UNDP Office of Communications

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Reaching the Outside World

UNDP Web Presence

People worldwide turn to the Internet as their first source of information. The web can be a cost-effective way of reaching millions of viewers through the click of a mouse. It involves none of the expense and cumbersome physical transport of traditional printed publications, and its reach is more extensive than television and radio. The Internet, however, is also a massive, jumbled freeway of information. Getting people to your site and then convincing them to return is a challenge. The best sites are easy to navigate and present up-to-date information useful to target audiences.

One common mistake is to consider websites as a pure technical product. This is in fact a great misconception. The people responsible for taking care of our websites should be our communications professionals. IT personnel can help with the technical aspect of the web (implementing templates; helping with the design; making uploads) but a website needs to be as carefully branded, worded, targeted and packaged as a magazine or a television programme.

UNDP has several website communication vehicles: the corporate (global) UNDP website, regional pages (e.g. Africa, Arab States) and Country Office websites, and websites devoted to specific themes, such as UNDP’s Growing Inclusive Markets project - Creating Value for All: Strategies for Doing Business with the Poor, and the MDG Monitor.  In special circumstances when UNDP Country Offices are unable to maintain their websites, the Web Communications team in New York can assist with updates.

Click the links below for:

General:

Country Office Websites:

Liaison Office Websites:

UNDP Websites
UNDP has an obligation to ensure that its websites are available to as many people as possible, easy to navigate, and contain up-to-date content, design and technology. Graphics and layout should be strong and clear, designed primarily to help people reach information. A general rule is that nothing should be more than three mouse clicks away—after that, people give up and look elsewhere. Since people tend to scan instead of reading websites, blocks of text should be short and mixed with other styles, such as lists.

While high-tech bells and whistles can seem fun when constructing a site, they can crowd the screen, making it hard to find essential information. They may also require longer download times, which is particularly problematic in some programme countries with limited bandwidth.

The new look for the UNDP homepage. (Beta as of 20/01/2011)
The new look for the UNDP homepage. (Beta as of 20/01/2011)

Websites should accommodate multiple versions of different Internet browsers and should feature a good search engine to help people navigate within the website. Outside the website, a high ranking on search engine such as Google will draw new people in. See Seven Key Factors in Search Engine Optimization to learn more.

While writing for the Web is significantly different from writing for print products, the UNDP Style Manual is applicable for both and should be a source for reference in your work.

Launching a website is only the beginning. You need to routinely maintain it. Information that remains around too long seems stale. Certain pieces should remain constant—such as corporate information about UNDP. If you have limited resources, try at least to regularly refresh the front page, even with short news stories, announcements or new photographs. You can benefit from new information on partners’ websites by including prominent links to them.

Before you establish a website, be clear about whom you want to reach and what you expect the site to accomplish. Monitor the website to see which parts receive the most hits and, if needed, retool accordingly.

See also How to Develop an Effective External UNDP Website, the external Web templates and UNICEF’s Web Writing Guidelines. For more information please contact the Internal and Online Communications in New York.

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Web Accessibility for Users with Disabilities
Web accessibility (or W3C accessibility) is the internationally-accepted practice of creating websites for people of all abilities and disabilities; to learn more please see the Web Accessibility Initiative and the United Nations Guidelines for the Accessibility of Facilities and Services. When these websites are properly designed, developed and edited, all users, including people with visual, mobility and auditory impairments will have equal access to information and functionality.

Creating accessible websites is beneficial in the following ways:

If you have any questions on web accessibility at UNDP please contact the UNDP Internal and Online Communications team at UNDP Headquarters from the addresses listed below.

