In 1972, the United Nations General Assembly decided to institute a World Development Information Day coinciding with United Nations Day on October 24.

The General Assembly had the object of drawing the attention of world public opinion each year to development problems and the necessity of strengthening international co-operation to solve them.

A further aim of the event is to explain to the general public why it is necessary to strengthen international cooperation to find ways to solve these problems.

In recent years many events have interpreted the title of the day slightly differently.

These have concentrated on the role that modern information-technologies, such as the Internet and mobile telephones free from digital divide can play in alerting people and finding solutions to problems of trade and development.