By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 12 --
The UN said
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon along
with UN
Population
Fund head
Babatunde
Osotimehi
would hold a
press
conference on
February 12.
But after Ban
read a
statement, and
the UN Press
Briefing Room
broke into
applause, Ban
left without
taking any
questions.
Nevertheless,
United
Nations
Correspondents
Association president
Pamela Falk of
CBS said,
Thank you Mr
Secretary
General -- even
though he'd
already left
without taking
questions.
(This stands
in contrast to
a lengthy but
still
partially
withheld
spoon-feeding
session Ban
held with board
members of this
UN
Censorship
Alliance
on February
11, click
here for that.)
Inner City Press
on behalf of
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access thanked
Babatunde
Osotimehi for
staying and
taking
questions,
then asked him
about
statistics and
what UNFPA
thinks the US
Affordable
Care Act
should cover.
There is
another UNFPA
question Inner
City Press is
working on,
but that will
be another
story.
Babatunde
Osotimehi said
he would be
cautious on
the second
question -- he
said without
regard to any
country that
there should
be a social
floor for
health care --
and on
statistics,
said that
UNFPA is a
leader on
birth and death
data, and
works now with
the World Bank,
as well as
UNICEF.
At
UNICEF on
January 28,
two days
before
UNICEF's State
of the World's
Children
report is to
be released,
four data
experts or
self-described
geeks used
slides and
regression to
prepare the
press to cover
the report.
The report is
still under
embargo but it
is no secret
that like many
other UN
reports it
contains lines
of dashes,
data not
available, for
countries
which either
do not report
or won't let
the UN in.
Inner
City Press
asked the
UNICEF quartet
about these
dashes, and
also how they
take into
account that
data which
countries
self-report
might be
cooked to make
the country's
governance
look better.
UNICEF
senior adviser
Attila
Hancioglu, to
his credit,
acknowledged
that there are
countries
which are
resisting
transparency
and in which
UNICEF has
stopped doing
Multi
Indicator
Cluster
Surveys or
MICS. Inner
City Press
asked how many
countries
these might
be. Hancioglu
wouldn't put a
number on it,
but did
mention one
Central Asian
country as
particularly
problematic.
The
Statistics
chief of
UNICEF, Tessa
Wardlay, also
acknowledged
that
government's
statistics
"may be
subject to
political
bias," and
said that's
why UNICEF
does "data
quality
checks."
So the
focus was on
how credible
the data are,
or are made by
UNICEF. Holly
Newby said of
75 data points
on stunting,
for example,
UNICEF deemed
only 70% of
them
acceptable.
The rest may
have been good
enough for use
in-country,
but not for
UNICEF.
The
data can be
mapped using
Google Earth;
it is compiled
under
"DevInfo," a
platform that
UNICEF
proposed to
the rest of
the UN system
ten years ago,
Claes
Johannson
said. Even
when it is
proposed, such
as on the
banning of
royals or
those holding
or seeking
office from
being goodwill
ambassadors,
UN agencies
are not
consistent.
UNICEF
for example
seeks to
retain a
royal, Queen
Rania, as in
essence a
goodwill
ambassador
even if the draft
proposal
on which Inner
City Press exclusively
reported
is adopted by
the UN system.
The proposal
is that "the
designation of
immediate
family members
of individuals
holding or
running for
political
office, as
well as
members of
Royal
Households, is
discouraged to
avoid the
appearance of
vested
interest."
UNICEF's Kate
Donovan told
Inner City
Press:
"Her
Majesty Queen
Rania Al
Abdullah of
Jordan was
appointed in a
unique role as
the first ever
UNICEF Eminent
Advocate for
Children in
January,
2007.
She is a
passionate and
outspoken
advocate for
the world’s
children.
UNICEF is
grateful for
the support,
especially Her
Majesty’s
tireless
efforts to
promote girls’
education and
empowerment.
The updated
guidelines,
upon approval,
will apply to
future
appointments,
and UNICEF
will adhere to
them....She
will remain,
and we will
respect the
new
guidelines."
So, each part
of the UN can
go its own
way: sauve
qui peut, some
might call it.
Watch
this site.
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