Unesco

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UNESCO flag

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), established in 1945, is an agency of the United Nations. Its purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international understanding and collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, human rights, and the fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the United Nations Charter.[1]

The organization has 192 Member States and 6 Associate Members. Based in Paris, UNESCO has 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 national and regional offices.

UNESCO serves as both an incubator for ideas and sets standards in formulating global agreements on ethical challenges. As the organization assists member states in capacity building, it also gathers and disseminates knowledge and information for the use of member and associate member states. Criticism of UNESCO has focused on the accusation that it promotes a more liberal view of human rights, such as a woman's right to have an abortion and individuals' rights to choose their sexual lifestyle, that undermines family values. Its protection of the human heritage, of endangered places of beauty and of historical interest, ranks as its major achievement.

Millennium Development Goals

UNESCO plays a crucial role in fostering genuine dialogue using the fundamental ground rules of respect for shared values and the dignity of each civilization and culture. The essence of UNESCO's work lies in creating a collective vision of sustainable development that takes into account observance of all peoples' human rights, with an eye towards mutual respect and alleviation of poverty.

The organization focuses on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly:


Structure

Three bodies are responsible for policy-making, governance, and day-to-day administration within UNESCO:

The General Conference is a gathering of the organization's member states and associate members, at which each state has one vote. Meeting every two years, it sets general policies and defines program lines for the organization.

The Executive Board's 58 members are elected by the General Conference for staggered four-year terms. The Executive Board prepares the sessions of the General Conference and ensures that its instructions are carried out. It also discharges other specific mandates assigned to it by the General Conference.

The Secretariat consists of the Director-General and his staff and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the organization. The Director-General, who serves as the public face of UNESCO, is elected for a (renewable) four-year term by the General Conference. There are currently about 2,100 people on staff. Two thirds of the staff are based in Paris. The remaining third are in UNESCO's field offices around the world. The Secretariat is divided into various administrative offices and five program sectors that reflect the organization's major areas of focus.

Controversy and reform

UNESCO was at the center of controversy, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore during the 1970s and 1980s. At that time, UNESCO's support for a "New World Information and Communication Order" and the MacBride report calling for democratization of the media and a more egalitarian access to information was condemned by these countries as attempts to destroy freedom of the press. UNESCO was perceived by some 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. Following the change in government in 1997, the UK rejoined. The United States rejoined in 2003. (As of 2007, Singapore has still not rejoined.)

Since this time, considerable reforms were implemented in the organization. The 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 worldwide. The number of field units was cut from a peak of 79 in 1999 to 52. Parallel management structures, including 35 Cabinet level special adviser positions, were abolished. Between 1999 and 2003, 209 negotiated staff departures and buy-outs took place, causing a $10 million staff cost deficit to disappear. The staff pyramid, which was the most top heavy in the UN system, was cut back and the "inflation" of posts was reversed through the downgrading of 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. 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's main tasks involve auditing rather than program oversight. It regularly carries out audits of UNESCO offices, looking into administrative and procedural compliance, but not assessing 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 organization (divisions and sections based at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, UNESCO regional and cluster field offices and international institutes) with insufficient coordination between them. Another issue is the very broad thematic areas that UNESCO engages in.

Activities

UNESCO acts in the fields of Education, Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture, Communication, and Information. Projects sponsored by UNESCO include literacy, technical, and teacher-training programs; international science programs; the promotion of independent news media and freedom of the press; regional and cultural history projects, the promotion of cultural diversity; international cooperation agreements to secure the world's cultural and natural heritage and preserve human rights; as well as efforts to bridge the world-wide digital divide.

The following are some of the many efforts of UNESCO.

Prizes, awards and medals

UNESCO awards several prizes in science, culture, and peace to honor significant contributions:

Directors General

  1. Julian Huxley, UK (1946–1948)
  2. Jaime Torres Bodet, MEX (1948–1952)
  3. John Wilkinson Taylor, USA (1952–1953)
  4. Luther Evans, USA (1953–1958)
  5. Vittorino Veronese, ITA (1958–1961)
  6. René Maheu, FRA (1961–1974)
  7. Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, SEN (1974–1987)
  8. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, SPA (1987–1999)
  9. Koïchiro Matsuura, JPN (1999–present)

General Conferences

Information about more recent General Conferences can be found at www.UNESCO.org, The official UNESCO website.

Note

  1. ↑ UNESCO UNESCO Consitution Retrieved April 20, 2007.
  2. ↑ Migration Museums Migration Museums Home Page. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
  3. ↑ UNESCO.org FRESH. Retrieved May 21, 2007.

References
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External links

All links retrieved April 1, 2020.


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