Contents 1. Get to Know UNESCO UNESCO's profile 2. 7. Structure Organization UNESCO Major Programmes General Conference, Executive Board, DirectorGeneral and Scretariat, Field Offices. Education, Natural Science, Social and Human -Sciences, Culture, Communication and Information 13. UNESCO Taxonomy Geographical Scope, Purposes and Functions, UNESCO Focuses on a Set Of Objectives in The Global Priority. 17. Internal Problems Political Issues, Technical Issues GET TO KNOW UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was born on 16 November 1945. UNESCO has 193 Members and 8 Associate Members and is governed by the General Conference and the Executive Board. Its three principal organs are the General Conference, the Executive Board, and the secretariat, headed by a director-general. The Secretariat, headed by the Director-General, implements the decisions of these two bodies. The Organization has more th 50 field offices around the world and its headquarters are located in Paris. UNESCO’s mission is to contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. UNESCO works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values. It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO’s mission and activities.1 In this spirit, UNESCO develops educational tools to help people live as global citizens free of hate and intolerance. UNESCO works so that each child and citizen has access to quality education. 1. United Nations, “UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,”https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2013/08/une sco-united-nations-educational-scientific-and-cultural -organization/, accessed November 6th 2020. By promoting cultural heritage and the equal dignity of all cultures, UNESCO strengthens bonds among nations. UNESCO fosters scientific programmes and policies as platforms for development and cooperation. UNESCO stands up for freedom of expression, as a fundamental right and a key condition for democracy and development. Serving as a laboratory of ideas, UNESCO helps countries adopt international standards and manages programmes that foster the free flow of ideas and knowledge sharing.2 2. UNESCO, “UNESCO in brief - Mission and Mandate,”https://en.unesco.org/about-us/introducing -unesco, accessed November 6th 2020. 1| STRUCTURE ORGANIZATIONS 2| From 1946 through 1952, the General Conference met every year. Since then it has met generally every two years. As a rule, the conference takes place in Paris, but it has also met in Mexico City, Beirut, Florence, Montevideo, New Delhi, Nairobi, Belgrade, and Sofia. Decisions of the General Conference are made by a simple majority vote, except for certain constitutionally specified matters that require a two -thirds majority, such as amending the UNESCO constitution or adopting an international convention. Member nations are not automatically bound by conventions adopted by the General Conference, but the UNESCO constitution requires them to submit such conventions to their appropriate national authority for ratification within one year. The same applies to recommendations, which the General Conference is empowered to adopt by simple majority vote. GENERAL CONFERENCE All UNESCO members have the right to be represented in the General Conference, which determines UNESCO's policies and decides on its major undertakings. Each member state has one vote in the conference but may be represented by five delegates. The constitution of UNESCO requires that member governments are to consult with national educational, scientific, and cultural bodies before selecting these delegates; in countries where UNESCO commissions have been established, these too are to be consulted.3 3. Nations Encyclopedia, “The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Structure,” https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/United-Nations-Related -Agencies/The-United-Nations-Educational-Scientific-and -Cultural-Organization-UNESCO -STRUCTURE.html#:~:text=UNESCO%20is%20an%20autonomo us%20organization,headed%20by%20a%20director%2Dgenera l, accessed at November 7th 2020. 3| EXECUTIVE BOARD Elected by the General Conference, the Executive Board is one of three constitutional organs of UNESCO and consists of 58 member states serving a four-year term. It supervises the execution of UNESCO's program. It meets at least twice a year. Before the General Conference convenes, the Executive Board reviews the budget estimates and work program for the following two-year period, as prepared by the director-general. It submits these with its recommendations to the General Conference and prepares the agenda for the conference. Originally, the UNESCO constitution provided that "although the members of the Executive Board are representatives of their respective governments, they shall exercise the powers