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Web Communications Team Focal Points
The Internal and Online Communications focal points at UNDP Headquarters for each region are as follows:

Asia & the Pacific, Arab States (except Algeria, Djibouti, Morocco, PAPP, Somalia, Tunisia): (Ms.) Yuan-Kwan Chan, yuan-kwan.chan@undp.org

Africa, Algeria, Djibouti, Morocco, PAPP, Somalia, Tunisia: TBA, oc-webteam@undp.org

Latin America & the Caribbean: (Ms.) Carolina Ramirez, carolina.ramirez@undp.org

Europe & CIS: TBA, oc-webteam@undp.org

Chief, Web & Multimedia: (Mr.) Mark Cardwell, mark.cardwell@undp.org

Please feel free to contact the above UNDP communications focal points (or write to oc-webteam@undp.org) if you have any queries related to the development of your Country Office website.

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Guidelines for Country Office Websites
UNDP’s Country Office websites are the main showcase of the organization’s activities on the ground. As such, they are the most visible medium through which UNDP’s partners and stakeholders, including the general public, learn about the organization’s activities around the world. Thus, it is essential that Country Office websites remain up-to-date at all times, striking a careful balance between providing information about UNDP corporate and country-specific programmes and activities.

The new look for a UNDP country office website. (Beta as of 20/01/2011)
The new look for a UNDP country office website. (Beta as of 20/01/2011)

Country Office websites serve the following purposes:

It is very important to ensure that the content of your website is top notch as websites have become the first source of information to users.  Featuring success stories such as those on the UNDP India website serve to communicate to donors and stakeholders how UNDP expends its resources. The Web Communications team is ready to assist you in improving the editorial content of your websites, which will also help you strengthen your scores on the Balanced Scorecard evaluations.

For instance, when writing about the Millennium Development Goals, many Country Office websites fall under one of two extremes: in the first case, they highlight the generic information that is on the UNDP corporate website (how the MDGs were agreed on in 2000; what the eight goals are), but fail to include information on MDG progress at the local level; the other extreme consists of talking about the MDGs without providing any of the background information. Some sites do not spell out “MDG”, assuming that our audience knows what the acronym stands for, and provide news items, statistics and indicators without a basic explanation of what the goals are.

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Country Office Website Branding
Country Offices should use the web templates provided on the UNDP corporate template page to create their external websites. Consistency in the look and feel of UNDP websites at the corporate, regional, and Country Office level are crucial to maintaining the UNDP brand. The elements that are essential to the organization’s corporate branding include:

UNDP Country Offices are permitted to use their own images and choose the number of columns they wish to display on their sites (two or three column-templates are considered the most appropriate).

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Country Office Website Indicators and Balanced Scorecard Evaluations
The Internal and Online Communications team at UNDP Headquarters evaluates Country Office websites on a rolling basis. The intention behind this exercise is to support Country Offices in building websites that fulfill minimum corporate editorial requirements and not to penalize them. The evaluation sheet for all Country Offices, complete with a breakdown of the indicators per corporate criteria, can be found here.

Around mid-February of each year, website scores are finalized in the evaluation of each Country Office as seen on UNDP's Balanced Scorecard; at all other times of the year, scores may change, but only when the Scorecard closes are scores on permanent record. Therefore, it is strongly advised that offices engage with staff from the Internal and Online Communications team in New York on questions early in the process and allow enough time for suggested revisions. UNDP's Internal and Online Communications team evaluates the indicator in the Scorecard for each Country Office website.

The Balanced Scorecard uses colour indicators for score ranges: 0-5 are considered red in the balanced scorecard; 6-7 yellow; and 8-10 green. A bonus point can be awarded for creativity, clarity, and innovation for the offices that have already obtained a 9 or a 10, pushing an office’s potential maximum score to 11. Country Offices awarded bonus points earn Cyberstar Awards, which were designed to encourage creativity and excellence among Country Office websites.

The Balanced Scorecard criteria correspond to specific outputs on UNDP's Strategic Plan. They are designed to help each office focus on the Web content that our partners and audience must know about.

UNDP Balanced Scorecard Website Indicators:


Branding (1 point)
Sites must have a visible link to UNDP’s corporate website.

