The United Nations’ (UN) World Development Information Day is celebrated every year on October 24 to draw attention of worldwide public opinion to development problems and the need to strengthen international cooperation to solve them. International days are marked to educate the public on issues of concern, to address global problems and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity. Each international day provides people an opportunity to organize activities related to theme and to create public awareness on the same.

The General Assembly in 1972 established World Development Information Day to draw the attention of the world to development problems and the need to strengthen international cooperation to solve them. The Assembly decided that the date for the Day should coincide with United Nations Day, 24 October, which was also the date of the adoption, in 1970, of the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade.

The Assembly deemed that improving the dissemination of information and the mobilization of public opinion, particularly among young people, would lead to greater awareness of the problems of development, thus, promoting efforts in the sphere of international cooperation for development.

Information-technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phones free from digital divide can play in alerting people and finding solutions to problems of trade and development.

The main aim of this day is to collect information and mobilize public opinion, especially among new generation, in order to draw their attention and create awareness of the problems surrounding development, promoting efforts in the field of international cooperation for growth and development.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 23, 2020 07:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).