From 30 August Australia will play host to a major UN conference focusing on global health and the Millennium Development Goals.
The conference, entitled Advance Global Health – Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, brings together more than 300 non-governmental organisations from over 70 countries. Some 1,500 delegates will explore the challenges of meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
The conference comes at a critical time:
- for the Millennium Development Goals which have been set back by the global financial crisis. The UN Secretary General has called world leaders to a summit in September to accelerate progress
- and for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria which will be seeking a further $20 billion in October.
Officially this Melbourne gathering is the 63rd Annual UN Department of Public Information Non-Governmental Organizations Conference or 63rd UN DPI NGO. It runs from Monday 30 August to Wednesday 1 September.
The conference will provide an impressive array of speakers, many issues relevant to Australia and our region, and lots of human stories that bring the Goals to life.
Access to the conference is limited to accredited delegates and media only. Accreditation details are also on the conference web. The process is coordinated by the UN Information Centre in Canberra.
This page has been put together as a quick reference point for media materials on the conference. It is not an official conference page.
The official UN conference website is at http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/conference/
Key materials there include
- the schedule – http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/ngoconference/conference/schedule
- a summary of the workshop topic and speakers at http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/ngoconference/conference/workshops
- media accreditation at http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/ngoconference/media
- You can download the printed conference booklet by clicking on this link Global health booklet 16 August 2010 (PDF)
We have also prepared some informal summaries of content that interested Niall and Tim. These are not official conference documents.
- interesting people – http://www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/People-handout.pdf
- interesting sessions – http://www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Workshops-handout.pdf
- highlights of the public program – http://www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Public-events-handout.pdf
Other resources
You can access The Millennium Development Goals via the following links.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
There are a number of useful documents, including:
- A description of the Millennium Development Goals and Targets – http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/gti.htm
- A summary on the achievements to date – http://www.undp.org/mdg/progress.shtml
- The 2010 report on the Millennium Development Goals http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Default.aspx
Media contacts
For further information about the Conference in Australia please contact:
- Phil Batterham, Convenor UNDPI/NGO Conference Australia, Phil Batterham, +61 (418) 598 562, p.batterham@unimelb.edu.au
- Niall Byrne, Media Coordinator NGO Media, +61 (417) 131 977, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
- Julia Dean at the UN Information Centre in Canberra, +61 (2) 6270 9205, julia.dean@unic.org
- Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte Conference Media Coordinator in New York, + 1 917367-9380, sainte@un.org