, Mr. Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information at the United Nations, visited the UN Information Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The visit was one stop on a seven-day tour through western Africa where he will visit three other UN information centres located in Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana. The purpose of his trip is to meet the staff at the information centres to experience first hand the varied activities carried out by these centres and to meet the partners information centres routinely work with such as the UN Country Team, the UN Communications Group, members of civil society and the media, and government officials.

During his stay in Burkina Faso, Mr. Akasaka met with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Regional Cooperation. He also participated in a ceremony with representatives of civil society, national associations and the media where he presented information materials about the United Nations that had been translated into local languages.

His visit continued with an interview on UNIC Ouagadougou's weekly television programme "Canal ONU", dedicated to UN issues and produced in partnership with National TV of Burkina Faso, and meetings with the UN Country Team and the UN Communications Group. He was also interviewed by Burkina Faso's national radio station and attended a cultural event where students performed local dances.

On 4 February, Mr. Akasaka left Burkina Faso and traveled to Nigeria to visit the UN Information Centre in Lagos.

For more information about United Nations information centres, please visit their website.

On 26 October 80 competitors participated in a UN Day bicycle race in Ouagadougou. The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Ouagadougou coordinated the event on behalf of the UN Country Team and in partnership with the National Cycling Federation.

 

On 6 June, in anticipation of the 2008 high-level meeting on AIDS at UN Headquarters in New York on 10 and 11 June, the UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Ouagadougou, in partnership with the local office of The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), organized a panel discussion on the progress made in achieving the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. This declaration was adopted by the General Assembly in 2001.

Held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ouagadougou, the panel discussion brought together the Director of Communications of the National Council for AIDS, a technical adviser of the Ministry of Health, the coordinator of UNAIDS in Burkina Faso, and the representative of a local non-governmental organizations (NGO).

The purpose of this activity was to discuss the achievements, the challenges and the strategies to accelerate the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and universal access targets in Burkina Faso.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, ended an official forty-eight hour visit in Burkina Faso on 23 April. This visit took place in the framework of a West-African tour that led the Secretary-General to Ghana, where he participated in the 12th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. His visit also included stops in Liberia and Cote-d'Ivoire.

The Secretary-General met with the president of Burkina Faso as well as with the President of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister.

On the second day of his visit, the Secretary-General met with staff members of the UN System in Burkina Faso to express his satisfaction with their remarkable work accomplished in the field and to pledge his support.

During his visit to the primary school in Manegda, located on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, the Secretary-General underlined that “ensuring primary education for all is one of the priority objectives the UN is aiming for in collaboration with the governments all around the world.”