By Cynthia Karena
Think of the United Nations and you think of those huge imposing meeting rooms where international delegates gather to talk about global peace and security. But the UN is more than just the Security Council, says Carmel Mulvany, head of its Works Program, which raises awareness about the UN's work on critical global matters.
The program is a multimedia communication organisation that encourages people to participate in a variety of philanthropic acts. UN Works has partnered with MTV, Showtime, the Discovery Channel, corporations, non-government organisations, production companies, educators and governments.
Ms Mulvany came up with the idea of the UN Works Program seven years ago. "Our goal is to connect people with the values and the ideals of the UN," she says. "The internet gives the freedom to do a great deal in terms of outreach, and to engage people around the world."
A former Melbourne teacher and ABC freelancer, Ms Mulvany joined the UN after being music entrepreneur Michael Edgley's go-to woman in New York. She started as a press officer covering Security Council and General Assembly meetings, and it struck her that the UN is about ordinary people as well as diplomats and delegates representing nations.
"The UN had great stories to tell but people were not aware of its work or how it was relevant to their lives," she says. "I realised there was a need to create a way for people to connect to the UN's mission and show what the UN's work is all about. If people don't know what it does and how it impacts on people's lives, how can they support it?
Ms Mulvany says the program uses the internet as a platform for people to tell their stories. "We want to engage people with the ideals of the UN by putting a human face on the big issues and the UN's work such as climate change, human rights, poverty and health."
UN Works helps organisations create and distribute multimedia content such as online, broadcast and materials for use in the classroom. "We tap into our partners' global reach, programming expertise and appeal to key demographics," Ms Mulvany says.
MTV, for example, reaches the youth market. In late 2006 MTV followed hip-hop musician Jay-Z, who is also a celebrity spokesman on water and sanitation, on his world tour. MTV filmed him at each tour stop and footage was uploaded on to the UN Works website. The UN provided web content on water and sanitation conditions in each country on the tour. Jay-Z uploaded his photos and diary of thoughts and observations about the water crisis in the places he visited. People could also send him emails.
"There was huge press coverage," says Ms Mulvany. "The site got more traffic than any other MTV site. In the first month there were more than 2 million dedicated users who followed Jay-Z's travels and what he discovered about the world's water and sanitation crisis."
The UN Works website has links to Jay-Z and other UN Works projects. "The idea is for people to go to the website and get involved, join an advocacy group or start up their own," says Ms Mulvany. People can email how they created or got involved in a project. Some of their stories are put on the site.
"The digital platform is such a powerful tool to connect people around the world and gives them a way to get involved and support the UN's issues," she says. "What moves me is people's responses when you give them a chance to get involved.
"For example, a teacher of 200 sixth-graders in Kansas City said her students created their own public service announcements and (we) posted them on the website. At a Bronx school, disadvantaged students collected money from cake drives as a result of seeing the Jay-Z documentary," she says.
"People are hungry to get involved. They want to make a difference. You can inspire people to take action when you move them and give them opportunities. We provide opportunities for people not just to learn about what the UN is doing, but to act. We show problems and how solutions change people's lives."
Plans for future actions include working with the American VH1 cable channel, which is part of MTV Networks, to produce a series in which celebrities explore topics in the style of Jay-Z's journey. UN and MTV websites will be used for viewers to contribute their own time, ideas or money, or to create their own projects.
Ms Mulvany is talking with Melbourne's International Portable Film Festival about screening video clips about the UN Millennium Development Goals to decrease global poverty and disease.
Videos will be made and uploaded to the festival website.