United Nations Information Centres

Abbreviation	UNIC
Formation	1946
Purpose	Information centre
Headquarters	New York
Head	António Guterres[1] (2017–present)
Website	unic.un.org

The United Nations Information Centres (UNIC) is an organization founded in 1946 with its headquarters located in New York, USA. Operating globally in 63 countries, these centers serve as conduits for the exchange and dissemination of current events on behalf of the United Nations. Managed by the United Nations' Department of Global Communications within the UN Secretariat, UNICs play a crucial role in communicating organizational challenges. The Department of Global Communications reviews and approves all development projects, primarily focused on thematic promotional campaigns addressing UN-related issues, which are then disseminated through regional information centers.^[2]

History

Established in 1946 by the United Nations Department of Global Communications (DGC), the United Nations Information Centres (UNICs) operate with the primary mission of facilitating collaboration and information exchange for the global community. DGC, an organization dedicated to serving the people of the United Nations, oversees the functioning of UNICs. The initial establishment saw the creation of the first two UN Information Centers in 1946, and since then, these centers have expanded their reach to encompass 63 countries. Serving as central hubs, UNICs play a pivotal role in disseminating information about the United Nations system to the countries in which they are located.^[3][4]

Scope

United Nations Information Centres have been established in the regions of Europe, Americas, UAE, Asia & Pacific, and Africa. These centres are organized to reduce the communication gaps by providing information of United Nations to the people of the world. To make it more communicable all information have been translated and presented respectively in their regional languages. These centres are otherwise called United Nations Regional Information Centres and responsible for connecting United Nations with the people of developing countries. They reach out media, institutions with coordinating the UN system and get allianced with Government, Non-government, and private sector organizations in their projects. UNICs also maintain physical & digital resources of information like libraries and electronic information medium.^[5]

Activities

UNICs are engaged in multiple cores of activities for sharing the latest information about UN system.^[6]

• Communication - UNICs follow communication strategies through the current affairs, traditional festivals, and events. They get information translated into regional languages of the countries they serve.
• Media Outreach - United Nations get connected with national & regional media houses to circulate information. These centres use press conference, print media, electronic and digital medium to collaborate information.
• Information Resource Development - These centres create & maintain resources like libraries, and websites through regional information centres. UNICs activities cover training sessions for journalist to keep them update with its development projects. They regularly conduct television and radio for broadcasting stories of UN in regional languages.
• Events Organization - These centres organize many events on international & national celebration days. Besides, they manage to arrange seminars, sports & other competitions in educational institutions.

List of centres

The following are all of the current information centres, as well as all the areas they serve:^[7]

African States

Centre	Established	Areas serviced	Director
UNIC Accra	1958	Ghana  Sierra Leone	Sylvia Lopez-Ekra
UNIC Antananarivo	1963	Madagascar	Violet Kakyomya
UNO Asmara	1993	Eritrea	Susan Ngongi
UNIC Brazzaville	1983	Congo	Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah
UNIC Bujumbura	1961	Burundi	Garry Conille
UNIC Dakar	1964	Senegal  Cape Verde  Ivory Coast  Gambia  Guinea  Guinea-Bissau  Mauritania	Damian Cardona Onses
UNIC Dar es Salaam	1961	United Republic of Tanzania	Alvaro Rodriguez
UNIC Harare	1982	Zimbabwe	Bishow Parajuli
UNIC Lagos	1967	Nigeria	Ronald Kayanja
UNIC Lome	1962	Togo  Benin	Damien Mama
UNIC Lusaka	1975	Zambia	Janet Rogan
UNIC Nairobi	1974	Kenya  Uganda  Seychelles	Nasser Ega-Musa
UNIC Ouagadougou	1982	Burkina Faso  Chad  Mali  Niger	Metsi Makhetha
UNIC Pretoria	1995	South Africa	Masimba Tafirenyika
UNIC Windhoek	1992	Namibia	Rachel Odede
UNIC Yaounde	1965	Cameroon  Central African Republic  Gabon	Allegra Maria Del Pilar Baiocchi