delegated to them by the General Conference on behalf of the Conference as a whole." Until 1993, the members of the board were not member states, but personalities designated by name. UNESCO's constitution only designated that the General Conference should "endeavor to include persons competent in the arts, the humanities, the sciences, education and the diffusion of ideas." In 1993, the General Conference changed this criteria. Since that time, the member states of the Executive Board are requested to appoint a person qualified in one or more of the fields of competence of UNESCO and with the necessary experience and capacity to fulfill the administrative and executive duties of the board. The General Conference, in electing member states to the Executive Board, must also take into account the diversity of cultures and balanced geographical distribution. Following a constitutional amendment adopted by the General Conference in 1972, board members are elected for four years and are not immediately eligible for a second term. At each session, the General Conference elects members to succeed those whose terms end with that session. A system of electoral groups of member states, governing only elections to the Executive Board, was established in 1968. 4| DIRECTOR-GENERAL AND SECRETARIAT The secretariat carries out UNESCO's programs. It is headed by a director-general, nominated by the Executive Board and elected by the General Conference. The staff members are appointed by the director-general. Julian Huxley of the United Kingdom was UNESCO's first director-general. Federico Mayor Zaragoza of Spain was elected director-general in November 1987, succeeding Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow of Senegal, who had held the post since 1974. At the 1993 General Conference, Mr. Mayor was elected for a second six-year term. Koichiro Matsuura of Japan was appointed Director-General at the General Conference on 12 November 1999. Headquarters. UNESCO's first headquarters were in the Hotel Majestic, in Paris, a building which, ironically, had served as the headquarters for the German army during its occupation of France. In 1958, the organization's headquarters were transferred to a 3-hectare (7.5-acre) site, located at 7 place de Fontenoy, donated to UNESCO by the government of France. UNESCO headquarters originally consisted of a conference building, a secretariat building, and a building for the permanent delegations assigned to UNESCO. In 1965, a new building constructed around underground patios was added, and in 1970 and 1977, two supplementary buildings. The buildings were designed and approved by several leading architects. Works by contemporary artists are an integral part of the headquarters. 5| FIELD OFFICES UNESCO has been criticized by the United States since the 1980s for the concentration of its staff at its headquarters office in Paris, rather than in the field. A 1992 report by the US State Department said that 73% of UNESCO's total staff of 2,697 persons were located in Paris. The same report also conceded that, despite this fact, 44% of the organization's regular and extra -budgetary resources were spent in the field. This disparity, however, may simply reflect the vastly different nature of UNESCO's mandate, as opposed to the mandate of technically-oriented specialized agencies. In 2002, UNESCO had a staff of 2,160, of which 645 worked in 73 field offices. The percentage of staff working in the field had not markedly changed since 1980, though the number of field offices had increased. 6| UNESCO × Major Programmes Expertise 7| Education UNESCO's largest sectoral activity, education, is the field for constant but changing endeavor. From originally helping to reconstruct educational systems in war-torn Europe and carrying out isolated, modest projects elsewhere, UNESCO has progressed to large -scale undertakings, such as literacy campaigns, rural development, science teaching, educational planning and administration, and teacher training. UNESCO's major education activities have focuse d on basic education, the renewal of educational systems and educational advancement and policy. In specific educational areas, UNESCO's work is supported by three separate institutes which conduct research and training program s. The International Bureau of Education (IBE), located in Geneva, serves as an international center for studies and publications on comparative education. The International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), in Paris, organizes an annual nine-month training program for education planners and administrators, and offers training courses in th e planning, financing and management of education. The Institute for Education (UIE), located in Hamburg, focuses on adult and non-formal education , within the framework of lifelong learning. 