Communications Officer in Namibia

With almost 25 years of experience in UN communications, Anthea Basson, the Communications Officer at the Resident Coordinator’s Office in Namibia and the Head of the UN Information Centre in Windhoek brings a strong culture of collaboration, innovation and expertise in public engagement to her role at UN Namibia. 

During the country’s challenging recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Anthea helped communicate the work and achievements of the UN through compelling human-interest stories and by supporting the development of UN Country Results Reports. For the past three years, Anthea has been instrumental in rolling out the inter-agency ‘Buy Local, Grow Namibia’ campaign which promotes sustainable food consumption through encouraging people to use local products and support small businesses.  Anthea coordinated the media engagement and social media efforts to promote this campaign, resulting in the highest social media reach for a UN Namibia initiative to date. 

Working in coordination with the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, Anthea also played a key role in the implementation of a grassroots campaign ‘Frieda and the SDGs’; a children’s storybook which was delivered to 6000 children from marginalized communities across Namibia. To support the campaign, Anthea organized bi-monthly educational outreaches to help teachers develop lesson plans about the SDGs and hold readings of the storybook in schools across the country.