10 th UN Inter Agency Roundtable on Development Communication Economic Commission for Africa (ECA): Accelerating the achievement of the MDGs through stakeholder participation

What is ECA? Regional arm of the UN secretariat in Africa; Mandate to foster economic development of Member States; Liaison body between African governments and UN; Key part of the work is NEPAD – Africa’s development blueprint; Use convening power to promote dialogue between Member States

ECA sponsors or hosts several of Africa’s main policy fora: Conference of African Ministers of Finance and development; African Development Forum (ADF) – five editions so far; Committee on Development Information (CODI) Advisory Board on Statistics on Africa; Forum on African Statistical Development (FASDEV); As well as meetings on wide cross section of critical development issues.

Until recently, we relied on traditional methods, such as: Website; Newsletters; Expert group meetings; Mailing lists; But we were not listening to the requirements of our stakeholders

To best deliver, we realized the need to extend the scope of our communication: Emphasis on partnership. Stronger links were built with African Union and the African Development Bank; Donor consultations were redesigned to incorporate both sides of the development equation; Special focus on promotion of ICT for development is helping us expand our stakeholder base to include dialogue with parties outside the policy community -

The main idea here is that all stakeholders are agents of change. As such, they need to be included in the policy dialogue.

We’ve begun going deeper… In the past we simply distributed posters to 53 Member States on African Statistics Day, for example. Now, besides the posters, we include a small advocacy radio message. This is distributed through our network of radio stations, and last year through the UN radio network; also collaborated with South Africa to produce video on issues. An Africa Water vision video was a joint project of UN Water Africa partnership we produced and aired throughout the continent on state televisions; We’ve placed a lot of emphasis on ICT for Development: we now host a number of electronic learning groups, one of which is specifically dedicated to MDG monitoring and ideas and experience on implementation of PRSPs;

The ECA’s programme of work emphasises interaction and dialogue We are particularly interested in two-way communication that reflects the cultural and developmental needs of stakeholders.

Promoting knowledge sharing ECA’s new Knowledge Management initiative is creating online communities of interest and practice. Focus on strengthening communication and information exchange between UN system experts and external knowledge networks. All partners encouraged to participate in this.

Strengthening Media Capacity Effective media are a vital to quest to achieve the MDGs. Media faces numerous capacity constraints. ECA is therefore working with partners to support development of a strong media and communication environment. Emphasis is on listening to media and tailoring responses to their demands. STREAM regional level initiative underway. UN-Ethiopia country team pilot project due to start soon.

Challenges and opportunities: How does our client-base perceive us? I-seek is an excellent internal communication tool, but how far are we in developing a comprehensive inter-agency programmatic knowledge-sharing tool, where we can access our mutual expertise? We need to develop a common photo and video bank, so that we can streamline our resources; Exchange of personnel is highly encouraged at the moment, and is an excellent way to get to know each other’s activities;

Finally, we really must stop ‘preaching to the converted.’ Without exception, there is a clear gap between our perception as communication professionals of our role and responsibilities, as well as contribution to ‘substantive’ work, and the afterthought approach to communication we witness throughout the UN’s programmes and budgets.

By acting collectively we can make development communication a reality Thank you. Amesegenalehu !