International Years and Decades: UN List and Exam Facts

The United Nations sets aside a whole year, and sometimes a whole decade, to draw the world's attention to one subject. Such a year is declared by a resolution of the General Assembly, usually after a member state proposes it and a specialised agency agrees to lead the work. For a student this chapter is a list to be learnt, because the question is always of one kind: which year was observed as the International Year of something, or which decade carries a given name.

How a year is declared and who runs it

A member state, or a group of states, moves a draft resolution in the General Assembly. Once the Assembly adopts it, one agency of the United Nations becomes the lead body for that year: the Food and Agriculture Organization for years about crops and farming, UNESCO for years about science, languages and culture, the World Health Organization for health, and the United Nations Environment Programme for the environment. The year carries a theme and a logo, member states hold events, and the Assembly later receives a report. An international year is therefore larger than an international day, which lasts one date, and smaller than an international decade, which runs for ten years.

International Years, year by year

The Indian connection

India proposed that 2023 be observed as the International Year of Millets, the proposal was supported by more than seventy countries and the General Assembly adopted it in 2021, with the Food and Agriculture Organization as the lead agency. The reason is easy to state in an examination: millets such as jowar, bajra and ragi need little water, grow on poor soil and are rich in fibre, iron and calcium, which suits both the climate and the nutrition of dry regions. India used the year to promote millets at home as Shree Anna and served them at official events. The International Year of Pulses in 2016 has a similar importance for India, which is the largest producer as well as the largest consumer of pulses, and 2015 gave India another success, when the General Assembly accepted its proposal to observe 21 June as the International Day of Yoga.

International Decades in progress

Why the list is easy to lose marks on

Every option in these questions is a real international year, only for a different year. A paper may ask about 2023 and offer millets, pulses, camelids and plant health, all of which are genuine designations. The only defence is to learn the number with the name, and to use the pairs that are easy to fix in memory: pulses in 2016 and millets in 2023, both from farming; plant health in 2020, the year of a human health crisis; indigenous languages in a single year, 2019, and then a whole decade from 2022. Where two names belong to one year, learn the one an Indian paper is likelier to ask, which is usually the year about crops or farming.

How to revise this chapter

Read the list backwards from the present year, because papers ask about the last four or five years far more often than about the older ones. Then learn every year connected with agriculture, because the Food and Agriculture Organization leads the largest number of these years and Indian papers favour them. Finally learn the four decades that run to 2030, since a decade question is almost always about ecosystem restoration, ocean science or road safety.