RAMESH JAURA Talks To UN Under-Secretary-General KIYO AKASAKA

IDN-InDepth NewsInterview

BERLIN/NEW YORK (IDN) - Imagine blockbusters made in Bollywood and Hollywood with disarmament, climate change, millennium development goals and women as central themes – and the opening scenes showing a sign that says: “United Nations. It’s your world.”

Kiyo Akasaka, UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Information since April 2007, does not dismiss the idea as absurd. Unrelenting innovation and ingenuity are second nature to him and the Department of Public Information (DPI) he heads.

DPI’s job is to bring home to citizens around the world what this 192-member world body is all about. For this they have 187 million U.S. dollars at their disposal – for two years, 2010 and 2011.

Akasaka and DPI are not in a straitjacket though their work has been mandated by the decisions of the member states. “But in actual management and emphasis to be given within the mandate there are certain rooms for flexibility and we would like to make better use of resources available, using new media and all that,” said Akasaka at the UN headquarters in New York in a skype-out call from Berlin on February 3.

Former Ambassador of Japan to the UN, Akasaka was born 1948 in Osaka. He held the position of Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from August 2003 until March 2007.

A slightly abridged version of the interview with IDN-InDepthNews editor Ramesh Jaura follows:

IDN: According to a survey last March, for the seventh straight year, about 6 in 10 Americans say the United Nations is doing a poor job of solving the problems under its care. Only 26 percent believe it is doing a good job. Has UN engagement in Haiti in the wake of the earthquake helped alter this perception of Americans?

KIYO AKASAKA (KA): I think so. I have known this survey and its results. There have been over the years quite large fluctuations. We have also noted other surveys like Pew global attitudes project opinion polls conducted between May and June 2009 which indicated that 61 percent of Americans gave favourable views of the United Nations, compared with 48 percent in 2007. So that means a 13 percent jump in favourable views of the Americans about the United Nations. . . .

I believe that responses also depend on the questions posed such as whether the UN is doing a poor job or a good job or whether you have a favourable or unfavourable view of the UN. Those questions will somehow influence the responses. I think it also largely depends on the relations between the United Nations and member states’ governments, particularly what is happening at the Security Council. . . .

But what I would like to say is that ‘yes’, we were concerned about vicissitudes in opinions we have seen over the years in the United States towards the United Nations. And we have been trying harder to improve our communications efforts – so that the American people as well as government people and all the opinion leaders will understand the objectives and activities of the UN better – by way of our tools such as radio and television and webcasts, the new initiatives geared to the American public.

But also the Secretary-General’s visit to various big cities such as San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, and Houston – he has been to many American cities – have been purported to reach out to the American public so that they would understand what we are doing in the United Nations.

LESSONS LEARNT

IDN: Are these the lessons learnt . . .?

KA: Well, we would like to improve our communication vis a vis not only the American public but also the general public at large.

IDN: Has what you learnt from the past influenced in anyway your communications strategy in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti?

KA: We have been following the media coverage of the UN responses to Haiti. I think the media has appreciated very rapid responses on the part of the UN – including a visit by Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) himself at an early stage to Haiti – our coordination efforts, the appointment of Edmond Mulet as the acting head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), and massive humanitarian assistance under way including food provision, health care and shelter provision and security care. All the efforts have been mobilised throughout the United Nations. Those efforts continue.

IDN: Have you planned something particular for 2010 in the context of the Secretary-General’s plans for this year?

KA: This year will be marked by some important events and milestones such as the disarmament conference – Review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in May. Disarmament is one of the top priorities for the Secretary-General (SG). Then we have MDGs, the millennium development goals. Most of the targets are to be achieved by 2015. The SG proposed and the General Assembly has agreed to organise a summit meeting in September on millennium development goals. So this is another top priority for the UN.

Also the empowerment of women is becoming a big priority for the UN in terms of the organisational structure. The new head of the organisation at the level of under-secretary-general will soon be appointed to head all UN activities to empower women and gender equality. The SG has also appointed a high-level special representative for the work to end violence against women. So women issues would be a priority.

There would be climate change – of course it continues to be a top priority – and this year’s COP16 (conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Mexico City would be an important conference after Copenhagen.

Human rights and of course the internal reform of the United Nations continue to be a priority. So there are just about seven top priorities which the SG identified as agenda for 2010 – announced at the beginning of this year by the SG.

IDN: What do you plan to do in that context?

KA: We would like to mobilise all our forces including information centres, and our radio, television, webcast – all the tools we have got. We would like to get the help of NGOs and civil society, students, young people in particular to work with us for the SG’s priorities like disarmament, MDGs, climate change and women issues. We would like to reach out to our partners – in fact partnership with various UN partners is one of the top priorities of our communication strategy.

INFORMATION CENTRES

IDN: Your department was forced to reduce the number of UN information centres worldwide – primarily for financial reasons. How many UN centres were closed and how many are now in operation?

KA: Currently we have 63 information centres worldwide. In 2003 nine individual information centres in European capitals such as Paris, London and Rome were closed and a regional information centre was set up in Brussels the following year. The UN regional information centre in Brussels is covering western European countries.

