OICT Office

The July 2011 launch of the United Nations Support Base in Valencia (UNSB-V), Spain marks an exciting new chapter in data and telecommunications management at the Secretariat. UNSB-V is a key component of the new enterprise data centre (EDC) initiative to host all enterprise ICT systems in state of the art facilities with round-the-clock monitoring and support at a lower cost.

The UN Secretariat ICT strategy calls for a consolidated global ICT infrastructure supported by two enterprise data centres that will, in the future, host all enterprise systems (e.g., UN.org, UMOJA and iNeed), as well as those systems for the field (e.g., fuel and rations management systems). UNSB-V is now the backup site for the primary data centre in the United Nations Logistics Base (UNLB) in Brindisi, Italy. This approach unifies the ICT infrastructure as well as the resources to support enterprise systems.

A plan proposed by the Secretary-General, and now under consideration by the General Assembly, aims to substantially improve the United Nations Secretariat’s information and communications technology (ICT) operation and services, while taking critical steps to achieve efficiency gains in years to come.

The win-win opportunity – not only to gain substantial efficiency and service improvements but also to do so in a way that lowers the curve of projected budget growth in the future – was revealed by an unprecedented new study of the Secretariat’s ICT capacities, completed earlier this year.

Since 1998, the Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT) has been operating a unique programme called the Mission Donation Programme (MDP) for the benefit of United Nations Permanent Missions and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

The Mission Donation Programme allows UN Permanent Missions and NGOs to request recycled computer equipment for their use, thus supporting a greener ICT operation for the United Nations Secretariat. Since the programme’s establishment, more than 10,348 devices have been donated to over 122 countries and NGO’s.