8| Natural Science UNESCO is the only organization within the UN system to have a mandate for the basic sciences. This mandate implies UNESCO's commitment to the promotion of multilateral, international, and regional cooperation for the training of specialists from developing countries in university science education and basic research in the four core areas of basic science, namely math ematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. Projects to be implemented in these and allied, interdisciplinary areas are selected for the impact they will have on strengthening national capacities, enabling access to current scientific information, human resources development, and their real or potential impact on sustainable development. 9| Social and Human -Sciences U N E S C O e n c o u r a g es the development of the social and human sciences a t t h e i n t e r n a t i o n al and regional levels by promoting training and r e s e a r c h a c t i v i t i e s , as well as international exchanges. In the fields of p e a c e , h u m a n r i g h ts, and democracy, UNESCO's activities are aimed at t h e p r o m o t i o n a n d protection of human rights, consolidation of peace a n d d e m o c r a c y , a s well as at the prevention and elimination of all f o r m s o f d i s c r i m i n ation by means of research and education, d i s s e m i n a t i o n o f i nformation and publications, and organization of m e e t i n g s i n c o o p e ration with governments, intergovernmental and non - g o v e r n m e n t a l o r g anizations. U N E S C O ' s a c t i v i t i e s in this field have led to the elaboration of important international i n s t r u m e n t s . U N E S CO has an extensive program on the improvement of women's condition, stressing the p r i n c i p l e o f e q u a l i ty between men and women and against all forms of discrimination. This program p r o v i d e d i n p u t f o r the Fourth UN World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and P e a c e ( B e i j i n g , S e p tember 1995), and for its follow-up conference, "Beijing + 5: Women 2000" held in June 2000 in New York. O n a da i l y b a s i s , f rom its Headquarters and in the Field, UNESCO intervenes to accompany its Member S t a t e s a n d a l l i t s p artners to better understand and address the challenges of our more and more d i v e r s i f i e d s o c i e t i es, particularly through its intergovernmental Programme for Management of Social T r a n s f o r m a t i o n s ( MOST), its Youth Programme and the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence Programme w h i c h i n c l u d e , i n t er alia, initiatives for democracy and global citizenship, intercultural dialogue, peace -building.4 F u r t h e r m o r e , U N E SCO seeks to promote the development and the practice of sporting activities, as wel l a s t h e f i g h t a g a i n s t doping to foster social integration in different cultural and political context s, r e c o g n i z i n g t h a t s port disregards both geog raphical borders and social classes. U N E S C O a l s o c o n t i nues to build and reinfor ce linkages among ethicists, scientists, policy-makers, ju dges, j o u r n a l i s t s , a n d c i vil society to assist Member States in enacting sound and reasoned policies on et hical i s s u e s i n s c i e n c e a nd technology. 4. UNESCO, “Social and Human Sciences”, https://en.unesco.org/themes/learning-live-together, ac c e s s e d a t November 6th 2020. 10 | U N E S C O i s c o n v i n c ed that no development can be s u s t a i n a b l e w i t h o ut a strong culture component.5 I n d e e d o n l y a h u m an-centred approach to d e v e l o p m e n t b a s e d on mutual respect and open d i a l o g u e a m o n g c u ltures can lead to lasting, inclusive a n d e qu i t a b l e r e s u lts. Yet until recently, culture has b e e n m i s s i n g f r o m the development equation. T o e n s u r e t h a t c u l t ure takes it rightful place in d e v e l o p m e n t s t r a t egies and processes, UNESCO has a d o p t e d a t h r e e - p r onged approach: it spearheads w o r l d w i d e a d v o c a cy for culture and development, w h i l e e n g a g i n g w i t h the international community to s e t c l e a r p o l i c i e s a nd legal frameworks and working o n t h e g r o u n d t o s upport governments and local s t a k e h o l d e r s t o s a f eguard heritage, strengthen c r e a t i v e i n d u s t r i e s and encourage cultural pluralism. CULTURE U N E S C O r e n o w n e d cultural conventions provide a unique global platform for international c o o p e r a t i o n a n d e stablish a holistic cultural governance system based on human rights and shared v a l u e s. T h e s e i n t e rnational treaties endeavour to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and n a t u r a l h e r i t a g e i ncluding ancient archaeological sites, intangible and underwater heritage, m u s e u m c o l l e c t i o n s, oral traditions and other forms of heritage, and to support creativity, i n n o v a t i o n a n d t h e emergence of dynamic cultural sectors. 