21 October 2011: During the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 10), which took place in Gyeongnam Province, Republic of Korea, the UNCCD Secretariat partnered with the provincial government and SK Telecom to loan 1000 Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tablet personal computers to conference participants. The tablets permitted easy access to official documents and the daily journal along with a variety of other material.

The tablets also offered Internet access, photos and videos programmes together with Android-based web applications. This project reduced the time required to access key conference documents on-line, and reduced the number of requests for documents in paper format.

This project at UNCCD COP 10 was considered a first phase. Based on the participants’ feedback and post session statistics, further phases are expected to be introduced during forthcoming sessions of the UNCCD governing bodies.

The UN plans to use this model at future UN conferences, including the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20). [UNCCD Press Release] [IISD RS coverage of UNCCD COP 10]