Scoring

0 points

1 point

The logo is missing from one or more pages or documents.

The logo is on all pages and documents.

 

Alignment with corporate practices/strategic plan.

  • Site offers recent (updated in past six months) programme, project and other substantive content in each of at least three focus areas.  These focus areas are:

    • Democratic Governance

    • Crisis Prevention & Recovery

    • HIV/AIDS

    • Environment & Energy

    • Poverty Reduction

  • All practice area pages must be included in the site’s main navigation.

  • On each practice area page, all related site content – projects, press releases/articles/multimedia, etc. – should be available.  (For example, all related to Democratic Governance can be accessed by clicking on a "Democratic Governance" link in the navigation.)  These links can appear in different parts of the site, but they must also be included on these.

Scoring

0 points

1 point

2 points

The site has information on less than 3 focus areas.

The focus areas are accessible through the main navigation.
The site has information on at least 3 focus areas but:

  • The news items are older than 6 months and/or don’t show on the same page, or there is no news;

  • There are no links to projects related to the focus area on the focus area page

 

  • The focus areas are accessible through the main navigation;

  • The site has information on at least 3 focus areas;

  • Each focus area has at least 3 news stories from the last 6 months;

  • Each focus area has links to the projects related to the focus area.

Note: in some cases, the name of the focus area is different from the ones listed above. The reasons for this vary, so please check with a member of the Web team before proceeding with scoring.

  

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

 

  • The MDGs section must provide examples of how UNDP promotes progress toward the goals.  Current progress of each goal at the country level must be extracted from the report.

  • The MDGs section must be included in the site’s main navigation.

  • The section must include at least three recent (updated in the past six months) press releases or UNDP-generated news stories on the MDGs in the country.

  • All national MDG Reports produced appear on the site. 

Scoring

0 points

1 point

2 points

No information on the MDGs or the MDG section is so hidden that it cannot be easily found on the site.

There is some general information on the MDGs but:

  • A link to the latest  country MDG report is missing;

  • There are less than 3 news items related to the MDG from the last 6 months.

 

  • There is  general information on the MDGs;

  • There is information on the progress made at the country level  for each goal (this information should be extracted from the most recent country MDG report);

  • There are at least 3 news items from the last 6 months related to any of the MDGs (news items such as the ones related to poverty can appear on the Poverty section as well as the MDG since MDG 1 is poverty reduction, the same applies to any other news item that is related to any of the 8 goals).

Note:  MDG reports are not published every year, so the latest report could date back several years.

 

Transparency
For criteria 4 it is important that the URLs for all the required elements and information is documented with the Office of Communications. It is also important to have a quick check to ensure that the information can be found when browsing the site and that the page is actually linked somewhere on the site.
Scoring:

0 points

1 point

2 points

No transparency information appears on the site.

One or more of required  items is missing.

 

  • Every element listed in the Transparency requirements table appears on the site;

  • All financial information is from 2009.

Note : Some country office might be missing some documents because they are being approved, it is important to note that and the full points could be granted if it is outside the office control. This should be discussed with a member from the web team.

There are a few exceptions where waivers for specific checklist items were granted; for a list of countries that received waivers, go to http://intra.undp.org/transparency/. 

Transparency Requirements (Country Office Public Websites)


Country Office public websites should provide a clear account, to anyone who is interested, of:

 

  • why UNDP works in the country (legal authority as well as development objectives);

 

 

  • who are the decision-makers (both on the UNDP side, and amongst our partners) ;

 

 

  • where our money comes from and what we spend it on;

 

 

  • how we do business (including our internal rules and regulations as well as major procurement decisions); and

 

 

  • what we aim to accomplish (and how much we have accomplished so far).

