COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION RESUMES 1997 SESSION

3 September 1997

Press Release
PI/1024

COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION RESUMES 1997 SESSION

19970903 Hears Secretary-General's Proposals and Report of Task Force on Reform of United Nations Public Information Activities

The Committee on Information resumed its 1997 session this afternoon to consider the Secretary-General's proposals in response to the report of the Task Force on the Reorientation of United Nations Public Information Activities, entitled "Global Vision, Local Voice: A Strategic Communications Programme for the United Nations".

In a note presented by the Assistant Secretary-General for Public Information, Samir Sanbar, the Secretary-General said he concurred with the principle conceptual approach and thrust of the recommendations of the Task Force.

His proposals included the establishment of a new Office of Communications and Public Information to be headed by an official at the level of Under-Secretary-General. However, he said he believed the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, the Office of the Assistant Secretary- General for External Relations and the Speechwriter's Unit should remain as part of his office.

The Chairman of the Task Force, Mark Malloch Brown, Vice-President of External Affairs of the World Bank, described the report as an effort to restore authority and purpose to the United Nations communications strategy and to reverse its diminished role in the public's imagination. The Task Force was recommending a new partnership, where the Committee would set strategic goals and then empower the head of the communications function to carry out the work programme and assign people and resources.

The Committee meets annually to review the Organization's public information policies and activities. It decided to hold its session this year in two parts so that it could consider the report of the Task Force, which was released in June.

The Committee will meet again at a date to be announced.

Committee Work Programme

The Committee on Information resumed its 1997 session this afternoon in order to prepare and adopt its report to the General Assembly. It is also expected to resume its general debate.

The Committee has before it the report of the Task Force on the Reorientation of United Nations Public Information Activities, and a note from the Secretariat containing the Secretary-General's proposals for a strengthened communications and information operation.

Report of Task Force

The Task Force, comprised of communications experts from both within and outside the United Nations system, was established by the Secretary-General in April to advise him on reform of the Organization's public communications capacity. Its report, entitled "Global Vision, Local Voice: A Strategic Communications Programme for the United Nations" (document A/AC.198/1997/CRP.1), was issued in June.

According to the report of the Task Force, the United Nations is respected by the public worldwide. However, it has difficulty translating that respect into support for its mission because, in many countries, it is not viewed as relevant or effective. Poll findings, in both industrialized and developing countries, indicate that core United Nations issues -- health, disaster relief, the environment, food security, human rights, crime and drugs -- score highly as issues that people understand must be addressed internationally. "But only rarely is United Nations ownership and relevance to them recognized nationally", it adds.

The report outlines several principles which, it says, should guide a new United Nations communications strategy. Communications should be placed at the heart of the strategic management of the Organization; its image and long-term survival depend on effectively communicating its message and its activities. The Organization's global messages, activities and information must reflect and be tailored to meaningful local contexts, which will require more effective central management, a high degree of delegation to adequately resourced country-level communications programmes, and a significantly strengthened two-way flow of information.

As the United Nations is principally a forum for the exchange of ideas, the report says, a culture of communications must pervade the entire Organization, with responsibility for public diplomacy borne by all senior officials, ambassadors and the larger United Nations family. Issues must be framed in relevant terms rather than in abstract principles. Campaigns should draw on the global United Nations family, as, in many cases, the agencies can catch public attention more effectively.

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The Secretary-General's role is central in today's communication environment, in which organizations are personified by their chief executives, according to the report. The General Assembly and the Committee on Information should provide strategic guidance and direction, with the Secretariat given much greater responsibility for determining the methods with which mandated goals will be met. There must also be flexibility to deploy resources on emerging priorities, such as the current need to focus on strengthening public support in the United States.

According to the Task Force, the United Nations institutional image must delineate the two separate functions that give it its stature: as the unique global forum for debate, contention and ultimate consensus among Member States; and as spokesman, advocate and implementer of that consensus, through the Secretary-General, the Secretariat and the entire United Nations system.

In assessing existing communication arrangements, such as the Department of Public Information (DPI), the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary- General, the Office of the Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations and the Speechwriting Unit, the Task Force notes many strengths and high- quality efforts. However, the inexplicable absence of an organizational communications strategy is among the weaknesses which needed to be addressed, it states.

Responsibilities for communications are dispersed across the four units without any overall direction or coordination of activities, the report goes on. The bulk of the communications' budget goes towards disseminating institutional information -- basically describing the work and priorities of the Organization -- without adequately catering to strategic communication.

The Task Force recommends the following strategic communications priorities and structure through which United Nations leadership and public support could be strengthened globally:

-- Since effective communications are central to successful policy-making, the senior official in charge of communications should be part of the Secretary- General's innermost policy-making circle and of other policy-coordination groups.

-- The Organization's ability to communicate ideas to a global audience is its principal comparative advantage, so it must build a substantial communications capacity. And while there is need to consolidate, streamline or eliminate some functions in order to serve new priorities, disproportionate cuts in communications have gone far enough.

