Ahmad Fawzi

Ahmad Fawzi is an Egyptian-born news, media and communication expert, who, until recently, served as Communication Adviser and Chief Spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Refugees.[1] In 2015–2016 he served as Director, a.i.,[2][3] of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva,[4] with overall responsibility for the Geneva headquarters’ press and media, as well as extensive public information programmes and guided tours through the historic Palais de Nations.

Ahmad Fawzi, 2015.

He has held senior positions in the United Nations and global media outlets around the world. Since 1992, he has managed crisis communications and served as the interface between the UN and the global media in conflict areas and during highly charged political negotiations. His work involves communicating the broad range of UN activities to the global media and public and, in countries in and emerging from conflict, including Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Timor Leste, promoting free, independent and pluralistic media.

Early life and career

Born and raised in Cairo, Fawzi started his professional life in Egyptian radio.

He worked as a producer, editor and nightly news anchor on Egyptian Radio and Television (ETV)[5] before joining Reuters Television in London, then called Visnews.[6] At Visnews, he was news editor and bureau chief in Prague during and after the break-up of the eastern bloc; Middle East Bureau Chief in Cairo; and Americas News Operations Manager in New York.

He moved to the political arena and served as Press Secretary and Chef de Cabinet for Egypt’s First Lady Jehan El-Sadat[7] during the period of détente and peacebuilding with Israel. He was a member of the delegation on President Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem in November 1977.

United Nations

Fawzi has worked for three UN Secretaries-General: Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan[8] and Ban Ki-moon, and served as spokesperson and communication chief for leading peace negotiators including Kofi Annan, Lakhdar Brahimi, Jan Eliasson, Ian Martin and Sergio Vieira de Mello.[9]

Kofi Annan (right) and Ahmad Fawzi (left).

He first joined the Organization as Deputy Spokesperson for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali,[10] and was later appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan as director of the UN’s information office in London (1997–2003).[11][12] He served as chief of the Department of Public Information’s News and Media Division,[13] managing the UN’s multilingual daily news and media products from 2003–2010, including photo, radio, print, television, social media and websites.[14]

To increase transparency and global awareness of the UN’s work, Fawzi and his senior management team created new partnerships and overhauled content and delivery methods. During his tenure, social media for the first time became a regular part of the UN’s daily communication output, with multi-language accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Weibo and others.

UN Radio and UN Television were transformed to better meet the programming and delivery needs of global media partners. Fawzi’s team began using internet and satellite feeds to transmit rough cuts and soundbites that members of the media could access live and on-demand. Working with APTN and UNICEF, they developed a new series of daily news video-clips called UNifeed.[15] They also created the magazine-style television programme 21st Century[16] about the work and issues on the UN’s agenda. Produced in a way that allows broadcasters to use segments in their own programming, 21st Century is today aired around the world and shown on airline in-flight programming.

Fawzi also served as an advisor for the UN’s senior management. As a member of the strategic group that met regularly to make recommendations to the Secretary-General and his team, Fawzi contributed to formulating UN public information strategies and promoting interaction with the press. He was called upon by areas of the UN and organizations in the wider UN family to review resources and needs, identify priority issues and develop concrete proposals for improving outreach.

Peacekeeping, peacebuilding and political missions

Fawzi has had numerous UN assignments in countries in and emerging from conflict, and during high-level peace and nation-building negotiations, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Timor Leste and throughout the Middle East.

During 2012, he was communication advisor and spokesperson for to two successive envoys working to end the conflict in Syria: former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and later senior diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, as part of the Joint United Nations and League of Arab States mission.[17][18]

After the fall of Tripoli in 2011, he accompanied Ian Martin,[19] the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya,[20] to negotiate with the transitional government and develop a UN political mission in the country, which became known as UNSMIL.[21]

During the international efforts to resolve the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, Fawzi was spokesperson for the United Nations-African Union mediation team, headed by Jan Eliasson,[22] that brought the parties together in Sirte, Libya, for face-to-face talks in 2007.[23]

Ahmad Fawzi leaving Sirte, Libya after Darfur Peace Talks in 2007.

Fawzi was part of the UN’s efforts to build peace in Iraq 2003 and again in 2004. He was spokesperson and director of information for Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq,[24] as he outlined and set up a UN presence in the country after the US invasion of March 2003. In 2004, Fawzi was spokesperson for UN Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi, during the political transition that culminated in Iraq regaining its sovereignty in June 2004.