5. UNESCO, “Protecting Our Heritage and Fostering Cre a t i v i t y ” , https://en.unesco.org/themes/protecting-our-heritage-a n d - f o s t e r i n g - c r e a t i v i t y , accessed November 6th 2020 11| Communication and Information Th e C o m m u n ication and Information Sector strives to foster freedom of expression, media de v e l o p m e n t , and access to information and knowledge in line with UNESCO’s mandate to “ p r o m o t e t h e free flow of ideas by word and image”.6 UNESCO advances freedom of expression a n d t h e s a f e t y of journalists online and off-line,notably in the framework of United Nations Pl a n o f A c t i o n on the Safety of Journalists. Moreover, the Sector combats online hate sp eech, as w e l l a s d i s i n f ormation and misinformation through awareness raising initiatives, stead y m o n i t o r i n g , c apacity-building activities, and technical support to Member States. U N E S C O a l s o supports universal access to information and knowledge through promoting Open S o l u t i o n s , i n cluding Open Educational Resources, access for marginalized people, and m u l t i l i n g u a l i sm in the cyberspace. Th e O r g a n i z a tion develops media and information literacy curricula, furthers gender equality i n m e d i a o p e rations and content, and encourages pertinent media coverage of crisis and e m e r g e n c y s i tuations. Through its holistic approach, UNESCO contributes to media diversity a n d p l u r a l i s m by fostering diversity of content, audience, sources, and systems. I n a d d i t i o n , t he Sector coordinates UN ESCO’s inter-sectoral work on Artificial Intelligence (AI), w i t h a v i e w t o addressing the impact of AI on the fields of competence of UNESCO, promoting t h e u s e o f A I and its potential to achieve the SDGs; and fostering a human-centred development a n d a p p l i c a t i on of AI respectful of human rights and ethical principles. Th e S e c t o r h as developed UNESCO’s Internet Universality Indicators to enable Member States to h o l i s t i c a l l y a ssess the adherence of their cyberspace to the associated ROAM principles, which a d v o c a t e f o r an Internet that is human-rights based, open, accessible and governed by multi - s t a k e h o l d e r participation. Th r o u g h t h e Memory of the World Programme (MoW), UNESCO closely cooperates with Member S t a t e s t o i d e n tify, preserve and promo te access to the world’s documentary heritage, to make it a v a i l a b l e t o all, including future generations. Th e S e c t o r ’ s activities are supported b y two intergovernmental programmes, the International Pr o g r a m m e f or the Development of Communication (IPDC) and the Information for All Pr o g r a m m e ( I FAP), which support grassroots projects and implement activities along th e pr i o r i t i e s s e t by their governing bodie s. 6. UNESCO, “Communication and Information”, https://en.unesco.org/themes/communication-an d -information, accessed November 6th 2020 12| UNESCO TAXONOMY 13| Geographical Scope and Size A c c o r d i n g t o i t s geographical scope, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural O r g a n i z a t i o n i s considered a global (headquarter) level. It’s because it operates in a bigger s c a l e a n d h a s a bigger impact towards nations, also covering, influencing, or relating to the w h o l e w o r l d . I t s associated with global agreements and treaties. Then according to the size, the U N E S C O i s c o n s i dered a large sized international organization. It means that the UNESCO has m a n y c o u n t r i e s involving all the regions in it (multilateral), which is 193 member States r e g i s t e r e d f r o m Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. The informational purposes are to promote rights at w o r k , e n c o u r a g e decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen d i a l o g u e o n w o r k-related issues. The rule creating and operational purposes can be seen in the t r i p a r t i t e s t r u c t ure of the ILO that gives an equal voice to workers, employers and g o v e r n m e n t s t o ensure that the views of the social partners are closely reflected in labour s t a n d a r d s a n d i n shaping policies and programs. 14| Purposes and Functions 1 DREAM OF CACTUS Based on the Article 1 of the UNESCO Constitution The purpose of the Organization is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration am ong the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations. 