American States

Centre	Established	Areas serviced	Director
UNIC Asuncion	1962	Paraguay	Jorge Meza
UNIC Bogota	1954	Colombia  Ecuador  Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of	Helene Papper
UNIC Buenos Aires	1948	Argentina  Uruguay	Tamar Hahn
UNIC La Paz	1963	Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	Mauricio Ramirez-Villegas
UNIC Lima	1960	Peru	Maria del Carmen Sacasa
UNIC Mexico City	1947	Mexico  Cuba  Dominican Republic	Giancarlo Summa
UNIC Panama City	1984	Panama	Harold Robinson
UNIC Port of Spain	1962	Countries:  Antigua and Barbuda  Bahamas  Barbados  Belize  Dominica  Grenada  Guyana  Jamaica  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Suriname  Trinidad and Tobago Other areas:  Aruba  Bonaire  Curaçao  Saba  Sint Eustatius  Sint Maarten	Juan Miguel Diez
UNIC Rio de Janeiro	1947	Brazil	Maurizio Giuliano
UNIC Washington	1946	United States of America	Robert Skinner[8]

Arab States

Centre	Established	Areas serviced	Director
UNIC Algiers	1963	Algeria	Eric Overvest
UNIC Beirut	1962	Lebanon  Jordan  Kuwait  Syrian Arab Republic	Marguerite El Helou
UNIC Cairo	1949	Egypt  Saudi Arabia	Radhia Achouri
UNIC Khartoum	1963	Sudan  Somalia	Gwi-Yeop Son
UNIC Manama	1977	Bahrain  Qatar  United Arab Emirates	Samir Al-Darabi
UNIC Rabat	1962	Morocco	Fethi Debbabi (Acting Director)
UNIC Sana'a	1994	Yemen	Lise Grande
UNIC Tunis	1960	Tunisia	Diego Zorrilla

Asia and Pacific States

Centre	Established	Areas serviced	Director
UNIC Canberra	1948	Australia  Fiji  Kiribati  Nauru  New Zealand  Samoa  Tonga  Tuvalu  Vanuatu	Christopher Woodthorpe
UNIC Colombo	1961	Sri Lanka	Hanaa Singer
UNIC Dhaka	1981	Bangladesh	Mia Seppo
UNIC Islamabad	1951	Pakistan	Vlastimil Samek (Acting Director)
UNIC Jakarta	1985	Indonesia	Francyne Harrigan (Acting Director)
UNIC Kathmandu	1964	Nepal	Sara Beysolow Nyanti
UNIC Manila	1953	Philippines  Papua New Guinea  Solomon Islands	Ola Almgren
UNIC New Delhi	1947	India  Bhutan	Rajiv Chandran (National Information Officer)
UNIC Tehran	1950	Iran (Islamic Republic of)	Maria Dotsenko
UNIC Tokyo	1958	Japan	Kaoru Nemoto
UNIC Yangon	1959	Myanmar	Knut Ostby

Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

Centre	Established	Areas serviced	Director
UNO Almaty	1993	Kazakhstan	Abdurahim Muhidov (Officer-in-Charge)
UNIC Ankara	1975	Turkey	Irena Vojačkova-Sollorano
UNO Baku	1992	Azerbaijan	Ghulam Isaczai
UNRIC Brussels	2004	Countries:  Andorra  Belgium  Cyprus  Denmark  Finland  France  Germany  Greece  Holy See  Iceland  Ireland  Italy  Luxembourg  Malta  Monaco  Netherlands  Norway  Portugal  San Marino  Spain  Sweden  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Other areas served:  European Union	Deborah Seward
UNIS Geneva	1947	Switzerland	Alessandra Vellucci
UNO Kyiv	1992	Ukraine	Osnat Lubrani
UNO Minsk	1992	Belarus	Joanna Kazana
UNIC Moscow	1948	Russian Federation	Vladimir Kuznetsov
UNIC Prague	1947	Czech Republic	Michal Broza (Officer-in-Charge)
UNO Tashkent	1992	Uzbekistan	Helena Fraser
UNO Tbilisi	1992	Georgia	Vinton Louisa
UNIS Vienna	1984	Austria  Hungary  Slovakia  Slovenia	Martin Nesirky
UNIC Warsaw	1995	Poland	Mariola Ratschka (Officer-in-Charge)
UNO Yerevan	1992	Armenia	Shombi Sharp

References

External links

1. United Nations Information Centres Website
2. United Nations
3. United Nations Information Centre Washington