Kiyo Akasaka: Delivery and accountability of UN activity

External Economic Relations interview with Mr. Kiyo Akasaka, UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.

EER: What do you see as the main tasks and opportunities facing the United Nations at this time, as the world organization moves into its second year under the leadership of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon?

- Addressing the UN Member States this January, the Secretary-General said 2008 provided a unique opportunity to enhance the central role of the United Nations in world affairs.  He pointed to a number of developments where collective action by States and peoples, and a strong United Nations, could make a difference to people's lives. These developments are: this year's 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the mid-point in the work to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and new opportunities on financing for development; climate change negotiations; and the unprecedented peacekeeping operation in Darfur, Sudan.

The Secretary-General also emphasized the importance of delivering results for a more prosperous, secure and just world; creating a stronger United Nations through full accountability of all parties; and advancing the global common good by securing global public goods. But what does this mean? It means that the United Nations is uniquely placed to mobilize and lead Member States' efforts to address truly global challenges that spare no one, but that require all nations to work together to find solutions. These shared challenges include climate change, global health, the threat of terrorism, and nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.  These issues are of relevance to all Member States, however, the consequences of collective inaction will be felt most acutely by the world's poorest countries, and the most vulnerable within them.

EER: As the Under-Secretary-General for Communications at the UN, how would you deal with challenges that lie in explaining to the world the work of your Organization?

- I think that "delivery" and "accountability" are two guiding principles. We need to explain clearly and straightforwardly to the public how the Organization is assuming its responsibilities and, in cases when it is unable to, what is being done to rectify or strengthen its operations.

But there will also be cases where our successes are not clearly recognized.  The existence of conflicts that UN mediation has so far failed to stop will make headlines, but not necessarily, for example, the overall decline in world conflicts, as UN-led processes have produced results, including, for example, in Haiti and Liberia.

The continued disgrace of extreme poverty among at least a billion people needs to be balanced with the overall drop in the proportion of those living on less than a dollar a day -- from more than 30 per cent in 1990 to less than 20 per cent today.  We have also seen substantial reductions in many of the traditional killer diseases and in illiteracy.

Challenges remain that are huge, and they are formidable. We cannot afford complacency when more than two and a half billion people lack access to improved sanitation facilities, and a billion do not have direct access to clean water. But we also should remember that we have seen the average life span in the less developed countries increase from 41 years in 1950, around the time that development aid was created, to more than 63 years in 2005 - a more-than-50 per cent improvement.

We also need to help the people of the world understand better the different levels of accountability and actions at the UN. For example, decisions taken by the Security Council are in the hands of the fifteen member countries, including Russia, not the Secretariat and UN operational agencies.  Major reforms in the Organization lie more in the hands of the UN General Assembly than the Secretary-General.

We are focusing as well on communicating better with youth. Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years are an important part of our society, accounting for about 18 per cent of the world population. From their ranks will come the leaders and decision makers of tomorrow. Our language, our use of "new" media or of "old" media, like music and drama, often needs to be adjusted to communicate with this creative and energetic audience.  Fortunately, we have a very strategic factor in our favour.  Major UN priorities like climate change, the eventual eradication of poverty and hunger, and facilitating peace and security, are all future-oriented, and which therefore are perhaps of more importance to this crucial age group than to any other.

Finally, we continue to enlist the support of civil society and expand the range of our partnerships. It was only at the end of the last century that the world organization made a quantum leap forward in engaging non-governmental organizations in the different areas of it work. Entities drawn from civil society bring tremendous energy, enthusiasm and specialized skills and knowledge to any field of endeavour. We are working to engage them with our information materials, including by holding DPI conferences for non-governmental organizations, and by bringing non-governmental organizations to UN conferences.  We also work with celebrity goodwill ambassadors and messengers of peace to draw the attention of the media and the public to issues and problems they might otherwise not hear about, and to build support for their solutions.

