Public Information and Outreach (PIO) Monitoring Report

The Public Information and Outreach (PIO) Monitoring Report is compiled quarterly by the Public Information and Outreach Team of the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok. The report consists of figures related to social media, website, apps and online events as well as lists of new articles, interviews, publications, videos, group visits and events.  

The third quarter of the year saw PIO advocating heritage preservation in the host country, with the production of new features on award-winning achievements in the Thai capital. A PIO video on the historic Devavesm palace complex continued to prove especially popular with the public. Opinion editorials and blog posts advanced themes of inclusion, qualifications recognition, and an ‘open architecture’ in higher education; the importance of disability-inclusive data for more equitable school systems; reimagining South-East Asia’s development towards inclusion and equity; and the indispensable benefits of integrating first, ‘mother-tongue languages’ in school curricula for advancing learning within multilingual communities. An additional form of public outreach saw a dynamic uptick, as PIO welcomed 14 visits to the Bangkok Office of secondary and university students and faculty, as well as others from China, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand.

The numbers are in: PIO’s launch in late March of an intermittent series of video ‘field reports’, with Demystifying Ancient Ayutthaya, has proven fruitful. The piece has attained a reach of over 40,000 on Facebook, and nearly 900 views on YouTube during the second quarter, reinforcing our Office’s social media outreach. Opinion editorials published in the second quarter featured compelling advocacy on flexible learning pathways; open architecture for learning and employment; digital transformation of education; and the threat to learner’s right to education posed by climate change, supplemented by an interview on lifelong learning. The Office was represented in an exhibition booth for UNESCAP’s 79th Commission session in May, while PIO has been accelerating its transitioning of field office content to a new website under the umbrella of UNESCO Headquarters.

Our advocacy and public outreach in the first quarter of 2023 featured the merits of ‘well-calibrated’ micro-credentials in regional education systems; the societal and economic merits of Thailand’s support of women in sports published for International Women's Day; and field reports on the inaugural Conservation Carpentry Fair in Thailand and multifaceted insights into two important temples of Ayutthaya. Both reports were published in English on outside media and in Thai on our website, as part of a greater effort to make our regional work accessible to audiences in our host country. For International Mother Language Day, we published a piece on the transformative benefits of multilingual education in the post-pandemic recovery era and launched a social media campaign with voices of indigenous young people participating in IQE, SHS and CI projects.

In keeping with UN reform urging greater public engagement and advocacy by all agencies, UNESCO Bangkok closed out 2022 advocating for important issues in our region, including heritage preservation and intangible cultural heritage; social and emotional learning in early schooling; and regional cooperation for transforming higher education. In stimulating blog posts and interviews, colleagues also shared urgent perspectives on the importance of STEM education in the region; the need to combat gender-based violence in schools; and the fundamental right to choose one’s gender identity without fear of bullying or other marginalization. The year closed out with the announcement of two exciting new initiatives, one enhancing cross-sector dialogue on the arts in PDR Laos, and the other advancing the education of migrant children fleeing violence along the Thai-Myanmar border.

The third quarter of 2022 saw the Bangkok Office energetically reporting to the public on the diverse outcomes of the 2nd Asia-Pacific Regional Education Minister’s Conference (APREMC-II), and its culminating Bangkok Statement 2022, in the lead-up to the Transforming Education Summit (TES) of the UN’s 77th General Assembly in New York. Also in early September, UNESCO Bangkok participated in the 2022 Global South-South Development Expo, hosting a roundtable Thematic Solutions Forum on education recovery and transformation in Asia-Pacific, with public outreach and advocacy promoted on site for all Bangkok Office units. Micro-credentials and a harmonised higher education space in Asia and the Pacific, as well as initiatives in heritage management and indigenous youth and languages were advocated, as the Office warmly welcomed new unit chiefs Feng Jing (Culture) and Joe Hironaka (Communication and Information).

The second quarter of 2022 commenced with strong efforts by PIO at public advocacy, first on music as a means for promoting peace in an interview with the acclaimed Indonesian jazz pianist and composer Joey Alexander, which UNESCO Bangkok published on its website in celebration of International Jazz Day in late April. Moving on to championing a free press for ensuring a society’s right to information, the Bangkok office published for World Press Freedom Day in early May a powerful op-ed in the Bangkok Post on the need for greater public awareness of a digital media ecosystem that enables both freedom of expression and the rapid dissemination of disinformation simultaneously. By late month, all energies were focused on the ‘Asia-Pacific Regional Education Minister’s Conference II’ (APREMC-II), as PIO mounted in early June an intensive social media campaign and press conference on the critical importance of education recovery and transformation in the post-COVID-19 period.

