April 12 was declared as the International Day of Human Space Flight in dedication of the first manned space flight made on April 12, 1961 by the 27-year-old Russian Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin circled the Earth for 1 hour and 48 minutes aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft. In 2011 General Assembly decided “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.”
In our days, earth observation from space is a cost-effective way of obtaining unbiased and essential data on the physical world. Decision makers use this information to understand trends, evaluate needs, and create sustainable development policies and programmes in the best interest of all populations.
UN explains:
Space-based information technologies must be fully integrated into the international efforts to overcome such challenges to sustainable development as climate change and food insecurity, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was told as it opened its annual session today in Vienna.
“We note the need to increase awareness at the global level to fully recognize the importance of space tools and space-derived geospatial information to meet the objectives of the global development agenda,” Azzedine Oussedik of Algeria said as he accepted his election as Chair 57th session of the Committee.
You can learn a lot more from UNOOSA (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs)
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/copuos/sust-dev.html