 

In particular, each Country Office should work towards posting and maintaining the following on their public website:

Legal, programmatic and regulatory frameworks which provide the mandate and modalities for UNDP’s current work in the country, including:

 

  • Standard Basic Framework Agreement (SBBA)

 

 

  • Link to Common Country Assessment/ United Nations Development Assistance Framework (CCA/UNDAF) in final form, if applicable. Completed UNDAFs and CCAs are available on the UNDG website and on 3 Regional websites (Asia/Pacific;  Europe/CIS; Latin America/Caribbean)

 

 

 

 

  • Signed Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) and Annual Work Plan (AWP) or Country Programme Frameworks.

 

 

  • Joint Programme Project Documents.

 

 

  • Any current Letter of Agreement for the provision of Country Office support services

 

 

  • Any current management manual for technical co-operation projects

 

 

  • Most recent Resident Coordinator Annual Report

 

 

  • List of major sources of funding, including all sources that have provided $100,000 or more to support CO activities in the previous or current year.  For each major source, the total contribution in the previous year should be included.

 

 

  • Total programme delivery in previous year (most recent year for which the books have closed).

 

Projects:  All current/active projects should be listed on the site and the following information for each should be included:

 

  • Title and short (one-three sentences) blurb.  The blurb should describe, in layman’s terms, the development objectives, activities, and intended results of the project.

 

 

  • Project document (or reference to relevant CPAPs/AWPs)

 

 

  • Corporate thematic area (Democratic Governance, Poverty Reduction, Crisis Prevention & Recovery, Environment & Energy) with which the project is associated.  Noting relevant cross-cutting themes (such as women’s empowerment or human rights) is also encouraged.  

 

 

  • Status of the project (being developed, closed operationally, closed financially, suspended).  Country Offices are not required to list closed projects; if they are posted, they should be put in different section under a title such as “closed projects” or “previous projects.”

 

 

  • Location (region, province, city, etc)

 

 

  • Period of the project (date of beginning and expected end)

 

 

  • Name of UNDP Program Officer

 

 

  • Information about partners on the ground, including names of:

-National Executing Agency/Implementing Partner and National Project Director; or
- UN Executing Agency/Implementing Partner and Chief Technical Advisor; or
- Implementing NGO and its Project Manager. 

 

 

  • Additional available information (including press releases, related publications, etc)

 

 

  • Major sources of financing (including all sources providing more than $100,000)

 

 

  • Delivery in previous fiscal years (in other words, total delivery up through the most recent year for which UNDP’s financial books have closed).

 

Interim results and evaluation reports (where they exist)

 

Operations and Procurement:

 

  • Statement of total number of staff (100,200,300 series) working for UNDP in the country. 

 

 

  • List of all current consultants (SCs, SSAs) who will receive $30,000 or more from the CO over a 12 month period.  For each consultant, the total amount of compensation and/or compensation rate should be included. 

 

 

  • All procurement notices for contracts over $100,000, and a list of the vendors who have received those contracts.

 

 

 Search engine optimization and web analytics code

 

  • The <title> tags of all Web pages must be tailored to the specific content on the page for search engine visibility purposes.  When keywords such as “UNDP __country name___” are typed into Yahoo!, Google and similar search engines, the results appear at the top of the page.   Pages should not include duplicate <title> tags (for example, if “UNDP ___country name__” is used for every single page).

  • Search engine results should not include outdated pages or pages that are no longer intended to be online.

  • Site includes new Omniture corporate analytics code before the </body> tag of all pages.  Instructions on how to implement this code are available at http://intra.undp.org/coa/omniture/page-code-files/index.shtml

Scoring

0 points

1 point

One or more items from the above list is missing or incorrect.

 

  • HTML <title> tags are unique for each page on the site;

  • When doing a Google/Yahoo!/other search engine query for UNDP in the country, the site appears on the first results page;

  • The new Omniture code is customized as per the instructions and appears on all the pages of the web site before the </body> tag.

 

 United Nations partnership

 

  • The site must include background on how UNDP works to enable the work of the entire UN Country Team.

  • The site includes link to a UN country team page which describes the overall goals of the UN’s work in the country, as well as links to the Web sites of other UN agencies participating in the country team, if applicable.

