The reasons for the new location of the Open Meeting in Bonn are far from being exclusively financial. Beautifully located at the banks of the Rhine River, the city has managed over the past decade to shape for itself a new profile as the German City of the United Nations and a centre of international dialogue on key issues of the future. Since July 1996, Bonn is entitled to call itself a UN City. Ten years later, in July 2006, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel was able to hand the new branch office of the United Nations over to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The IHDP Secretariat, since 2007 the 14th UN agency in Germany and being part of the UN University, is looking forward to welcoming the global Human Dimensions community to the UN Campus.

The Federal Government had invested EUR 55 million into refurbishing the high-rise building, which used to accommodate MP offices and is widely known by its nickname “Tall Eugene” (after the first name of a former President of Parliament). Almost all UN units residing in Bonn are assembled under its roof. In 2007, the United Nations University was added as IHDP’s third institutional sponsor, joining ISSC and ICSU. The relocation of the IHDP Secretariat from the University of Bonn to the new UN Campus in Bonn was a consequence of this new sponsorship model. The proximity and interaction with important UN bodies such as the Climate Change Secretariat and others proves very productive and will enhance the 7th Open Meeting exposure to the world of politics and global diplomacy.

Image Above: by World Conference Center Bonn Website