By Detlef Palm
My phone jammed because of a Tsunami of emails. About malnutrition in India, caused by poor sanitation, caused by inept UNICEF experts, or perhaps not, and wrong government policies, or perhaps good policies and corrupt officials, or perhaps by non-existent communication strategies. A spiral ensued, culminating in a real shit-storm, in all its senses, on the XUNICEF email network.
Heated email exchanges can be enlightening, even amusing, and many of us feel with the pundits, enraged that nobody is listening. Others get bothered, and leave the network for good. These are intended and unintended consequences of our individual communication habits. It would be much better, if we would discuss things on the XUNICEF blog, instead of copying all members all the time.
In one of his recent comments, Vinod Alkari rightly cautioned against bashing of governments, and bashing of UNICEF. Think about the global or local responses to Covid. In hindsight, many decisions taken by governments in March seem inadequate or even foolish; but they were the best decisions anyone could have taken given the knowledge and public perceptions that were available then.
We, the retirees, are first and foremost interested and hopefully better informed citizens. We are highly qualified to observe and comment on what UNICEF does, or governments do. We are privileged in that we live outside the bubble. Our judgment is rooted in reality.
We don’t have to wait to be invited by a UNICEF office, or government department, to share our wisdom. We read the global or national UNICEF websites from the perspective of a citizen. We could write to a country office and tell them what we like, or do not like. Our staff need this feedback. Praise makes them proud and critique makes them stronger. We can be the sounding board.
Do you find the UNICEF websites are not telling you much? Try out the Transparency Portal, where you see the monies allocated to countries and results, and the money actually spent. All Country Office Annual Reports and evaluations are there. If you find some reports, including financial information on the Portal very strange (as I do), write to them (as I did). We can help the organization to get things straight – as citizens that follow the twists and turns of our beloved UNICEF.
All important policy papers are open to the public, including those eyeballed by the Executive Board. Boring? Perhaps. But nobody said that changing the world is easy.
Most importantly of all, we need to take part in the public discourse. What India needs, is a real Shit-storm – a wave of widespread and vociferous public outrage against the continuing sanitary conditions in which so many children are growing up. And we can contribute.
Heated email exchanges can be enlightening, even amusing, and many of us feel with the pundits, enraged that nobody is listening. Others get bothered, and leave the network for good. These are intended and unintended consequences of our individual communication habits. It would be much better, if we would discuss things on the XUNICEF blog, instead of copying all members all the time.
In one of his recent comments, Vinod Alkari rightly cautioned against bashing of governments, and bashing of UNICEF. Think about the global or local responses to Covid. In hindsight, many decisions taken by governments in March seem inadequate or even foolish; but they were the best decisions anyone could have taken given the knowledge and public perceptions that were available then.
We, the retirees, are first and foremost interested and hopefully better informed citizens. We are highly qualified to observe and comment on what UNICEF does, or governments do. We are privileged in that we live outside the bubble. Our judgment is rooted in reality.
We don’t have to wait to be invited by a UNICEF office, or government department, to share our wisdom. We read the global or national UNICEF websites from the perspective of a citizen. We could write to a country office and tell them what we like, or do not like. Our staff need this feedback. Praise makes them proud and critique makes them stronger. We can be the sounding board.
Do you find the UNICEF websites are not telling you much? Try out the Transparency Portal, where you see the monies allocated to countries and results, and the money actually spent. All Country Office Annual Reports and evaluations are there. If you find some reports, including financial information on the Portal very strange (as I do), write to them (as I did). We can help the organization to get things straight – as citizens that follow the twists and turns of our beloved UNICEF.
All important policy papers are open to the public, including those eyeballed by the Executive Board. Boring? Perhaps. But nobody said that changing the world is easy.
Most importantly of all, we need to take part in the public discourse. What India needs, is a real Shit-storm – a wave of widespread and vociferous public outrage against the continuing sanitary conditions in which so many children are growing up. And we can contribute.
Detlef—this is a great piece. I’m eagerly waiting for the pundits’ reactions!
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