-- With the integration of United Nations field offices, the resident coordinators must recognize country-level communications strategies as one of their major responsibilities.

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-- The Department should be given the authority to appoint people with the needed skills, and redeploy staff as required, in accordance with administrative procedures.

-- The Spokesman's Office, Speechwriting, External Affairs and DPI should be unified in a Department of Communications to be headed, ideally, by an Under-Secretary-General for Communications.

-- The Under-Secretary-General for Communications would be the principal strategist for communications policy; assume direct responsibility for liaison with the General Assembly and the Committee on Information; construct a coordinated strategic communications blueprint in cooperation with Secretariat departments and the principal entities of the United Nations system. He or she would manage the three main functions at Headquarters, and coordinate the fourth:

1. Media Services: A major function of the new Department will be an activist media strategy supported by a strong, news-oriented delivery of media services, taking into account the reality of the non-stop, 24-hour news cycle. A strengthened Office of the Spokesman should be part of this function, which might be managed by a separate director to ensure the Spokesman's direct access to the Secretary-General.

2. Public Affairs: This function would be the advocacy engine of the new communications structure. It would be responsible for strengthening links with the new actors and organizations which influence opinion and policy worldwide. Those groups are potentially the most important constituencies and allies of the United Nations. The current External Relations and Speechwriting units would form part of this function.

3. Information Resources: An open, transparent and accessible United Nations is essential to building support for the Organization, so the provision of information to its many audiences -- delegates, scholars, non-governmental organizations, media -- continues to grow in importance. This function would include the Library, the Publications Service, and an adequately resourced Internet operation.

4. United Nations Communications Services: This function would incorporate the complex, ongoing process of integrating the United Nations information centres (UNICs) under resident coordinators. Cutbacks in budget and personnel have affected the ability of many UNICs to perform a meaningful communications role. The experience of integrating them into United Nations offices under a resident coordinator has not been uniformly productive. The UNICs are thought to be delivering too little for the proportion of communications budget they consume (approximately 38 per cent of the information budget and 47 per cent of the staff.)

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The Task Force recommends a thorough restructuring of the UNICs network. It says a change of name may not be necessary, but for purposes of clarity, and to distinguish existing centres from the proposed, the report refers to United Nations Communications Services (UNaCS) as the successors to the UNICs.

Two separate flexible models are proposed. In industrialized countries, the Department should explore, on a country-by-country basis, the possibility of forming partnerships with the non-governmental organization sector in order to amplify United Nations communications outreach through joint programmes. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) National Committees provide something of a model, says the report.

In developing countries, the integration of communications services into the responsibilities of the resident coordinator should be completed, but with a much stronger system of feedback and accountability. UNIC staff should become a communications services group under the resident coordinators, who would be responsible to the Under-Secretary-General for Communications for developing and executing communications plans. The department of communication should have a more active role in evaluating the resident coordinator's performance in implementing communications strategy.

In both industrialized and developing countries, experienced, communications professionals should be hired locally to enhance communications strategy in locally adapted terms and the flow of information from the country level to United Nations Headquarters.

Also recommended are free-standing communications services centres in a few countries to serve as regional hubs for the network of UNaCS and for countries without UNaCS. They could be chosen on the basis of their communications infrastructure, widespread use of local language, cost and ease of access. They would be staffed by a core of international civil servants and would provide technical assistance, management of regional campaigns and channel information from the field for wider dissemination.

The above decentralized model requires strong technical support, clear chains of command, consistency of message, and accountability for real impact, all of which must be coordinated in the UNaCS in the office of the Under- Secretary-General for Communications. Meaningful decentralization also requires adequate resources.

The members of the Task Force were: Mark Malloch Brown (Chairman), Vice-President External Affairs/United Nations, World Bank; Peter Arnett, Foreign Correspondent, CNN; Joan Ganz Cooney, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Children's Television Workshop; Radghida Dergham, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent, Al-Hayat, President, United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA); Djibril Diallo, Director of Public Affairs, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Lelei Lelaulu (Secretary), Office of the

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Executive Coordinator for United Nations Reform, Editor, Secretariat News; M. Salim Lone (Rapporteur), Chief of Publications, DPI; Hironobu Shibuya, President of Pacific Basin Partners, Inc.; Juan Somavia, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations.

Secretary-General's Note

In the note to the Committee (document A/AC.198/1997/CRP.2), the Secretary-General says he concurs with the conceptual approach and thrust of the Task Force's recommendations. He also received recommendations from the Executive Coordinator for Reform and the Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management and has also taken into account the views of the Assistant Secretary-General for Public Information. This reflects the importance which the Secretary-General attaches to the role of communications, not as a support function, but as an integral part of the substantive programme of the United Nations.

The Secretary-General proposes the establishment of a new entity called the Office for Communications and Public Information and headed by an Under- Secretary-General, to be an integral part of the substantive programme of the United Nations. It will ensure a communications dimension is effectively integrated into the work of all the Organization's departments. Meeting the communications needs of these departments will be a central priority for the new Office.

The Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, the Office of the Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations and the Speechwriting Unit should remain part of the Secretary-General's Office. However, the Under- Secretary-General will establish both strategic and close day-to-day working relations with these units to ensure that they operate as part of a fully integrated communications function through effective, substantive coordination.

The Secretary-General says that a comprehensive review of the United Nations information centres and services will incorporate the complex, ongoing process of integrating the centres in developing countries. Further integration will be completed on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the views of the host country, and on the understanding that the information function and the autonomy of the centres will not be adversely affected.

In integrated centres, resident coordinators will be responsible to the head of the Office for Communications and Public Information for developing and executing communications plans, the Secretary-General says. In industrialized countries, where UNICs are the main United Nations presence, a case-by-case review would envisage enhanced partnerships with members of the United Nations system and with groups such as United Nations associations, depending on their capacity. The use of local personnel for programme delivery would be stressed, and cost-effective and professional criteria would be applied in all those field

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offices. Moreover, information centres should be provided with sufficient resources, particularly in countries where local media are less developed.

The Secretary-General's recommendations will be reflected in the revised budget estimates to be submitted to the appropriate intergovernmental bodies during the next session of the General Assembly, which starts on 16 September. He will ensure that the approved proposals will be implemented in a professional manner, maintaining cost-effective programme delivery. The Assistant Secretary-General for Public Information will, as usual, keep the Secretary-General informed of the Committee's deliberations.

Statements

SAMIR SANBAR, Assistant Secretary-General for Public Information, said he had already made a detailed statement to the Committee during the opening of the first segment in May. He then introduced the note from the Secretariat containing the Secretary-General's proposals in response to the report of the Task Force, highlighting its main points.

MARK MALLOCH BROWN, Chairman of the Task Force, Vice-President of External Affairs/United Nations Affairs, World Bank, said the Secretary- General was one of the report's strongest "cheerleaders", and was relieved that there was a plan to move forward on one of the most important parts of his reform efforts -- creating an effective communications strategy.

The report was not a detailed blueprint, he said. Rather, it sought to give a moral authority and support to a vital area of United Nations activity -- to raise information from an afterthought to a new environment and its proper status as an integral part of shaping public policy. The report also sought to offer a structure, within available resources, to build public support for United Nations goals.

The report espoused two fundamental communications goals which were supported by the Secretary-General, he said. United Nations communications needed a new commander-in-chief. There could no longer be a fragmentation of communications efforts. While the Department of Public Information (DPI) had the lion's share of resources and personnel, other units, including the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, the Speechwriting Unit and the Office of the Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations were also vital tools which did not necessarily march to the same tune or in the same direction.

Second, a strong control of issues must be married to a much stronger decentralized method for delivering the Organization's message, he continued. The Task Force had stepped into the lion's den when it had proposed changes to the United Nations information centres. However, throwing more money and personnel at the centres was not a plausible approach. Instead, United

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Nations communications activities should be married to powerful national partners. In developing countries, the resident coordinator should be the United Nations spokesman at the country level, served by a United Nations information centre. They could be supported by strong regional hubs which would contribute to a more effective focus of resources. The use of national staff should be carefully examined. They could form a more credible link with local partners such as United Nations Associations and other powerful groups which supported the Organization's activities and agenda. The centres should be under the direction of an Under-Secretary-General.

The Task Force found that, according to opinion polls, there was a strong level of respect for the United Nations, but it was seen as less and less relevant, except in countries where the Organization maintained strong field activities, he said. In other countries, the United Nations was in danger of drifting to the margins of national life. People talked about the problems and issues which were part of the United Nations agenda, but did not relate the solution of those issues to the Organization. A revitalized United Nations communications function was needed to make the United Nations more relevant to people's lives.

Journalists and non-governmental organizations were critical of DPI, he said. However, the Task Force had found DPI staff were dedicated and extremely hard working. The problem was that their efforts were too dispersed. There were not enough people to do the job properly because of the overload of 350 mandates as well as an enormous number of products and services for which DPI was responsible. A new Under-Secretary-General must have the authority to set strategic communications goals. The Task Force was therefore recommending a new partnership, where the Committee would set strategic goals and then empower the head of the communications function to carry out the work programme and assign people and resources. The Committee could then assess whether a realistic effort to achieve its goals had been carried out.

The figures were revealing, he said. The Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General had just 1.4 per cent of the DPI budget and 1.2 per cent of the staff -- a small resource given its leading role in communications. The media group had 25 per cent of the budget and 17 per cent of the staff. The UNICs and the United Nations offices in Geneva and Vienna had 35 per cent of the budget and 44 per cent of the staff. A way must be found for the groups to work together even if they remained in different units.

The Task Force did not aim to show Mr. Sanbar or a new Under-Secretary- General how to do their job, he said, but instead to restore authority and purpose to the United Nations communications strategy and to reverse its diminished role in the public's imagination. The most important task facing the United Nations was for it to face the world with an effective, unified voice and rebuild its image, he concluded.

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