At a press briefing at the UN Secretariat on September 11, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and IPS announced the launch of a new journalistic award: the ‘Latin America and the Millennium Development Goals’ award.

The announcement was made by IPS Director General Mario Lubetkin and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Rebeca Grynspan. The briefing, attended by over 30 journalists, was held at the UN Correspondents’ Association (UNCA) Club at the Secretariat.

This initiative is intended to promote higher awareness among journalists and the media of the main themes of the MDGs - poverty and hunger, children’s education, gender inequality, maternal health and child mortality, the fight against AIDS and other diseases, and environmental sustainability - their causes and the different ways to solve them. It also aims at assisting in providing more and better information on these issues to the people within the Latin American region.

The three best stories — related to the MDGs published in printed media in Latin America and the Caribbean between October 1, 2006, and June 30, 2007 — will receive $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 prizes. Additionally, the top five stories will be published in a book, together with a selection of editorial production from IPS on MDGs written during this period. The guidelines and criteria for submissions will be on-line on both the IPS and UNDP Latin American Internet sites from October 1.