Thierry Mertens, Resident Coordinator reads the UN Secretary General message on UN Day

The Ministry of External Relations organized the Official Event for UN Day 2009 in collaboration with the UN Coordination Office and United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Yaounde, at its premises.

The event began with the Raising of the Flags by Ex-UN Peacekeepers who wore their operations regalia, and the UN blue beret.

Mr. Thierry Mertens, Resident Coordinator of the UN System in Cameroon read the message of the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon for the occasion.

H.E. Adoum Gargoum, Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External Relations gave the main speech of the occasion, retracing UN Cameroon relations and praising UN’s work for the world’s Peace, Security and Development especially relating to Climate Change.

The event ended with visit to the Art Competition entries Board and the Common UN Stand set up by UNIC Yaounde with documents from from many other UN agencies. The Climate Change Information Kit was part of documents given by UNIC Yaounde to the members of government, heads of diplomatic missions and youths who visited the stand.

Journalists and trainers at two day workshop on gender sensitive reporting

The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Yaounde co-organised with the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) a two day training workshop on gender sensitive reporting. The workshop was held on 23–24 July 2009 in UNIC Yaounde's press room and was attended by 25 journalists.

The group included Editors-in-chief and reporters of electronic and print media from key media organisations in Yaounde. Most of the participants have special newspaper columns and Radio/TV news programme slots which address gender, but had very little or no knowledge of the concepts and notions of gender.

The main objective of the workshop was to impart knowledge on the subject and share information about the United Nations’ activities related to gender through its specialised agency, UNIFEM, so as to enable better quality and sensitivity in reporting gender issues and UNIFEM’s activities.

The workshop began with a detailed presentation about the basic concepts on gender and the impact of gender inequality and its cost by the UNIFEM Consultant/Trainer, Ms. Beatrice Eyong. This training module led to a group exercise during which the participants reported on a UNIFEM event using the concepts learned from the presentation.

On the second day, more practice on gender sensitive reporting was done using the UN Secretary-General's campaign to end violence against women as an example. UNIC Yaounde’s National Information Officer (NIO), Ms. Anne Nsang, presented the key points of the campaign and discussed statistics on violence against women and the International Women’s Day 2009 theme: “Men and Women United to End Violence against Women and Girls.” Ms. Nsang drew the attention of the participants to the effect of violence against women on development, peace and security.

She called on the journalists, both male and female, to consider gender when reporting. Ms. Nsang also gave guidelines on gender sensitive reporting.

At the end of the workshop participants created a detailed media plan for three upcoming UNIFEM/UNIC activities, namely 16 Days of Activism/Int’l Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Nov. 2009), the Secretary-General's campaign to End Violence Against Women (2008 – 2015), and International Women’s Day (March 2010). The plan incorporated many of the concepts discussed during the workshop.

UNIC Yaounde's National Information Officer with participants at the ECO-Arts workshop

The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Yaounde met with children attending a one month ECO-Arts workshop organised by the Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme – Cameroon (BDCP-C).

During two sessions on 16 July and 20 July 2009, Ms. Anne Nsang, UNIC Yaounde's National Information Officer (NIO), explained to the children the work of the United Nations since its creation in 1945 and presented the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) environmental strategy for children and youth called Tunza.

She described Tunza's objective, which is “to promote the participation of children and youth in every part of the world in environmental activities. Children and youth have a critical role and have a stake in the state of the environment today and in the future. They also have valuable contributions to make in environmental negotiations”, she added.

Drawings were used to explain the issues surrounding climate change in simple language and the children were encouraged to continue their commitment to protecting our planet and to participate in the International Children’s Painting Competition, a Tunza activity organised by UNEP for children between the ages of 6 and 14 years.

The message shared by UNIC Yaounde’s NIO with the children on UNEP’s Tunza strategy led to an exchange of questions and answers on environmental protection and climate change. The children were very aware of environmental issues such as felling of trees and destroying of shrubs, pollution by cars and factories, and throwing of dirt and chemicals around homes and streets and condemned these actions which were destroying the environment. 

Ms. Nsang also shared details of the latest UNEP press release on the upcoming youth conference on climate change to be held in Daejeon, Republic of Korea (17–23 August 2009) during which 800 participants from over 100 countries will gather to demand their governments reach a new climate agreement in Copenhagen.

The children at the Yaounde ECO-Arts workshop expressed their wish to participate at such events in the future and to carry out one event during Climate Week (20–25 September 2009) with UNIC Yaounde’s assistance.

UNIC Yaounde's National Information Officer welcomes participants to briefing

The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Yaounde organised a briefing for local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on 10 June 2009 to inform them about the upcoming 62nd annual DPI/NGO conference.  Organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) in cooperation with the NGO community, the aim of the conference is to highlight effective ways in which civil society, in partnership with other actors, can contribute to the advancement of human rights at the international, regional, national and local levels.  This year’s conference will be held in Mexico City, Mexico from 9 to 11 September 2009.

A total of ninety NGO representatives attended the briefing, including select accredited NGOs with UN consultative status, namely African Action on AIDS, CEFEPROD, FESADE, CADEF, UNA/Cameroon, CAMYOSFOP, and Soroptimist International.

UNIC Yaounde’s Officer-in-Charge, Ms. Anne Nsang, welcomed the NGO representatives on behalf on the Resident Coordinator/Director a.i., Mr. Thierry Mertens.  Ms. Nsang highlighted the purpose of the briefing, as well as the theme, objectives, and programme of the conference.  She also encouraged NGO representatives to attend the conference and called for those who are not accredited or could not attend to examine the possibility of organizing a local event instead.
 
The registration procedures and deadline were outlined by Mr. Jean Njita, the UNIC Yaounde staff member in charge of NGO relations. Mr. Njita invited NGO representatives to visit the website for the conference (to be launched soon) for the latest information. Mr Njita also offered UNIC Yaounde’s assistance with the online registration process to interested participants.

The presentations were followed by an enthusiastic exchange of questions and answers  between NGO representatives eager to know more about the UN’s relationship with NGOs and formal accreditation/affiliation procedures. NGOs with consultative status also shared their experiences to enlighten others on UN/NGO relations. Several constructive ideas emerged from the discussions, including the need to synergize and organize NGO actions through the creation of a unified network.

For more information about the conference or the accreditation process, please visit the DPI/NGO website.