Mr. President,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia* , the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia align themselves with this declaration.
In Accra last year, it was recognised that UNCTAD needs to improve its Communications strategy and update its Publications policy, to increase the influence on policy makers and other agents by making sure that relevant information is made available to them in a timely manner. The EU would like to thank the UNCTAD Secretariat for the extensive consultations and analysis carried out in response to paragraph 186 to 188 of the Accra Accord, and for the resulting drafts before us today. A functioning and effective Communications strategy and Publications policy are vital for any “knowledge-based” institution, and the drafts before us promise great things in this regard.
We welcome the identification of target audiences and the clear guidelines for how to reach and engage with the same. The draft Communications strategy admits that many stakeholders seem to have an unclear idea of what UNCTAD is or does, and that this needs to change, if UNCTAD is to shape the debate in its areas of competence.
The EU fully supports the strategy to decrease the number of publications. This is long overdue. We also support the strategy to focus on the flagship research products and high quality technical material. We would be glad to see some results on this strategy soon. More efforts should instead be devoted to the successful dissemination of these to make sure that they reach their target audiences. The entire institution should work together to make sure that the communications strategy is mainstreamed into the organisation’s work. Devoting efforts and resources, not only to the production, but to the dissemination and impact of research products, will help make UNCTAD the first port of call for information and advice on trade and development issues.
To increase the organisation’s visibility and attract attention to its work, the website is a priority area of work. It has great potential while being cost efficient compared to many other options. To boost UNCTAD’s profile, the website should be equipped to show activities, projects and contributions on a per country basis. We welcome that this work has begun, through the launch of the Technical Cooperation Projects Portal during the last Working Party session. A multifunctional map, as suggested in the draft Communications strategy, is also a good idea and we hope that the selection of featured technical cooperation projects is not too narrowly defined. A more selective pick of successful projects could still be featured in a different format, with more in-depth information on each case. The EU supports the “One United Nations”-initiative and the “Delivering as One”-policy. We encourage UNCTAD’s participation in the UN initiative aimed at “greening” the publications process, and we welcome the idea to draw on other organisations’ field presence to disseminate information and advice more effectively on the ground. The idea to pursue co-publishing is another example of how to reach a wider audience and increase visibility.
As usual, the EU is particularly supportive of regular monitoring and evaluation to make sure that goals set out are also reached. This June, the EU welcomed the first ever in-depth Readership survey of main publications. We continue to see this, and the annual survey of the publications issued the previous year, as valuable inputs for further discussions, and we support efforts to continue the surveys and to let the publications policy be guided by the results therein.
We support the idea of enhancing the synergies between the publications and the work of UNCTAD’s other two pillars, to make UNCTAD work as one body and to develop an effective communications culture within the organisation.
To conclude, the EU would like to commend the Secretariat for these very ambitious documents. We are very keen to hear the Secretariat elaborate further on the details regarding how to achieve the various goals in the Communications strategy and Publications policy. As we appreciate the recommendations contained in these drafts, we encourage UNCTAD to prioritise Communications in its work, to make sure that they are successfully implemented.
Thank you for your attention.
_________________ * Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.