Fawzi was Spokesperson for the 10-day, round-the-clock “Bonn Talks on Afghanistan” led by Lakhdar Brahimi in 2001. The Talks brought Afghan groups together to develop a plan for governing the country after the fall of the Taliban.[25] They attracted such large numbers of media that Germany, as host, moored a ship outside Konigswinter to accommodate them, and Fawzi’s daily press conferences[26] were held on board. After the Talks, he travelled with Mr. Brahimi as part of the team that set up the new UN mission in the country, UNAMA.[27]

Other special assignments included acting chief of communications for the UN in Timor Leste in 2001,[28] during the lead-up to the first free and fair elections following the country’s historic 1999 referendum.

When Secretary-General Annan went to Baghdad in 1998 in a last-ditch effort to convince Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to open his palaces to UN weapons inspectors and avert a military strike, Fawzi was sent in advance to manage the intense media spotlight on the ground,[29] and during the visit worked with the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General at the time, Fred Eckhard.[30]

Personal

Married with two daughters, Fawzi is fluent in Arabic and English and conversant in French and Russian.

gollark: Guess again, apiocharacteroform.
gollark: Two codepoints, one character.
gollark: I mean, you can encode e with a diacritic thing as either one character for e-with-diacritic-thing, or a normal ASCII e then a combining diacritic thing.
gollark: LIES! WRONG!
gollark: Two CODEPOINTS.

References
  1. "MEDIA ADVISORY: Ahmad Fawzi joins UNHCR as interim Spokesperson for High Commissioner Grandi – ForeignAffairs.co.nz". foreignaffairs.co.nz. Archived from the original on 2017-02-01. Retrieved 2017-01-20.
  2. "www.un.org". AHMAD FAWZI APPOINTED INTERIM DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE IN GENEVA. UN. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-04-15.
  3. "Secretary-General Appoints Alessandra Vellucci of Italy Director of United Nations Information Service in Geneva | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  4. "The UN Office at Geneva".
  5. Gohar, Aly (27 June 1984). "Letter Egyptian Television 1984".
  6. "Memo Visnews". Visnews. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  7. "Madame Jehan Sadat Anwar Sadat Lecturer Educator International Peace Women's Activist Muslim Humanitarian Literacy Aid". madamejehansadat.com. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  8. Eckhard, Frederic (2013). Kofi Annan: A Spokesperson’s Memoir. Ruder Finn Press. pp. 23, 91, 254. ISBN 978-1932646566.
  9. Power, Samantha (2008). Chasing the Flame, Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World. The Penguin Press. pp. 396, 397, 399. ISBN 978-0143114857.
  10. "Deputy spokesman Fawzi visits Israel (1995)". Reuters. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  11. "Letter of Accreditation from Kofi Annan (1997)". United Nations. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  12. "AHMAD FAWZI APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF UN INFORMATION CENTRE IN LONDON | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
  13. "DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICES OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL AND THE SPOKESWOMAN FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2015-11-08.
  14. "Department of Public Information". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2015-10-22. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  15. "UNifeed |". www.unmultimedia.org. 2015-11-05. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  16. "UNTV: 21st Century". www.unmultimedia.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  17. "Letter of Thanks Syria Mission (2012)". United Nations. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  18. "Highlights of the Press Briefing by Ahmad Fawzi, Spokesperson for United Nations and Arab League Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan". ReliefWeb. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
  19. "United Nations". United Nations Support Mission to Libya. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  20. "Secretary-General Appoints Ian Martin of United Kingdom Special Representative, Georg Charpentier of Finland Deputy Special Representative for Libya | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  21. "United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL)". unsmil.unmissions.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  22. "PRESS CONFERENCE ON OPENING OF DARFUR PEACE TALKS IN LIBYA | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  23. Section, United Nations News Service (2007-11-05). "UN News – 'Door remains open' for Darfur rebels to join peace process, says UN official". UN News Service Section. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  24. "SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS SERGIO VIEIRA DE MELLO AS HIS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR IRAQ | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  25. Section, United Nations News Service (2001-12-05). "UN News – UN talks in Bonn culminate in accord on interim Afghan government". UN News Service Section. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  26. "UN Talks on Afghanistan 2001". www.unric.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  27. "United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan". unama.unmissions.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  28. "UN Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello". Thank You Letter by Sergio Vieira de Mello_ UN Mission East Timor 2001. Retrieved 2015-11-08.
  29. "IRAQ: BAGHDAD: PREPARATIONS FOR KOFI ANNAN'S ARRIVAL | AP Archive". www.aparchive.com. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  30. Traub, James (1998-03-29). "Kofi Annan's Next Test". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
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