Towards a Regional United Nations Communication Group

in Latin America and the Caribbean

20-21 July 2006, Mexico City

Robert Cohen, UNICEF Regional

Communication Officer

“The United Nations has a compelling story to tell. That story must be told well, because public support is essential for strengthening the Organization.” -- SG, “Strengthening of the United Nations: an agenda for change” (A/57/387), 2002.

“UN Reform is on the move in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it is driven by the need to achieve results for the most vulnerable and excluded in a region that is notable above all for its glaring disparities in well-being and the enjoyment of basic human rights.”

-- Note on UN Reform in LAC, endorsed by RD Team, June 2006

United Nations Communications Group (UNCG)

• Set up in 2002 -- initiative of Shashi Tharoor, USG forCommunications and Public Information

• Includes communications offices of all UN organizations, as well as DPI and SG’s Executive Office

• holds regular meetings at UN Headquarters

• also meets once a year at the principals level to discuss policy issues and agree on common responses and activities

• emerging as a strong unifying platform for dealing with common communications challenges facing UN

• several issue-based task forces work year-round to develop and carry out agreed communications strategies

UNCG-Country• March 2006 -- UNCG secretariat, working through UNDG Office, circulated basic operating model for UNCG at country level

• flexible model recognizing that conditions and needs vary from country to country, and aims to combine coherence with pluralism

• envisages integrated effort by UN field offices and UNICs, working under one communications umbrella, to address local communications needs of UN system

• reports to Resident Coordinator on UNCG activities at country level.

• Chaired by UNIC Director; where no UNIC exists, agency with most senior comm officer serves as Chair.

UNCG-Country

UNCG-Country was asked to:-- Provide leadership in communications for UN

Country Team-- Identify new and creative ways to show how UN

programmes are delivering results (emphasizing inter-agency collaboration)

-- Promote coherent image of UN

UNCG-Country• UNCGs now exist at UN headquarters locations and in some 60

countries

• 17 in LAC – 9 coordinated by UNICs

• According to UNCG Secretariat, experience to date has been mixed. On the positive side:

-- more cohesive and integrated UN image

-- higher visibility for work of UNCT and increased coherence and unity of its messages

-- ongoing collaborative analysis of national political scenarios and media environment

UNCG-Country

• most successful UNCGs have a common communications strategy and work plan

• year-long calendar of events

• media outreach initiatives (weekly radio and TV programmes, joint media encounters, field trips to UN projects and PSAs)

• joint ad/media campaigns, exhibits and book fairs

• joint documentation centers, media monitoring

• resource sharing (including funding for common projects)

UNCG-Country• On the down side:

-- uneven participation

-- people with little or no communications background

-- lack of support from RC and/or ResRep, agency heads

-- decisions not followed through largely because assigned members lack clout

-- UNCG partners unwilling to support projects for which they have no clear vested interest

-- conflicting mandates: work under UN common banner versus campaigning in support of individual agency agendas

Towards a UNCG-RegionalContext:

-- Largely middle-income region… but most unequal of all

-- Insufficient growth; benefits not reaching poorest…exclusion of indigenous and Afro-descendents…

more than 1/2 of children below poverty line

-- Uneven, insufficient progress toward MDGs

-- Democracy… elections in 12 countries… political shift toward left and center-left… shifting alliances and trade blocs

-- growing recognition of failure of “Washington consensus” re: development and trade

-- widespread distrust of institutions and growing violence

Towards a UNCG-RegionalContext:

• Regional Directors’ Team established in 2003

• core members: Development Group ExCom agencies (UNDP, UNFPA, WFP and UNICEF); expanded group includes PAHO, UNIFEM, OCHA, ECLAC

• other agencies invited to meetings, including OHCHR, UNHCR; open to all regional counterparts of UN agencies

• Published, jointly with ECLAC, regional MDG progress report in June 2005

• Annual work plan; substantive programme, management agenda

• Inter-agency Regional hub for UN system now established in Panama

Towards a UNCG-Regional

Issues to address:

• Objectives

• Membership

• Coordination mechanism

• Meetings

• Internal communication/information-sharing

• Work plan

• Reporting/accountabilities

• Key advocacy messages, UN branding, visibility of agencies

Towards a UNCG-Regional

Possible thematic areas for initial collaboration:

• MDGs (Millennium Campaign)

• HIV/AIDS

• Avian/human influenza

• Emergencies

• Improving UN image/reputation

• migration

• human rights

Towards a UNCG-RegionalPossible joint actions:

• Consolidated list of UN Communication Officers, videoconference and other facilities

• Joint regional UN calendar

• Joint actions for UN Day, World AIDS Day

• Consolidated list of UN information resources/materials available to media, including web links and contacts

• Implement Inter-Agency Strategic Communication Framework on Avian/human influenza (24-25 July meeting in PAHO)

Towards a UNCG-RegionalPossible joint actions:

• Coordinate action in emergencies with REDLAC

• Regional public opinion poll – discussions with Latinobarometro, Gallup, IPSOS, etc.

• UN Regional Media Kit

• Media briefings with Regional Directors

• Journalist training/building government communication capacity

• Media monitoring and analysis

• Website

Towards a UNCG-RegionalSome challenges we face:

• Encouraging country UNCGs that are “driven from below” as opposed to “one size fits all”

• Speaking with “one UN voice” on key issues but not drowning out voices of individual agencies

• Avoiding “lowest common denominator” approach -- responsibility to be forthright and criticize governments when necessary

• Dual reporting lines (through DPI and Regional Director’s Team) – whose tune are we dancing to?

Towards a UNCG-Regional

Some challenges we face:

• Double shift – balancing inter-agency activities with existing workloads

• Communication as an “afterthought” – improving the “status” of communication as an integral part of all

development/humanitarian strategies and programmes

• Lack of funding for common efforts

• Overlapping/conflicting activities, especially in last 3 months of each year

The Millennium Development Goals: a Latin American and Caribbean perspective

The preparation of this UN publication and its communication strategy was coordinated by the Secretariat of ECLAC with contributions from:

ILO, FAO, UNESCO, PAHO, UNDP, UNEP, UNICEF, UNFPA, WFP, UN-Habitat and UNIFEM

Closing thought:“There are compelling and credible historical processes that had effective communication and media strategies as essential parts of their overall strategy. The Civil Rights, anti-Apartheid, anti-Tobacco, Representative Democracy, Child Rights and Women’s Movements, as well as other past and ongoing, global, regional, national and local social movements, have all included communication strategies as a central (often the central) part of their change effort. In many ways all that these movements used were communication and media strategies. There is no vaccine, for example, for civil rights.” -- The Media and Development Communication Manifesto (July 2006 draft)