2 T o r e a l i z e this purpose the Organization will: ( a ) C o l l a borate in the work of adv ancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of p e o p l e s , through all means of mass communication and to that end recommend such i n t e r n a t i onal agreements as may be necessary to promote the free flow of ideas by w o r d a n d image; ( b ) G i v e fresh impulse to popular education and to the spread of culture: • B y c o l l aborating with Members, at their request, in the development of educational a c t i v i t ies; • B y i n s tituting collaboration among the nations to advance the ideal of equality of e d u c a t ional opportunity without regard to race, sex or any distinctions, economi c or social; • B y s u g gesting educational methods best suited to prepare the children of the world f o r t h e responsibilities of freedom. ( c ) M a i n t ain, increase and diffuse knowledge: 1 .B y a s s uring the conservation and protection of the world’s inheritance of books, w o r k s of art and monuments of history and science, and recommending to the n a t i o n s concerned the necessary international conventions; 2 .B y e n c ouraging cooperation among the nations in all branches of intellectual a c t i v i t y, including the internati onal exchange of persons active in the fields of e d u c a t ion, science and culture and the exchange of publications, objects of artistic a n d s c ientific interest and other materials of information; 3 .B y i n i t iating methods of international cooperation calculated to give the people of all c o u n t r ies access to the printed and published materials produced by any of them.7 7. UNESCO Const., art. I 15| 3 With a view to preserving the independence, integrity and fruitful diversity of the cultures and educational systems of the States Members of the Organization, the Organization is prohibited from intervening in matters which are essentially within their domestic jurisdiction. UNESCO FOCUSES ON A SET OF OBJECTIVES IN THE GLOBAL PRIORITY: 8 • A t t a i n i n g quality education for al l and l i f e l o n g learning • M o b i l i z i ng science knowledge and policy f o r s u s t a inable development • A d d r e s s i ng emerging social and ethical c h a l l e n g es • F o s t e r i n g cultural diversity, intercultural d i a l o g u e and a culture of peace • B u i l d i n g inclusive knowledge societies t h r o u g h information and communication T h e O r g a n i zation has 193 Members and 11 A s s o c i a t e Members. M e m b e r s h i p of UNESCO is governed by A r t i c l e s I I and XV of the Constitution and by r u l e s 9 8 t o 101 of the Rules of Procedure of t h e G e n e r a l Conference. Membershi p of the U n i t e d N a t ions carries with it the right to m e m b e r s h i p of UNESCO. States that are not m e m b e r s o f United Nations may be admitted t o U N E S C O , upon recommendation of the E x e c u t i v e Board, by a two-thirds majority v o t e o f t h e General Conference. Territories or groups of territories that are not responsible for the conduct of their international relations may be admitted as Associate Members. Their admission and their rights and obligations are determined by the General Conference (see 6C/Resolution 41.2 and Basic Texts). Most Member States have established Permanent Delegations to UNESCO which, headed by Ambassadors, undertake liaison between the Organization and their governments. All Member States have established a National Commission for UNESCO. The UNESCO National Commissions are national cooperating bodies set up by the Member States for the purpose of associating their governmental and non-governmental bodies with the work of the Organization.9 8. United Nations, “UNESCO: United Nations Education a l , S c i e n t i f i c a n d C u l t u r a l O r g a n i z a t i o n ” , https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2013/08/unesco-united - n a t i o n s - e d u c a t i o n a l - s c i e n t i f i c - a n d - c u l t u r a l -organization/, accessed at November 6th 2020 9. UNESCO, “Member States List”, https://en.unesco.or g / c o u n t r i e s , a c c e s s e d a t N o v e m b e r 6 t h 2 0 2 0 16| 01. U N E S C O i s b e s t k n own a m o n g t h e p u b l i c f or its w o r k p r e s e r v i n g t he world’s c u l t u r a l h e r i t a g e . While e d u c a t i o n i s m e a n t to be the a g e n c y ’ s m a i n f o c us. It is r e s p o n s i b l e f o r c o ordinating and monitoring the i n t e r n a t i o n a l c o m munity’s efforts to achieve S u s t a i n a b l e D e v e l opment G o a l 4 , w h i c h c a l l s for i n c l u s i v e a n d e q u i table q u a l i t y e d u c a t i o n for all by 2030. INTERNAL PROBLEM: TOO LITTLE CASH. TOO MUCH POLITICS 02. But with recent projections showing that progress is way off track, UNESCO in dire financial straits after losing 20% of its funding over a political row with the United States in 2011. 