EER: What role do you see for Russia in the world effort to meet anti-poverty objectives such as those in the Millennium Development Goals and to help those struck by disasters?

- The UN is watching with high expectations Russia's evolving role in multilateral cooperation and its re-emergence as a donor country. For example, the Russian Government has committed itself to providing annual financial contributions to the World Food Programme for the delivery of food assistance to countries in need. Support is also provided for the UN High Commissioner for Refugee's projects in different parts of the world. Important contributions have been announced to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Beyond these specific actions, I understand that Russia has started to conceptualize a mechanism for Official Development Assistance, or "ODA". This mechanism is to ensure that foreign aid is channeled in a transparent, efficient and coordinated way and to reflect both Russia's national interests and internationally defined development priorities.

These are all important steps, as countries around the world are being asked to step up ODA to combat poverty, in an era when new donors are emerging from outside the traditional donor nations, and as the international business community weighs in against poverty through foreign direct investment, trade, and charity.

EER: The UN Association of Russia is planning several conferences in heartland regions to promote knowledge of UN activities. How can your Department be of assistance?

- The UN Information Centre in Moscow stands ready to provide support and advice for this commendable effort. We certainly see this as a positive process. Our Information Centre can, for example, provide information to the UN Association of Russia about the United Nations and its aim and objectives, both internationally, as well as in Russia. It can also help to draw the attention of media to these events.

EER: Leading the global response to climate change seems to be a signature theme of the new Secretary-General. What role would you envision for Russia?

- Russia is a major emitter of climate change-causing carbon dioxide -- only the United States, China and the European Union emit more. On a per capita basis, Russians emit more carbon dioxide per person than any other country except the US.  Given that your country is already in a period that may be seen as the beginning of an industrial renaissance, Russia can play a key role in addressing climate change by investing widely and rapidly in a low-carbon economy.  The country also could take better advantage of the Kyoto Protocol's Joint Implementation mechanism, by which Russia can attract clean technology investment.  And as a major energy exporter, Russia has the opportunity to help in the design of a new global agreement in Copenhagen next year to adequately address climate change in an economically viable manner.

EER: It is the opinion of some in the UNA-Russia that the world Organization needs to do more to better reach people in my country's heartlands. What do you think can be done to address this issue?

- Russia remains a land of contrasts. It has one of the world's largest economies, is a major geopolitical leader, and a member of the influential "Group of 8". On the other hand, it is in many respects still recuperating from a very difficult period of transition to a market economy. The level of social and economic development in different parts of this vast country varies drastically, and many problems associated with the transition persist.

The UN assists the Russian government at the federal and regional levels in mitigating acute social problems, in building capacity and protecting the most vulnerable groups of the population. The UNDP, ILO and UNIDO support investment and the creation of new jobs. Post-conflict reconstruction and development in the North Caucasus are still a focal point of UN attention. In the sphere of good governance, fiscal policy and human development, UNDP and some other agencies provide on-demand policy support to government and to civil society initiatives. Having said that, the UN's resources are finite and often thinly stretched, and the highest priority necessarily goes to the most vulnerable countries and regions.

I think the answer to the problem you present is two fold. First, the UN Country Team in Russia seeks to have a bigger impact through the application of the "One UN" principle, that is, delivering as one UN family. Second, our colleagues dealing with public information need to continue communicating the purposes and aims of these projects and programmes, their achievements, the challenges we face and lessons learned -- as we discussed in the previous question. You may advise readers of your magazine to regularly visit insightful websites of the UN Office in Russia (www.unrussia.ru) and the UN Information Centre in Moscow (www.unic.ru). The Moscow UNIC is dedicated to providing public information in the Russian langauge, and to reaching out to Russian media. This, I hope, will help to keep your readers abreast of the world body's activities globally and - perhaps more importantly for your compatriots - in Russia.

Interview was conducted by Maxim Fedorenko and Jaya Dayal