UNMC Launches “And You Didn’t Even Know About It:” An Innovative Social Media Campaign to Communicate MDG Progress

From the 6th to the 20th of June 2012, this initiative will ask citizens to donate space on their Facebook or Twitter profiles and communicate major progress achieved on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and in the global fight against poverty. 

Madrid, 6th of June 2012 - The UN Millennium Campaign today launched an innovative social media campaign in Spanish called “y tu sin enterarte” (“and you didn’t even know about it”) to communicate major MDG achievements over the past decade. From the 6th to the 20th of June 2012, this campaign will ask citizens to donate space on their Facebook and Twitter profiles so they communicate major progress on the MDGs to their friends and followers.

“This campaign wants to communicate that over the past decade tremendous progress has been made, and this is something we have achieved together – and which translates into tangible results for millions of men, women and children all over the world; a decline in global poverty, more children in school than ever before, a dramatic drop in child deaths worldwide, 2000 million people have gained access to safe drinking water and the ongoing fight against malaria and HIV/AIDS has already saved millions of lives – we think this must be communicated.” The UN Millennium Campaign Coordinator in Spain said at the launch of the campaign today “We must continue to work together to accelerate progress because a lot still remains to be done”.

This campaign focuses mainly on social media, to allow citizens and organizations everywhere to participate directly in communicating these positive messages and inspire commitment. Donating your social profile is easy, by simply going online towww.ytusinenterarte.org and accepting an app which will ask you to donate space on either twitter or Facebook. From then on, once a day during the space of a week, a positive MDG related message will appear on your profile and inserted in your usual conversation with your friends and followers.

Donating social media space is done through a free app, which leaves no trace or cookies and will disappear from the social profiles of the user once the campaign is over. Throughout the campaign the user remains in control of their Facebook or Twitter accounts and will be able continue to use it in their usual way.

This campaign is launched just before Rio+20, the UN Summit on Sustainable Development, which takes place in Rio de Janeiro from the 20th to 22th de June 2012 and which will begin debating “the future we want”.

This campaign is the result of the work of many partners, including corporate partners, civil society organizations and media – another example of the extraordinary partnerships and strong concerted efforts that have been formed to advance the MDGs all over the world.