Communications Officer in Thailand

As the Communications and Advocacy Officer in the Resident Coordinator’s Office in Thailand, Teddy Vathanathanakul is proud of his role in leading the UN communications community on its collective advocacy for the SDGs, having built a social media reach of 40 million people, principally comprised of young people. Owing to Teddy’s efforts increasing engagement with the UN website saw 277,060 unique page views, 84% originating from Thailand and the majority via the Thai-language portal. Teddy is also passionate about the UN’s work with youth in the country and has been instrumental in revamping the UN’s ‘Sustainable Development Goals Youth Panel,’ helping identify, nurture and engage young changemakers to expand their awareness of the UN’s work.

Amongst the many joint UN advocacy campaigns, Teddy is especially proud of his stewardship of the UN’s “Ambassador for a Day” annual campaign together with Member States to commemorate International Women’s Day. The campaign is a contest whereby young gender equality advocates submit videos about their efforts in hopes to be selected as an “Ambassador for a Day” to shadow UN women leaders and ambassadors in the country, experiencing global diplomacy and sustainable development. The result in 2022: over 140 high-quality video submissions received compared to 96 entries received in 2021 with young people posting videos on social media accounts using the #AmbassadorForADay hashtags, giving visibility to issues affecting women and girls in their communities and driving a high amount of traffic to the UN Country Team website.  They shared their experience with their followers, further amplifying awareness on the work of the UN and advocating for action in support of the SDGs. Many former Ambassadors for a Day continue their relationships with their host entities, interning there and contributing to projects. To keep the momentum, Teddy initiated an Ambassador for a Day alumni community who connect through the Line app on their phones.