How to pass common dictionary data to every page in django

I have a common data {the logged-in user's message number) to display on every page. I can simply pass to template as

dict={'messagenumber':5}
return render_to_response('template.html',dict,context_instance=RequestContext(request))

But it looks tedious if i have this dict data pass to very page. Is there an easier way to pass common data to every page?

Thanks