Dang Huu Cu

Communications Officer, United Nations Development Programme Vietnam

Huu Cu has been working for the United Nations Development Programme since 1997. His main responsibilities are to manage UN and UNDP Viet Nam websites and intranet, and to deliver professional publications and design services. Since the design and conceptual stages of the UNDP website redesign, Cu has played a key role. In 2006, Cu played a leadership role in the introduction of the CMS, the new templates and design, liasing with local contractors and in ensuring that office representatives were well-informed and knew how to use and take advantage of the content software. The website has been widely appreciated, both in and out of Viet Nam, and after only 6 months was recently recognized as one of 10 best websites in the UNDP system in 2006. This is the first time the UNDP Viet Nam site has been named a "Cyber Star."

The aid environment is changing. Viet Nam is developing quickly. It was important for the UN to respond to remain a relevant partner. The One UN in Viet Nam preceded the High-Level Panel Report and pilot country initiative. The UN in Viet Nam played a major role in contributing to the global debate on aid effectiveness, first with a discussion paper for the 2005 World Summit and then later in guiding documents as to how a One UN should function in Viet Nam. In December 2006, Viet Nam was announced as the first of eight countries in the world volunteering to pilot United Nations reform at the country level. In this context, Cu continues to be an extremely positive and productive influence on the UN Communications team. His contributions have been constructive and he often shows leadership to the rest of the team. Cu has actively participated in the team and has led work on One UN public information and branding, including the website and the creation of UNCT stationery and business cards.

Cu holds Post-graduate Diploma in Graphic Design at University of Technology Sydney (Australia), degree in International Law at Ha Noi National University and in Printing Technology at Technische Hochschule Leipzig (Germany).

United Nations Development Programme Vietnam

UNDP has been in Viet Nam since 1977, when there was very limited donor and international presence. Since that time UNDP’s role in Viet Nam has evolved through the country’s many stages of transition, struggle and success since the end of the American Viet Nam war in 1975.

At UNDP Viet Nam we continue to provide critical support in the areas of Democratic Governance, Poverty Reduction, Crisis Prevention and Recovery, Energy and Environment and HIV/AIDS, while ensuring recent economic growth improves the living standards of all Vietnamese people. We work to encourage human rights and discourage increasing disparities based on gender, wealth, location, ethnicity, health and more.

Presentations

Thursday, November 8^th: 14.30 - 16.00

Track: Communication

Leading from the field

Starting nearly from scratch, the project team decided to apply CMS for the UNDP Viet Nam website and make it a Cyberstar among all UNDP Country Offices. Along with new technology, many aspects of communications contributed to the success of the project.

The UNDP Viet Nam website project not only showcases a well-balanced combination of IT and communications, but also illustrates how the project team resolved the conflict between the UNDP global standards and local creativity - resulting in a website that goes far beyond the template provided by UNDP headquarters.

Presentation outline:

1. What makes a project a success
2. Is it about content and/or people
3. Conflicts between standards and creativities (flexibility)
4. The public

1. Where were we at
2. List of requirements
3. Why Open Source
4. Situation of Open Source in Viet Nam
5. The UN & OS – a good match

Download

• cmf2007 Slides: Leading from the field   
• cmf2007 Slides: We vote for open source   

• cmf2007 Podcast: Dang Huu Cu and Mikael Elkan on combining communication and IT (MP3, 1:31 minutes, 1.4 Mb)