Unity figure's succeeded in North and South America (9)
I believe the answer is:
consensus
'unity' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'figure's succeeded in north and south america' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'succeeded' could be 's' (genealogical abbreviation) and 's' is found within the answer.
'north' could be 'n' (abbreviation) and 'n' is found in the answer.
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is found within the answer.
'south' could be 's' (abbreviation) and 's' is found within the answer.
'america' could be 'us' (United States) and 'us' is found in the answer.
'figure' could be 'c' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'c' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'oe' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for consensus that I've seen before include "Unanimity" , "General opinion" , "agreed" , "General agreement" , "Majority view" .)