With the European Union integration moving forward, our regional information centre in Brussels is closely working with the European Commission on a number of issues like MDGs, climate change and women issues. That way, I believe, it is in a position to align our priorities and activities with the priorities of the European Union. That is good because we can rely on the human and financial resources of the European Union as well for our efforts.

ÍDN: How about the budget of your department? Has there been an increase or a decrease in the over the years?

KA: Our budget has remained about the same in real terms but the number of staff over the last 20 years but there has been a decrease in staff numbers.

IDN: Could you mention the budget figure?

KA: The budget for 2010-2011 for our department amounts to 187 million dollars.

IDN: What impact has the scaling down in the number of information centres has had?

KA: The operational cost has been a problem. . . . Since I joined the United Nations in early 2007, I have made it clear that we would not reduce the number of information centres any more. On the contrary the General Assembly has agreed to establish a new information centre – in Angola. From there we would be able to reach out to lusophone countries.

IMPACT

IDN: How has the scaling down of UN information centres affected the perceptions of the UN overseas? Is there any difference in the impact of these centres in the rich industrialised and poor developing countries?

KA: Well. Not that difference between developed and developing countries – but depending on the size and functions of the information centres there are certain differences. For example, in Brussels at the regional information centre obviously the staff number is larger. And, various people of our department are working in Geneva and Vienna. They are in big UN compounds. So certainly they manage the communication work with more staff.

In Cairo and in Pretoria and in Mexico City we have reinforced staff so that they would be able to become sort of regional hubs. Cairo can look after the websites of other information centres in the Middle East. Pretoria can look after other information centres in Africa. Mexico City can look after Latin America.

In that way we have focussed activities in certain information centres. But in other places – I have been to some information centres, for example in Ghana, in Nigeria, in Burkina Faso, and others – they have just a limited number of staff that have been working very hard with limited operational budget. I would very much like to reinforce those small information centres – with better facilities and equipment so that they would be able to work better.

In India we have quite an effective and big information centre in New Delhi and we are very happy about the current state of their work.

NEW MEDIA

IDN: Does your department, the DPI, have different strategies to reach out to the mainstream and non-mainstream media?

KA: Well, we do not make such distinctions. But we know that it is important that communication efforts we will embark on will be carried by as many media outlets as possible. For example, we produce television videos and they are often being carried out by CNN, BBC and other big channels which have enormous audiences.

But we have been trying to be innovative in many ways because we now see that the media industry has been undergoing enormous changes, revolutionary changes, because of the emergence of new media. We have been quick to cope with the new media – we use Facebook, twitter, My Space, flickr, You Tube. UN websites have been increasingly making use of You Tube for our videos and press conferences and webcast to able to be able to be viewed by as many audiences as possible.

IDN: So probably soon you will have no longer printed documents.

KA: No, we will continue to have printed documents and press releases. They are important. But we know that in many countries, including developing countries, now digital divide is no longer the issue as far as the mobile phones are concerned. At the beginning of last year 4 billion people had mobile phones – 4 billion out of 6.8 billion people. In many developing countries people have mobile phones. Why can’t we try to reach out to the people through our radio programmes, television and webcasts to people with mobile phones? That’s what we would like to do.

Then we may indeed continue to reach out to people in the world including developing countries – not just relying on printed documents. We can use the telephones, internet, although we see that broadband is still a problem in many developing countries.

We will try to continue traditional media tools like radio, television, print-outs but at the same we would place greater emphasis on new media so that particularly young people will be able to have access to the UN’s communication efforts.

IDN: A saying goes that the United Nations is what its members want it to be. How far does this affect your information and communication work?

KA: Well. Most of our work has been mandated by the decisions of the member states. So there are indeed certain constraints and limits – in the sense that the budgets are also largely in line with mandates given by member states. Yes. But in actual management and emphasis to be given within the mandate there are certain rooms for flexibility and we would like to make better use of resources available, using new media and all that.

We would like to be creative so that member states would be able to appreciate that because of our creative ideas – for example we are working in partnership with television companies which are creating series of television programmes like ‘24’.

In America there are popular television programmes. We are inviting them to come to the UN and partner with us so that our common agenda like (raising awareness about the need to abolish) child trafficking, child soldiers, drug problems and all the social and economic problems could be somehow reflected in their television programmes so that UN causes would be better understood.

That sort of thing has not been particularly mandated by member states but member states appreciate that by doing so what we are doing is better effective communication of UN’s objectives and work which they, member states, would like us to do more.

So I do not feel personally constrained in a big way. Rather we need to work closely with the member states and with the help of and partnership with member states we will indeed be in a position to make better use of available resources for our common success.

IDN: There is no straitjacket …

KA: No. I don’t feel that any straitjacket has been put around me. We are given certain room of flexibility and we have very good working relationship with members of the committee on information. They have been closely in touch with us and we rely on their guidance and good advice. (IDN-InDepthNews/05.02.2010)

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