The UN Resident Coordinator’s Office (UNRCO) in India facilitates common platforms for the UN System to advocate on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Key elements of this work are:
The joint advocacy work plan is developed with inputs from and in consultation with the UN Thematic Clusters and UN Agencies/entities in India.
Mr. Patrice Coeur-Bizot addresses Honb’le Legislators of the Bihar Legislative Assembly on the occasion of the Bihar Poverty Reduction Summit, co-organised by the UN in India and the Bihar Legislative Assembly in November 2009.
On the dais (left-right) are Mr. Sushil Kumar Modi, Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister, Bihar; Mr. Uday Narayan Choudhary, Hon’ble Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly; Mr. Nitish Kumar, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Bihar; Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission; Dr. N C Saxena, Senior Consultant, UN and Mr. A B Siddiqui, Chairman Public Accounts Committee, Bihar Assembly
Policy advocacy with elected representatives
The UNRCO, on behalf of the UN in India has forged knowledge associations with the Parliament (under the aegis of the Parliamentary Fora) and six State Legislative Assemblies. Facilitating meetings and field visits, developing joint messages, presentations & resource material to ‘advocate as one’ are essential elements of this work. For more details, please visit
Policy Advocacy – National,
Policy Advocacy – State and
Products and Resources.
Asha Devi, Chairperson of the Bihar Legislative Committee for Women and Children on a visit to a school in Tamil Nadu to observe Activity Based Learning
Advocacy with the media on the MDGs
i) Print and electronic news media
Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Award Winner at a workshop for district and state media at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
ii) Entertainment media
The UNRCO also facilitates partnerships with media networks. An example is UN’s partnership with Endemol India to produce a music reality show on the MDGs, Mission Ustaad. The 21 episode show had celebrity judges Mr. A R Rahman, Ms. Lara Dutta and Mr. Javed Akhtar critiquing songs on the themes of the MDGs sung by well known singers from the Hindi film industry.
iii) Community radio
The Office of the Resident Coordinator has coordinated efforts of UN Agencies in support of the Government of India’s policy on community radio.
In order for the UN to ‘advocate as one’, the UNRCO facilitates the development of common messages, issue briefs, fact sheets and analysis of Parliament and Legislative Sessions
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