Celebrating the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers and our work with the UN
Taking place every May 29th, the United Nations (UN) marks the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers – a date that pays tribute to all the people who’ve served and continue to serve as peacekeepers for the UN, whether that be in a military, policing or civilian capacity. The UN is an organisation we’ve built a good relationship with, and their international days and weeks are important for a number of reasons: they’re occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity.
TLDR: Every year, the United Nations holds the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers to celebrate the work of their civilian, policing and military officers that put themselves in harm’s way, helping countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. We’re highlighting this day as we believe the work of the United Nations and its Peacekeepers have a vital role in bringing about a world that’s more equitable, just, and sustainable for all.
What is the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers and why do we want to highlight it?
The International Day of UN Peacekeepers was originally created at the request of the Ukrainian Peacekeepers Association in 2002 to honour the people that have lost their lives for the cause of peace, and those . Over the last 76 years, over two million UN peacekeepers have helped countries to transition from war to peace – today, there are currently 70,000 of them working towards this same goal in 11 hotspots around the globe.
The theme of this year’s celebration is “Fit for the future, building better together.” This encapsulates the spirit of progress and collective action towards creating a world that’s more equitable, just, and sustainable for all.
Our work with the United Nations
We worked with the UN’s Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) to create ‘Sparrow,’ a unique platform that provides up to date content analysis on global issues of conflict and humanitarian importance.
“Social media remains a key channel for enabling collective political expression for youth and is also being used more prominently for diplomatic signalling in international affairs.” – Martin Waehlisch, Senior Political Affairs Officer at the United Nations
The UN DPPA team approached us to build a platform that would allow them to easily put together reports using data from social media on various topics, such as war, conflicts and humanitarian issues happening globally. These reports then needed to be able to be shared between UN officers (the main users) in the simplest way possible. This is because many UN members only have access to basic technologies and equipment. They also had to be relevant to an international audience, maintain brand consistency and have a professional look.
How our work helps UN peacekeepers around the globe
The Sparrow platform assists UN officers in cutting through the noise to access valuable and timely information. Not only does it have to fetch and analyse large amounts of data, it has to do so quickly and accurately to ensure a good user experience. We employed a number of strategies to do this, including: early data retrieval, caching and re-using data, running data capture in batches and in parallel.
If you’d like to find out more about the work UN Peacekeepers do around the world on the dedicated International Day of UN Peacekeepers page. There are a number of resources available there that you can use to show your support of the ‘Peace starts with me’ campaign. The UN Secretary General will also be participating in a number of events to mark the day, including laying a wreath at the memorial for fallen peacekeepers at 9:45am ET on Thursday 29th May, followed by an award ceremony to honour fallen peacekeepers – you can view these on the dedicated UN Web TV.