03. 04. I n t e r n a l p o l i t i c i z a tion and inadequate budget While s ome actors think the agency needs to be strengthened with more funding and political support, others said they fear it is beyond saving — but disagree over which body, if any, could take over from it fund 05. Lack of funding leads to UNESCO cuts. UNESCO has since had to make cuts in its projects - including those supporting education and science. 17| POLITICAL ISSUES POLITICAL ISSUES POLITICAL ISSUES POLITICAL ISSUES 18| ISSUE POLITIC IZATION Vast amounts of time are spent by UNESCO’s Board, which meets twice a year, and General Conference, which meets every two years, on issues that have little to do with UNESCO and certainly not much to do with education, even though education is the single largest of UNESCO’s sectors and even though most member states think that it is right that education be the largest sector. Two particular examples are the Arab-Israeli dispute, which has raised its head in various ways in recent years, including through the issues of Jerusalem’s cultural heritage and of holocaust education, both bitterly and endlessly debated. Even within education, much time is spent on irrelevant debates – during the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education, for example, a key topic of discussion was that “higher education is a public good”, a position insisted upon by most Latin American states even though it is evident to anyone knowledgeable about public goods that higher education has elements of both being a public good and being a private good. 19| E M P L O YMENT PO L I T I C I ZATION: gon e too far It is right and proper that member states should want to see their nationals leading and on the staffs of UN and other international organizations. At UNESCO, however, this has gone too far, with enormous pressures to appoint inappropriate staff with inadequate qualifications and, above all, no way to change staff that do not perform well. This starts at the top, of course, with the election rather than the appointment of the Director -General. It is, I think, no accident that both the current and the former Director-General were diplomats – both enormously talented but neither a sectoral expert - prior to their appointment; their country’s greatest concern was to secure the position and not necessarily to propose a candidate well-versed in technical knowledge of at least some of UNESCO’s key sectors. Deals involving staffing and the location of offices are said to be done as part of the politicking of the election campaigns. There are three other aspects of employment associated with UNESCO that have received insufficient attention. FIRST, UNESCO IS LOCATED IN PARIS, AND IS THE ONLY MAJOR UN AGENCY IN THAT CITY. Other UN agencies are concentrated in such places as New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi, meaning that member state delegations typically handle a range of agencies and sometimes also bilateral relations. At UNESCO, by contrast, except for a few high income countries which combine their UNESCO and their OECD representation, most member state delegations are devoted solely to UNESCO, with all the incentives for their delegates to justify their existence (and hence their own employment) through frequent interactions with the secretariat on matters of national interest, above all employment. SECOND, AS UNESCO’S REAL BUDGET HAS DECLINED OVER THE YEARS, the share going to salaries has inevitably increased, reducing the funds available for essential non -staff expenditures. It is very difficult to adjust this balance when there is so much pressure from member states to provide employment for their nationals. THIRD, WITHIN COUNTRIES, UNESCO HAS ITS UNIQUE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL COMMISSIONS, funded by member states, but usually with several employees per country. An objective of many of the staff members of these commissions is to move to work directly for UNESCO. Again, there is little incentive for them to take a harsh look at the business realities that affect the organization as a whole. 