The Spotlight

by William Hetzer & George McBean

The 1980s and 90s were transformative years for communication programmes throughout the organization. UNICEF had a lot to say to the world about children everywhere, and the media were often willing and ready to listen. Print journalists as well as radio and TV documentarians travelled to many UNICEF country offices to report on emergencies, vaccination campaigns and emerging issues related to child rights. The creation of strong partnerships with powerful players in publishing and broadcasting advanced UNICEF’s outreach through programmes that reached millions. This expansion took place not just with the strategic use of UNICEF funds, but from a monetary equivalent of millions of dollars in expertise and production costs donated to UNICEF, along with free air-time from broadcasters and animation partners.

PUBLISHING AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA CO-PRODUCTIONS

We all know that James Grant was a visionary. He revolutionized the way children’s needs were addressed in the media by championing robust branding that could easily be grasped — CSDR, SOWCR, mobilization campaigns to vaccinate children in the most remote places, etc. These ideas and so many more made writing about and filming UNICEF field operations not only informative but exciting to read and watch. UNICEF media professionals were challenged to provide to the “gate keepers” of the world accurate information in a digestible form. Relationships with print and visual media expanded, and in time children themselves were given the opportunity to express their ideas through a variety of outlets.

Media outreach often included consultation on story ideas, video footage and photos, and in some instances minimal financial assistance for travel and production expenses. From the 1970s into the 90s, radio and TV co-productions with important networks in donor countries became essential. These productions were often coordinated with national committees to maximize their effectiveness. By 1992, UNICEF developed co-productions with over 40 broadcast agencies in 20 countries, including the BBC, French, Italian and German networks, the CBC, TV Ontario and the National Film Board in Canada, NRK in Norway, stations in Sweden and Finland as well as Vatican Radio, NPR and CBS in the US. In the very early days of satellite TV transmission, UNICEF provided broadcasters around the world with live coverage from New Delhi of the launch of the State of the World’s Children, a UN first. The UNICEF photo and video libraries expanded, placing visual material with news agencies throughout the world.

Simultaneously country offices were helping local TV producers and visual artists in finding innovative educational ways to serve their audiences. Facts for Life gave helpful instructions direct to parents and All for Health showed the ways in which field offices had translated FFL into puppet shows, films, radio, talk shows, etc.

INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY OF BROADCASTING

In the early 90s, the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting (ICDB) was developed in association with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in New York. In December a day was set aside for broadcasts to do something special for children. It was a chance for all broadcasters everywhere to “Tune into Kids”. To supplement content, UNICEF provided additional programming in international versions suitable for translation, and animated TV spots for visual branding for the day. Most prominently, children became part of the production process, talking about their hopes and dreams, and sharing information with their peers.

The Academy also bestowed an International Emmy award for the best ICDB programme. It was amazing to see how many stations embraced children’s rights issues and included young people in their programming. Among others, Emmys were awarded to stations in Brazil, Namibia, the Dominican Republic and Canada.

One hundred stations reported to UNICEF that they participated in ICDB.

ANIMATION FOR DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

The first “animation for development” workshop was held in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1986 and the second international workshop in Prague in 1990. At the international workshop, animation producers from major companies in North America and Europe worked with UNICEF staff and their media counterparts to review animation techniques that could be applied to country specific priorities. The workshop explored how animation might be used to alleviate the health knowledge gap. For example, animation can utilize attractive and colorful characters making storylines enjoyable to wide-ranging audiences, regardless of literacy. Animation has a high attention-getting value. It especially lends itself to teaching simple abstract concepts; animation can bring these concepts to life, and can inject humor into what otherwise would be an uninteresting lesson. In short, animation has the power to tell a good story that has cross cultural appeal.

Field level interest set the stage for a third gathering in 1994. Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney, offered to host the event at the Walt Disney Feature Animation Studio in Orlando Florida. Grant and Disney met previously at a UN reception. From that encounter plans were developed for a third workshop and a Disney contribution to Cartoons for Children’s Rights.

From these three events several notable projects were launched.

CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

Cartoons for Children’s Rights was born in Orlando. The series of short animated TV announcements were designed to complement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. World class animators were asked to create a short film on different articles from the convention. Each 30 second spot became a personal or studio contribution to expanding knowledge about children’s rights. Industry response was enthusiastic, UNICEF forged partnerships with over 100 animators in more than 32 countries. The cartoons were widely distributed and broadcast on many stations around the world. CNN aired Cartoons for Children’s Rights for an extended period in the late 90s.

MEENA AND SARA ANIMATED SERIES

MEENA and SARA are two animated television series focusing on issues faced by pre-teen girls in South Asia and eastern and southern Africa. Both series feature full animation, sound effects and dialogue in English as well as several other languages. Developed initially in Bangladesh, MEENA was planned as a multimedia initiative that includes comic books, posters, stickers and flip charts. Radio versions of both series were also produced. MEENA and SARA were successful when broadcast, and probably continue today due to the long shelf life of animated stories.

MAXIMO THE TALKING TOUCAN

In Ecuador, a toucan named Maximo was designed and animated as a spokesperson and mascot for a country-wide vaccination campaign. His popularity led to Maximo taking on other health issues and promoting them throughout the country. His image was widely seen on Ecuadorian television and in print forms for many years.

ANIMATION TRAINING

The heads of Disney Feature Animation and Warner Brothers Animation offered to hold training workshops for young animators from various regions. Disney sent 6 animators to Jamaica to train a group of Caribbean and African artists (the first workshop of its kind in the region), and both studios hosted several young artists for a training course in California.

PLAZA SESAMO

Also in the 90s, UNICEF joined Televisa, Mexico’s national broadcaster and Sesame Workshop in the United States to produce a Spanish language adaptation of the world famous child development television series, Sesame Street. The content guidelines were developed during a week-long workshop in Mexico with the participation of national and international child development experts. The series, more than 30 half-hour shows, tackled both cognitive and effective themes appropriate for preschoolers.

PROMOTIONAL OUTREACH

Media outreach also includes the promotion of organizational values through participation in international summits, film festivals and other events. For example each year, UNICEF sponsored prizes at Pre Jeunnes Children's Film Festival in Munich, Annecy Animation Festival in France (where Peter Ustinov gave the UNICEF Prize), RAI Animated Film Festival in Italy, International Emmy ICDB prize, YLE Finnish TV children’s programme competition, Indianapolis Children’s Museum film festival, and the NHK Japan Prize. These prizes were given to programmes of quality that best supported children’s rights.

UNICEF also participated in many of the World Summit on Media for Children events. The first summit was held in the early 90s in Australia, followed by the United Kingdom, Greece, South Africa and Brazil. The summits were devoted to the right of children and teens to quality media products. At the Brazil conference four country offices organized a panel on children’s participation in the media. Young people from their respective countries presented their shows that were relevant to them and their country.


VOICES OF YOUTH

As the 90s wrapped up, UNICEF continued mining a rich stream of partnerships with mass media. But now the time had come to move into the computer age with the Voices of Youth website. The site provided young people around the globe with an opportunity to explore, discuss and take action on complex human rights and development issues. Through ongoing electronic discussions, interactive quizzes, youth activist profiles, photo essays, live chats and more, the site provided young people with the chance to confront and grapple with important issues such as HIV/AIDS, gender inequality, child rights, girls’ education and protecting children against violence, abuse and exploitation. The site continues on today.

With the growth of the Internet and changes in the broadcast landscape, UNICEF continues to face much of the same communication challenges today — that is to devise new strategies that will attract and inform audiences of the twenty-first century.

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