The morning session of the DPI/NGO Communications Workshop, entitled “Hearing the Facts”, focused on how NGOs could access correct UN information and be able to distinguish fact from fiction about the United Nations.

Juan Carlos Brant, Chief, NGO Section, moderated the morning session and gave the purpose of the Communications Workshop which was to give NGOs access to correct UN information and distinguish fact from fiction about the United Nations. He explained that today’s topic would cover many facts about the relationship between the media and the UN and how accurate or false the media coverage of the UN was.

Speakers of the morning session were experts in their field to inform the participants on how to correct negative coverage of the UN, the Capital Master Plan and the UN management reform. They included Gillian Sorensen, Senior Advisor and National Advocate, United Nations Foundation and Christopher Burnham, Under-Secretary-General, Department of Management. Alicia Barcena, Chef de Cabinet, Executive Office of the Secretary- General, was not able to attend due to a last minute meeting.

Gillian Sorensen who sees herself as a UN supporter and partisan, gave an overview of significant achievements of the UN as well as the relationship between the United States and the UN. She walked the attendees through the UN achievements such as protecting women’s rights, monitoring elections in 120 countries, sheltering refugees, implementing the Millennium Development Goals, and helping to establish global health standards, which all tend to be overlooked by many UN critics. She mentioned the benefits of joint action among Member States by emphasizing that the UN was a unique space with the opportunity to build relationships and alliances to face problems of global magnitude.
Furthermore, she talked about the UN myths.

Some of the myths she mentioned were:
• The amount that the United States spent in contributions to the UN was not as enormous as often stated, in fact it would equal the amount spent in half a day in the war on Iraq.
• Unlike the myth that the UN dealt with peacekeeping mostly, she clarified that peacekeeping made up only 20 per cent of the work of the UN.
• She mentioned that the media often presented the UN as World Government. In this regard she clarified that the UN was a voluntary association with the means and mandates given by its Member States.

Ms Sorensen underlined the need and possibility to overcome policy differences between the US and UN and what the role civil society could play in this regard. She said it was important that everyone carried out the positive message about the UN; build on its strengths but without forgetting its weaknesses. Through the UN reform that is continuing, the UN had better communication, more transparency, an improved Human Rights Council and would work more effectively. It was now the US who should do its part by signing treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, fully supporting the MDGs and by paying contributions on time.

She concluded her speech by quoting Madeleine Albright, “even superpowers need friends”.

A question was raised about the Capital Master Plan and the possibility of the UN to move out of NYC. Ms. Sorensen said that NYC knows the contributions the UN gives to its economy e.g. taxi, hotels, UN being in the top 5 of tourist attraction. Regarding the Capital Master Plan, she added that a renovation was very much needed but that the US was holding it back and that the Fifth Committee was currently working on a decision.

Christopher Burnham, Under-Secretary-General, Department of Management offered the opportunity to get an inside view on the development of the management reform and the Capital Master Plan. Mr. Burnham explained the need for the management reform and its elements: ethics, transparency and accountability. Giving particular emphasis on ethics, he said, the UN was entrusted in setting global standards; it was important that the UN maintained the highest ethical standard, and its staff had the highest ethical behaviour.
Transparency was defined as an annual report, a simple format that everyone had access to. The Member States and civil society had the right to be informed about where the money comes from, where it was spent and what was achieved with it. He stated that new accountability standards were needed in order to provide reasonable assurance to the donor states that their money was well spent. He noted that the UN needed to be more accountable than 20 years ago and therefore, the aim, the Secretary-General and the UN system had agreed on, was to adopt new accounting standards, an example was the World Bank’s international accounting standards. He underlined the importance of achieving the three elements of the management reform, ethics, accountability and transparency on the way of becoming a more effective organization.

Mr. Burnham stated that management reform was one of the UN’s investments in the future, part of “saving the future generation from war”.

Answering a question, he pointed out the need of the UN to produce a “product” that works best for the 21st century. In this regard he mentioned the necessity of the rule of law for developing countries in order to receive foreign investments and stated that the private sector was part of the solution to end poverty. He asked to look at the examples of the Dominican Republic and Haiti; to find reasons why the DR works so well and Haiti so poorly.

On a question concerning the Capital Master Plan, Mr. Burnham concluded that the $1.6 billion renovation plan was moving forward; the first $100 million was granted by the Fifth Committee, which was responsible for administrative and budgetary matters. He mentioned the US concern was that the plan was out of the budget cycle and at the same time he pointed out the need to have the Americans on board since their contribution made up 22 per cent of the total budget. He also informed the group that Fritz Reuter, Assistant Secretary-General - Executive Director of the Capital Master Plan, recommended having the Secretariat building renovated in stages, over approximately 7-9 years.

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