20| LOCATION POLITICIZATION UNESC O BANGK OK REGION AL OFFICE CR: UNESC O.ORG UNESC O DAKAR REGION AL OFFICE CR: UNESC O.ORG UNESCO has over 50 offices in member states, mainly in developing countries, and the majority have at least one education staff member, by definition too limited a staffing to provide any critical mass of support to the host government. In addition, for education specifically, there are four regional bureaus (Bangkok, Beirut, Dakar and Santiago) and nine centers and Category I institutes (in Addis Ababa, Bonn, Bucharest, Caracas, Delhi, Geneva, Hamburg, Moscow and Paris). None of these offices or institutes has a sufficient budget to operate effectively, though some institutes, notably IIEP, have managed to attract significant extrabudgetary funding to maintain their programs, even if not in a sustainable way. If UNESCO were a private company, it would close most of these offices and institutes down, consolidating the good programs into the regular program and eliminating those that are mainly symbolic or (again) providing some jobs. But UNESCO is not a private company and cannot adjust to its budgetary realities in a realistic way. Never did this become more apparent than during 2009 with the parallel attempts to close the centre in Bucharest and to open an institute in Delhi. The first failed and the second succeeded, thereby further diluting UNESCO’s budget. 21| TECHNICAL ISSUES 22| Thus far, we have established that UNESCO does not respond well to the demands from its education ministry and minister clients but does respond to the broader political demands from its client member states. Indeed the latter is the major explanation of the former. But UNESCO’s problems in providing global public goods in education go much further. There is no real agreement on its priorities, its governance is cumbersome and very demanding on the staff, its budget is inadequate, its staff are not all appropriate, and there is not an effective collaboration with its partners/competitors. This concentration of resources was necessary in order that UNESCO have some impact, but at the same time it will further weaken UNESCO’s knowledge base in other key areas of basic education, such as science education, and its ability to provide advice and assistance to countries that have or will achieve the EFA goals. Priority! Priorities. The different member states do not agree on UNESCO’s education priorities beyond a general consensus that Education for All is the most important of all of UNESCO’s programs. Given the low total budget (see next section) this means that there is little funding available for other aspects of education. This in turn makes much of UNESCO’s work relatively irrelevant outside the low income countries of Africa and South Asia that are still far from achieving the EFA goals. It has also meant that the intellectual leadership on education beyond basic education has slipped away from UNESCO towards particularly OECD and the World Bank. Even within the agreed priority of Education for All, there is no agreement among member states about what should be the balance between UNESCO’s knowledge activities and its direct country programs. While Assistant Director -General in 2009, I drove a successful process to focus resources for the 2010-11 biennium onto four key areas: teachers, literacy, skills, and planning, all essential for achieving Education for All and all relatively neglected by other agencies such as UNICEF and the World Bank. Another key element of increased focus was to concentrate UNESCO’s country support operations particularly on about 20 countries that were far from achieving the Education for All goals. 23| Governance. UNESCO’s General Conference meets for three weeks every two years, with many ministers attending for at least a week, and its 58-member Executive Board meets twice a year, each time for three weeks. These governance structures are not efficient and encourage long debates and much interference in managerial issues rather than providing the general guidance that is the normal role of governing bodies while leaving implementation to management. In addition, staff reporting requirements are excessive, such that as soon as one Executive Board session has finished, staff have to start preparing reports for the next Board, as these documents have to be translated and delivered many weeks in advance of the meetings. Even with these excessively heavy governance procedures, however, it is not clear why member states need permanent delegations in Paris – their roles are not very clear outside the Board and Conference sessions. Staff. UNESCO has many excellent education staff; it also has too many who are not of the world class caliber that the premier UN organization for education should be able to attract. Its mechanisms to deal with these staff are inadequate – there is no redundancy fund or retraining budget and few efforts are made to dismiss non-performers because of the long time-consuming appeals processes that managers know they will have to face. Beyond the question of the intellectual quality of the individuals is the issue of their knowledge; most new recruitment in the last decade has been of member state nationals to serve as local staff in their own countries. This has been invaluable for UNESCO’s own activities in these countries, providing essential local knowledge and contacts. But it has not at all contributed to the global transfer of knowledge about education that surely should be the major function of UNESCO’s education sector. Nor does it permit UNESCO to play the role of lead agency for education in the country as that leadership cannot easily be conducted by nationals of the country – what is needed is experience elsewhere and in dealing with a broad range of actors and agencies. 