PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION POLICY REVISITED

UNCLAS PARIS FR 001500

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: UNESCO AORC SCUL
SUBJECT: PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION POLICY REVISITED

REF: PARIS FR 1340


1. Summary. UNESCO briefed member states on July 16 on its new
publications policy. The Director of UNESCO's Bureau of Public
Information, Nino Munoz Gomez (BPI),explained to member states the
measures taken to ensure the quality of UNESCO's publications. He
met some considerable skepticism, most notably from the UK
Delegation which questioned why the number of UNESCO publications
had increased from 20-30 in 1974 to a planned 760 in the current
biennium. End Summary.


2. UNESCO's Director General Matsuura (DG) published a directive on
June 25 promulgating a new publication and distribution policy. The
DG's move was a response to the uproar at the spring 2008 Executive
Board over an External Auditor's report that asserted UNESCO had no
meaningful publications policy and no quality control mechanism for
ensuring its publications were up to standard. Member states were
universally upset that the organization appeared to be wasting
scarce resources on valueless publications.


3. An information meeting was held at UNESCO on July 16, 2008 to
discuss the new Publication and Distribution Policy. Nino Munoz
Gomez, Director of UNESCO's Bureau of Public Information, chaired
the meeting, accompanied by Mr. Ian Denison of the Publications
Unit, and Philipp Muller Wirth of the Promotion, Partnership and
Branding Unit.


4. Munoz Gomez started by describing publications as being at the
heart of UNESCO's mandate to share information. He said that BPI
had made great efforts to review and correct their methodology, to
improve their ability to deliver information, and to ensure that no
embarrassing situations take place in the future. (Note: This was
a reference to the External Auditor's report that UNESCO had burned
thousands of copies of a history of Latin America rather than go to
the trouble of moving them to a new warehouse. End Note.)


5. Munoz Gomez explained that a comprehensive Publication and
Distribution Plan will be put into effect, addressing UNESCO's
objectives, including: ensuring relevance to program priorities and
targeting readership, maintaining cost efficiency, improving
distribution strategies and determining expected impact, and
measuring and evaluating results.


6. While only a relatively small number of delegations were present,
(Lithuania, Japan, UK, South Africa, Morocco, Belgium, US, Mexico,
Senegal, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Sweden, Philippines),all were
pointed with questions to Munoz Gomez, letting him know that his
office would be closely watched in the coming months.


7. The UK representative, noting that in 1974, there were only 20-30
publications planned during the biennium, remarked that the external
auditor now expected some 1,500. Munoz Gomez replied that the
number had now dropped to 760, as financial resources had decreased.
Munoz Gomez said that one-half of the proposed publications were
linked the Education Sector, and that the other sectors each took
some 10-15 percent of the total. He also added that 70 percent of
the planned publications were in English.


8. On the issue of quality control, Munoz Gomez said that only the
experts in each sector can ensure quality control in the substance
of the works. In answer to questions about storage and destruction,
Munoz Gomez told the gathering that new print-on-demand technologies
and high-level accountability for destruction decisions would make
such episodes as that of the history books a thing of the past.
Several comments focused on the idea of better quality and lesser
numbers. The issue of non-European publishing contractors was also
raised, with specific reference to African contractors. There were
also some comments regarding the poor quality of translations.


9. Other delegations raised the issue of "free" publications, as
well as the possibility of distributing lists of publications and
ordering via internet to avoid unnecessarily large print runs,
particularly for use by delegations. Munoz Gomez answered by
saying that the sectors decide whether a publication is "free" or
not. He also said that it was not possible to compare previous
publication numbers from past biennium, as the definitions had
changed. On the subject of contractors, he said that he will be
working with field offices to increase calls for tender from India
and Africa.


10. Regarding evaluations, Munoz Gomez noted that carrying out these
kinds of studies was extremely expensive. Finally, in answer to a
question about the number of UNESCO books sold, Munoz Gomez said
that only some 50,000 copies of books were sold - a surprisingly low
number, and that the money went into a publication fund which is
used to offset the cost of publishing other books.


11. Comment: The effort to put into place a long-overdue change in
publication and distribution methodology and policy, will
undoubtedly take some time as UNESCO's publication machine tries to
re-invent itself for the future. At a minimum, the information
meeting served to calm the waters a bit, as many delegations
remained outraged over the book destruction fiasco last spring, as
evidenced by their comments during the last Executive Board. End

ENGELKEN