Scoring

0 points

1 point

2 points

The site has no information on how UNDP works with the UN Country Team.

Only one of the items listed above appears on the site.

 

  • The site includes a description on HOW UNDP works with the UN country team;

  • There are links to all UN agencies participating in the country team, if applicable.

 


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Purpose of Liaison Office Websites

UNDP has Liaison Offices in Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. These offices represent the organization to governments, think-tanks, NGOs, academic, diplomatic and media communities in the countries where they are located. They serve to mobilize resources and support for the accomplishment of the MDGs and inform these communities about UNDP’s role, programmes and impact on the ground.

Like the corporate website, UNDP Liaison Office websites address diverse audiences, including both development specialists and the general public. Liaison Office websites should convey the relationship between UNDP the donor that they work with. They serve three main purposes:

Liaison Office websites are similar to UNDP donor-specific websites, since they focus on UNDP’s governmental and non-governmental partners in specific developed countries. However UNDP’s donor sites, such as The Netherlands and UNDP, France and UNDP or Spain and UNDP, do not necessarily need to be developed by a Liaison Office.

Although theoretically all Liaison Offices share the same purpose as centres for resource mobilization, advocacy and outreach, and information exchange, they have different functions and sets of priorities. For instance, the Washington, D.C. Office focuses on UNDP’s relationship with governmental and non-governmental partners in the United States. The Geneva Office fulfills a more diverse set of objectives, managing the relationship with France and Switzerland but also housing a number of substantive and programmatic units, some of which are directly linked to other units in New York. The Brussels Office manages relationships between European Union institutions and the UN at large. This poses some important challenges in terms of harmonising presentation and content among the different Liaison Office sites.

Liaison Office Website Content and Branding
Liaison Office websites should use the UNDP corporate template to ensure that they are recognizable as being part of UNDP. This also means that they should always link back to the homepage of www.undp.org so that donor communities can grasp “the big picture” by having quick access to all of the organization's web pages.

Please note that instead of replicating UNDP’s corporate messaging or news items on Liaison Office websites, the latter should link to the relevant information that is already on the UNDP corporate pages. Liaison Office websites are not a substitute for the UNDP corporate site, they should be considered as a subsection of the latter. If UNDP has an already established set of web pages on a particular theme, then any Liaison Office working on that particular theme should feed into, and link to that content for additional information, after explaining briefly what the office is doing on that specific theme.

It is important to note that Liaison Office sites should not be about an office per se. Headers and titles should reflect the relationship between UNDP and the donor countries with wording such as “UNDP and the United States” and “UNDP and Japan”.

In keeping with UNDP’s corporate priorities, all Liaison Office websites should start by addressing the needs of the public at-large. Web Managers in each Liaison Office should focus on providing information that is thematic, geographic and centred around the development achievements of UNDP as a single entity. Liaison Office sites should provide, visibly:

Since search engines scan web pages from the top to bottom, this information needs to be posted “above the fold” (with visible links at the top of the left-hand column and content high up on each page, including the index page) so that it becomes available to a wide public via search engines like Google and Yahoo!. Sites should use simple wording that emphasizes joint goals and achievements, highlighting themes such as aid effectiveness, United Nations reform and the achievement of MDG Goal 8.

This does not preclude Liaison Offices from providing day-to-day technical, logistical or “office-centred” information for their clients. The most important thing to bear in mind is that our websites should adopt a layered approach, meaning that once the most important substantial information has been posted for the wider public, more elements may be included “below the fold” about the office, its staff, events, workshops, and contact information for the specialists directly involved in any given donor country.

Since Liaison Offices possess news and success stories that may be of interest to the wider UNDP and UN system, these Offices should connect with the UNDP Web Team so that these stories can be posted on a wide variety of pages including the UNDP newsroom, the UNDP homepage, the donors page and any other relevant thematic and regional section.

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