24| Budget. UNESCO’s overall budget for the current 2010-11 biennium is $653 million, or $327 million per year.10 Yet less than $20 million per year is available for education activities. A staggering 45 percent of the total UNESCO budget is spent on administration, leaving only $359.5 million (55 percent) for programs. Education is the largest sector within this program budget, garnering $118.5 million, or one third of the program budget. The budget for education is thus $59 million a year, or only 18 percent of the organization’s total budget. To this may be added approximately another $50 million a year of extrabudgetary contributions, but these contributions cannot be relied upon for the long term and are also earmarked for particular purposes, many of which are not necessarily priorities. By contrast the total annual budget of WHO, in some ways the health equivalent of the UNESCO education sector, is $4.9 billion, including extrabudgetary funding, or $2,469 million per year, over 20 times UNESCO’s education budget.11 Even allowing for the difference in sectors and in functions, this contrast is striking. Moreover, the WHO budget has increased in real terms in each of the past four bienniums, while that of UNESCO has decreased. Of UNESCO’s $59 million annual education regular budget, only about $19 million is available for activities. Staff costs take up $31 million and transfers to the institutes and centers, also used essentially for salaries, another $9 million. If major donors are asked to increase their contributions to UNESCO’s education sector, their usual – and reasonable – response is to point to the low proportion of the total budget that is allocated to education and to suggest that they are reluctant to provide more for education until UNESCO itself does so by allocating funds towards education, especially from administration. Any possible increase in spending on education must therefore start with internal reallocations – in the current biennium, the education sector was the only one to avoid a real budget cut but little was done to reduce the overwhelming spending on administration in general. 10. UNESCO, Approved Programme and Budget 2010-2011, 35C/5 Approved, 2010 11. WHO, Draft Proposed Programme Budget 2010-2011, RC/2008/2, 2009. 25| Place in the Global Education Architecture. As noted, other agencies have taken on some areas that ought properly to be UNESCO’s domain, refl ecting UNESCO’s slow decline. UNESCO does collaborate effectively with some of these other agencies on specific programs, e.g. with the World Bank and with OECD on higher education quality and qualifications. But much of UNESCO’s work does not take account of the work of other agencies; this is particularly pronounced at the country level, where UNESCO suffers from not being present in many countries on a permanent basis and, more recently, from an overemphasis on “Delivering as One” within the UN system. “Delivering as One” makes sense in theory. There are numerous UN agencies with overlapping functions and they should coordinate better to deliver services more effectively. This has led to two major problems in the education sector, however. First, the emphasis within the UN is now on activities and projects, not on the delivery of advice and knowledge, which is and should be UNESCO’s priority – so UNESCO does not do well in the competition at country level for UN funding unless it does such things as school construction or direct teacher training, which should not be part of its mandate. Second, the focus on improved collaboration within the UN system diverts UNESCO education staff away from collaboration with other non-UN agencies that may be much more important in terms of external support for the education sector in a particular country, agencies like multilateral and bilateral donors.11 12. Nicholas Burnett, “How to Develop the UNESCO the World Needs: The Challenges of Reform CICE Hiroshima University”, Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Vol.13 No.2 (2010), Pg 88-93. 26| "We need to do less with less. We've spent too long trying to do too much without the means. We need to sell ourselves better, but without funding it's difficult to change our image" -a UNESCO official, who declined to be identified 27 | INSIDE: UNESCO NOV ISSUE CREATED BY : Gr ou p 3 CASSEY REGINA 01051180155 FENYO TANIA 01051180010 TERRA AURA 01051180157 VANESSA VICTORIA 01051180189 VIRGINIA JESSIE 01051180182 28 |
