UNESCO

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. Its stated purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter.^*.

In total 191 nations belong to UNESCO. The organization is headquartered in Paris, with over 50 field offices and several institutes and offices throughout the world. Most of the field offices are "cluster" offices covering three or more countries; there are also regional offices. UNESCO pursues its action through five major programmes: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture and communication and information. Projects sponsored by UNESCO include literacy, technical, and teacher-training programmes; international science programmes; regional and cultural history projects, the promotion of cultural diversity; international cooperation agreements to secure the world cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human rights; and attempts to bridge the world-wide digital divide.

Controversy and reform

UNESCO has been at the centre of controversy, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. During the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO's support for a "New World Information Order" and its MacBride report calling for democratization of the media and a more egalitarian access to information was condemned in these countries as attempts to destroy the freedom of the press. UNESCO was perceived as a platform for communist and Third World countries to attack the West. In 1984, the United States withheld its contributions and withdrew from the organization in protest, followed by the United Kingdom in 1985 and Singapore in 1986. The UK later rejoined in 1997 and the United States in 2003, after considerable reforms were implemented in the organization.

The organization's reforms included the following measures: the number of divisions in UNESCO was cut in half, allowing a corresponding halving of the number of Directors -- from 200 to under 100, out of a total staff of approximately 2,000 worldwide. At the same time, the number of field units was cut from a high of 79 in 1999 to 52 today. Parallel management structures, including 35 Cabinet-level special advisor positions, were abolished. 209 negotiated staff departures and buy-outs took place from 1999–2003, causing the inherited $10 million staff cost deficit to disappear. The staff pyramid, which was the most top-heavy in the UN system, was cut back as the number of high-level posts was halved and the “inflation” of posts was reversed through the down-grading many positions. Open competitive recruitment, results-based appraisal of staff, training of all managers and field rotation were instituted, as well as SISTER and SAP systems for transparency in results-based programming and budgeting. In addition, the Internal Oversight Service (IOS) was established in 2001 to improve organizational performance by including the lessons learned from program evaluations into the overall reform process. In reality though, IOS' main tasks involve auditing rather than programme oversight; it regularly carries out audits of UNESCO offices that essentially look into administrative and procedural compliance, but do not assess the relevance and usefulness of the activities and projects that are carried out.

Programming coherence and relevance remains a challenge at UNESCO. One of the main reasons for this is that activities and projects can be identified and supervised by various services within the organisation (divisions and sections based at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, UNESCO regional and cluster field offices and international insitutes) with insufficient coordination between them.

UNESCO activities

Designating projects and places of cultural and scientific significance, such as:
- Biosphere reserves, through MAB (Programme on Man and the Biosphere), since 1971
- Endangered languages and linguistic diversity projects
- Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
- Memory of the World International Register, since 1997
- World Heritage Sites
Encouraging the "free flow of ideas by word and image" by:
- Promoting freedom of expression, press freedom and access to information
- Promoting universal access to ICTs
- Promoting pluralism and cultural diversity in the media
Promoting events, such as:
- International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001–2010, proclaimed by UN in 1998)
- World Press Freedom Day, May 3 each year (Promotes freedom of expression and freedom of the press as a basic human right and as crucial components of any healthy, democratic and free society.)
Founding and funding projects, such as:
- UNESCO-CEPES, the European Centre for Higher Education (Established 1972 in Bucharest, Romania as a de-centralized office to promote international cooperation in higher education in Europe as well as Canada, USA and Israel. Higher Education in Europe is its official journal.)
- Free Software Directory (Since 1998 UNESCO and the Free Software Foundation have jointly funded this project supporting free software — software that gives users freedom to modify and redistribute it.)
- OANA, the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies
- International Council of Science
- UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors

UNESCO Prizes, Awards and Medals

UNESCO awards several prizes in science, culture and peace, such as:

Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science
UNESCO Science Prize
Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology
Javed Husain Prize for Young Scientist
Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation
Great Man-Made River International Prize for Water Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas
UNESCO/Institut Pasteur Medal
L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science
Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize
UNESCO Prize for Peace Education
Sergei Eisenstein Medals for merit in cinematographic art.
Jikji Memory of the World Prize for individuals or institutions that have made significant contributions to the preservation and accessibility of documentary heritage.

Directors General of UNESCO

Julian Huxley, United Kingdom (1946–1948)
Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexico (1948–1952)
John Wilkinson Taylor, United States (acting 1952–1953)
Luther Evans, United States (1953–1958)
Vittorino Veronese, Italy (1958–1961)
René Maheu, France (1961–1974; acting 1962)
Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, Senegal (1974–1987)
Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Spain (1987–1999)
Koïchiro Matsuura, Japan (1999–present)

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: UNESCO

Controversy and reform

UNESCO activities

UNESCO Prizes, Awards and Medals

Directors General of UNESCO

External links