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UNRIC announces call for submissions to European ad competition 'The Future We Want - Drop by Drop'

20.12.2011 News

Copenhagen/Brussels (Denmark/Belgium) - The United Nations in Brussels, in collaboration with the Nordic Council of Ministers, has launched an Icograda-endorsed European ad competition called 'The Future We Want - Drop by Drop,' that brings together water, the green economy and Rio+20.

The Europe-wide competition is a part of the United Nations global campaign called The Future We Want in the lead up to Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, scheduled for 20-22 June 2012.

The competition calls on professionals and non-professionals in 48 European countries to design a newspaper advertisement to raise awareness and inspire the European public to find green solutions to the management and conservation of water resources now and for future generations.

"To join the UNÂ’s global campaign for Rio+20 The Future We Want, we looked carefully at the different issues and realised that water, and how much we waste it here in Europe, is a subject likely to touch everyone. And if creatives put their mind to it, it will have much more of an impact," according to AfsanÃ© Bassir-Pour, director of the UN Regional Information Centre (UNRIC).

'The Future We Want - Drop by Drop,' is organised by UNRIC in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Brussels office. The competition builds on two successful UN European ad competitions on world poverty and violence against women in which the creativity of thousands of Europeans was harnessed to raise awareness of these global issues.

The Nordic Council of Ministers will donate the first prize, the Nordic Council of Ministers Prize and 5000 Euros.

"The Nordic Region has the potential and political will to lead the way in finding sustainable solutions and green growth. With this competition we hope to encourage and engage all Europeans in the struggle for a better and greener future", says HalldÃ³r ?sgr?msson, Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

"We are delighted to have the Nordic countries as our partners," says UNRIC director AfsanÃ© Bassir-Pour. "How can a region not be concerned about water that includes the glaciers of Greenland, large parts of the North Atlantic, the Arctic and the Baltic Sea not forgetting the thousand lakes of Finland? The five states have played an important worldwide role in green solutions and sustainable development from the Brundtland Commission and to this day," says Ms. Bassir-Pour.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, points out that investing just 0.16 per cent of global GDP in the water sector could reduce scarcity, and rapidly halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

"Galvanising public support through the Drop by Drop ad campaign can be part of this paradigm shift and support UNEP's GreenUp! initiative in the run up to Rio+20," Dr. Steiner says.

Jury and Prize

In addition to the first prize, there will be a youth prize and public vote prize. The overall winner will be selected by a jury composed of advertising professionals and international experts:

Jacques SÃ©guÃ©la - Vice-Chairman of Havas
Catarina de Albuquerque - UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation,
Connie Hedegaard - EU Commissioner for Climate Action,
Omar Vulpinari - Head of Visual Communication at Fabrica
John Vidal - Guardian environment editor
Jens Assur - Swedish photographer
Ferah Perker - Turkish graphic designer

The competition opens for submissions on 10 December 2011, International Human Rights Day, and ends at midnight 29 February 2012. The public vote winner will be announced on 22 March 2012, World Water Day; the youth prize on 11 April 2012; and the overall winner will on 5 June 2012, World Environment Day.

Competition sponsors

The Nordic Council of Ministers is the forum of cooperation between the governments of the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as Aaland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. They will donate the first prize.
The We Are Water Foundation, whose aim is to create a new culture for water and carry out actions to counter the negative effect of lack of water resources.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR)
Fabrica, the BenettonÂ’s communication research centre based in Treviso, Italy.

Visit the Icograda event calendar page for details.

For further information visit the competition website.

For questions on the competition please contact:

Afsane Bassir-Pour
Director UNRIC
E bassirpour@unric.org
T +32 2788 847 0

For additional information about the UN Environment Programme, please contact:

James Morris
Information Officer
E james.morris@unep.org
T +32 2213 3059

About UNRIC

UNRIC, the United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe in Brussels, serves 22 European countries in the field of information. UN Information Centres in other European countries (Moscow, Prague, Ankara, Kiev, Warsaw, Bucharest, Geneva, Vienna, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Baku and Minsk) are active partners in organising the competition.