UN General Assembly Resolution 51/172 stresses "the need to support two-way communication systems that enable dialogue and that allow communities to speak out, express their aspirations and concerns and participate in the decisions that relate to their development.”

The importance of communication in the development process
has been acknowledged for many years by the development
community. In the past decade alone, communication for
development has been widely discussed in relation to
specific development challenges such as HIV and AIDS but
also in the broad sense often revisiting the difficulties
of communicating sustainable development.

Communication for development, as a people-centred approach, may accelerate the achievement of the time-bound and measurable MDGs that stress the responsibilities of developing countries for getting their house in order, and of developed countries for supporting those efforts.

Thus, the theme chosen for the 10th UN Inter-Agency Round Table is 'Developing a UN system-wide common approach to communication for development in view of acheiving the Millennium Development Goals'.

>> Click here to view the background papers prepared by UNESCO and the UNDP