Photo credit: UNIDO
Hosted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in its Austrian premises, the Global Environment Facility’s third Agencies Communications Retreat brought together over 30 participants representing UN agencies, multilateral development banks, and non-governmental organizations in Vienna from May 5-6, 2025.
The GEF is a family of funds for the environment. It is also a financial mechanism for six multilateral conventions that are implemented through technical cooperation activities by UNIDO and 17 other agencies.
Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, GEF CEO and Chairperson, addressed the retreat and reiterated the importance of communications as a strategic part of gathering increasing political support and strengthening win-win partnerships.
Within the discussions related to the GEF's ninth replenishment period, participants exchanged on an overall communication strategy, the implementation of the Communication and Visibility Policy, as well as on measurements, analytics, and reporting.
The retreat took into account suggestions related to a modular approach that would retain GEF core messages complemented by specific modules tailored to the specificities of each implementing agency. In UNIDO’s case, for example, greater emphasis could be placed on environment-related activities also being very conducive to sustainable economic and industrial development.
Furthermore, the presentation of the Project Communicators Network detailed an increased emphasis on reaching out to public and private stakeholders in countries with GEF-funded projects, and on more directly communicating both the human aspect as well as the overarching developmental aspect of these interventions, especially at the national level.
On its final day, the communications retreat virtually joined the GEF Agency Retreat in Washington, DC to share its initial recommendations.
Clearly, the need for more political communications was echoed on both continents and will be a stronger focus of upcoming communication activities, including for UNIDO.
Originally published by UNIDO.