During the first quarter of 2022, five advocacy articles by colleagues were published by regional media outlets. Topics discussed included the necessity to reduce education disparities in pursuit of SDG 4 of the UN 2030 Agenda; the critical importance of women’s participation in regional ocean science and environmental recovery; the notable strides in learning made possible by the integration of mother-languages in school curricula; the importance of developing quality online content and pedagogy in higher education; and the potential in youth-led radio programming for challenging regional gender biases. UNESCO Bangkok also celebrated the completion of the first phase of an ongoing programme with Microsoft Thailand on upskilling the digital capacities of Thai workers, just as a call was sent out for nominations to the 2022 Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

The last quarter of 2021 kicked off with the publication of three op-eds addressing student’s safe return to schools, youth participation in the COVID-19 recovery, and critical challenges facing women and girls in Afghanistan. The uptick in advocacy continued with additional media pieces on Southeast Asia’s independent creative sector, cyberbullying, and tolerance for achieving ‘positive peace’ in Asia-Pacific. A popular Together for Peace Silent Manga Exhibition at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre explored silent manga as a tool for showcasing different aspects of peace. Silent Manga Teacher’s Companion proposing fun activities in classrooms will be widely distributed and translated by ASPnet schools. Closing out the quarter, the ‘UN Ocean Decade’ initiative in Asia-Pacific was launched and this year’s UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation were announced.

During the third quarter of 2021, PIO renewed its efforts to expand UNESCO Bangkok’s programme advocacy and public outreach by forging new relationships with op-ed and features editors of regional English-language media, such as the Bangkok Post, the Nation, Thai Enquirer, and Thai PBS World. Major overseas outlets were also cultivated, such as Nikkei Asia (Tokyo) and the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong SAR of China). A UNESCO Bangkok webinar on illicit trafficking of cultural objects in July resulted in the office’s figuring in a major feature in the global journal Art Review (London). Additionally, the South China Morning Post published a SHS op-ed on Youth and COVID-19. PIO also launched new infographics in September for the Together for Peace (T4P) initiative, while enhancing the T4P website page, where weekly posts will now feature ‘positive peace’ text boxes.

The second quarter of 2021 saw continued expansion of the Together for Peace (T4P) initiative with a series of working group discussions. Planning for a physical ‘Silent Manga’ exhibition in October (subject to COVID-19 developments) at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) is underway, while its repository has been made available online as a soft launch, together with a special online panel discussion event in May entitled “‘Manga for a Cause”. A feature story co-written by our Director and a resident UN coordinator on the successful and expanding ‘Learning Coin Project’ was published by the Bangkok Post in mid-April. In addition, the Post published an op-ed by our Director, on the critical importance of preserving at-risk local and indigenous languages.

At the end of the first quarter 2021, Public Information and Outreach worked closely with all programme units to help to launch the Together for Peace Regional Meeting, convening education policymakers and stakeholders from across the Asia-Pacific. Communications outreach and advocacy included articles in policy and science news platforms ahead of the event, social media coverage, multimedia presentations, and editorial support for the event and to pave the way forward for the initiative. Over the course of the quarter, PIO also continued to amplify national and regional initiatives in traditional and digital media, for example organizing coordinated advocacy for International Mother Language Day, International Women’s Day and World Water Day. As a member of the UN Communications Team, PIO contributed to UN Thailand joint efforts with an ongoing focus on COVID-19 resilience.

In the final quarter of 2020, Public Information and Outreach focused on an extensive communications campaign in support of the flagship “Together for Peace” initiative organized by UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Asia and the Pacific, building positive peace in the region through human rights and education. Key communications projects included contributing to the Director’s op-ed published in The Bangkok Post launching the initiative after a meeting with National Commissions in late September. The campaign was also complemented by multimedia and print materials raising awareness of positive peace among Member States and members of civil society. In addition, the Office continued to focus on UNESCO’s efforts amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the UN-wide priorities to build back better and in education to build back equal, including op-eds and news features highlighting relevant efforts published in major regional news platforms, reinforced by a comprehensive social media campaign.

At the end of the third quarter, UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Asia and the Pacific launched the Together for Peace (T4P) initiative in a form of a webinar, taking into context the continuing COVID-19 situation. National Commissions from across the region as well as national education leaders and partners participated in the meeting and discussed how UNESCO could further work towards the region’s positive peace– not just the absence of violence, but the presence of justice and equality in our societies. Articles published in traditional media continued to focus on the challenges posed by the pandemic, and innovative solutions, particularly in the fields of education and the culture and creative industries, including an article published both in English and Thai-language platforms as part of PIO’s efforts to reach a broader section of the general public.

As Thailand successfully flattened the COVID-19 curve in the second quarter of 2020, Public Information and Outreach continued to work closely with Sections on advocacy and to raise awareness about UNESCO’s work in the region to address the pandemic. In particular, the team conducted a training with colleagues on best practices for webinars, the first of a series of sessions to strengthen communications via teleconferencing and with physical distancing. PIO has also worked closely with other UN agencies and the UN Country Team to reinforce One UN goals. On social media, reach and impressions have numbered in the tens and hundreds of thousands in campaigns such as the COVID-19 impact on cultural industries; press freedom, disinformation and media literacy; and #LearningNeverStops.

Towards the end of the first quarter of 2020, Public Information and Outreach joined the rest of the Office in taking responsible measures to help to contain the spread of COVID-19 by shifting all staff to telecommuting and voluntary self-isolation. At the same time, communications efforts launched into high gear to reach out to constituents by focusing on traditional and social media messaging to provide resources and support, particularly to vulnerable communities hit hardest by the social and economic disruption. This outreach included interviewing partners and colleagues about professional and personal impacts as well as interactive social media posts encouraging youth in particular to express their concerns and areas of strength. Prior to the full outbreak of the pandemic, UNESCO Bangkok staff wrote nine articles published in regional news platforms, the highest number for a three-month period to date.