UNIC Caribbean 60th anniversary Memory Project

The 18th of January 2022 marked the 60th anniversary of the establishment of an Information Centre for the Caribbean Area. The United Nations Information Centre for the Caribbean Area (UNIC Caribbean) team saw this milestone as an opportunity to explore how this office has conceptualized and delivered on its mandate to communicate about the United Nations to Caribbean audiences, mobilising their meaningful participation in the organization’s development work in the region.

This UNIC’s story in the Caribbean spans six decades, which includes the collective and unique journeys of many of these countries and territories through colonial rule, independence and republican status; through times of turbulence and emergency, as well as prosperity and pride. The story of this Information Centre communicating about the United Nations in this region is undeniably intertwined with the region’s history, making it both fascinating and complex. To begin to understand UNIC Caribbean’s history, a Memory Project was conceived that would enlist the participation of an essential human resource fixture within the UNIC itself – the National Information Officer - to narrate the story. Mining the memories and experiences of former and current holders of this position, the Memory Project aimed to transport Caribbean audiences through time, to understand what a UNIC is, and how this UNIC has connected the work of the United Nations to regional audiences. The Project also invited them to use their unique perspectives to consider how the UNIC can best serve the Caribbean in the 21st century.

The position of National Information Officer at the UNIC in the Caribbean has been an institutional fixture for some three decades. Why would the perspective of those who hold and have held this position be considered a useful vantage point for navigating the past sixty years? Usually held by a locally based media practitioner or information professional, the National Information Officer is a contextual anchor for the Centre, orienting international staff to the region, as well as providing creative and strategic direction, guidance and coordination for the implementation of the Centre’s work programme. They use their contacts and relationships with the local media and other stakeholders to cultivate partnerships that support the work of the United Nations in the region. At various points in its existence over the past sixty years, six persons have held this critical role, offering potentially strategic ‘portals’ through which to understand the UNIC in the Caribbean over the past sixty years. The centrality of the role of National Information Officer to the operations, strategic and creative work of this UNIC, as well as the possible availability of several diverse perspectives via former National Information Officers, therefore made this a useful strategy around which to craft the Memory Project.

The UNIC team was fortunate enough to conduct video interviews with three former National Information Officers: Dianne Thurab-Nkosi, Ernesto ‘Che’ Rodriguez and Elizabeth Solomon. The current National Information Officer Amanda Laurence was also interviewed. These interviews revealed glimpses rich with detail and description into the evolution of the Centre and its operations, the different approaches taken by each Information Officer as well as the ways in which the socio-political and technological environments impacted the UNIC and its mandate.  

Interviewees worked the UNIC in the early 1990s, 2000s and from the mid-2000s up to the current year (2023). These conversations have unearthed experiences that have proven rich in diversity and historical value for this UNIC and its audiences. The ‘takeaways’ from these conversations also served to reconfirm that, sixty years after its establishment, this UNIC’s mandate and approach continues to be underpinned by a steadfast adherence to key values, namely:  

-an enduring commitment to facilitating access to and connection with the United Nations and its work to the people of the Caribbean;   

-collaboration with critical stakeholders like the media, civil society, youth, academia and the private sector, and building sustainable partnerships with them as a core strategy in the fulfilment of its mandate;

-fully utilizing the creativity and imagination of the UNIC team to design and produce resources and campaigns that respond to the unique information needs of Caribbean audiences. This has included harnessing the potential of technology and new social and sharing media tools to strengthen coverage and conversation with all 19 Caribbean countries and territories.

The United Nations Information Centre for the Caribbean Area is part of the Department of Global Communications’ network of Information Centres and Services that tell the story of and connect global audiences to, the United Nations. Through this 60th anniversary Memory Project, the people who have served and continue to serve as National Information Officers at this UNIC provided insight into the rich history of this Centre, its evolution, and its continued service to the Caribbean. The success of the Memory Project serves as a timely reminder of the unquestionable value of public information and strategic communication in support of the work of the United Nations in the Caribbean.