UNESCO

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)
Jump to: navigation, search
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNESCO flag
Org type: Specialized Agency
Acronyms: UNESCO
Head: Director General of UNESCO
Koïchiro Matsuura
 Japan
Status: Active
Established: 1945
Website: www.unesco.org
Wikimedia
Commons:		 UNESCO
Portal: United Nations Portal

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.[1]

UNESCO has 192 Member States and 6 Associate Members. The organization is based 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 national and 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; the promotion of independent media and freedom of the press; 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.

Contents

  • 1 Structure
  • 2 Controversy and reform
  • 3 Activities
  • 4 Prizes, awards and medals
  • 5 Postage Stamps
  • 6 Directors General
  • 7 Locations
  • 8 References
  • 9 External links

[edit] Structure

The UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France

Three bodies are responsible for policy-making, governance, and day-to-day administration at 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 programme 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. The staff currently numbers some 2100, of whom some two-thirds are based in Paris, with the remaining third spread around the world in UNESCO's 58 field offices. The Secretariat is divided into various administrative offices and five programme sectors that reflect the organization's major areas of focus.

[edit] Controversy and reform

UNESCO has been at the centre of controversy, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the former USSR. During the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO's support for a "New World Information and Communication 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 by some as a platform for communist and Third World countries to attack the West, a stark contrast to accusations made by the former USSR in the late 40s and early 50s (Graham, 2006). 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.) During this period, considerable reforms had been implemented in the organization.

UNESCO logo

These 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. [citation needed] At the same time, the number of field units was cut from a peak of 79 in 1999 to 52 today. Parallel management structures, including 35 Cabinet-level special advisor positions, were abolished. [citation needed] Between 1999 and 2003, 209 negotiated staff departures and buy-outs took place, causing the inherited $10 million staff cost deficit to disappear. [citation needed] 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 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. [citation needed] 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's 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. [citation needed]

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 insitutes) with insufficient coordination between them. [citation needed]

[edit] Activities

UNESCO deploys its action in the fields of Education, Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture, Communication and Information.

[edit] Prizes, awards and medals

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

[edit] Postage Stamps

Various countries have issued postage stamps commemorating UNESCO. The organization's seal and its headquarters building have been common themes. In 1955 the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) issued its first ones honoring the organization.

While UNESCO has never separately issued stamps valid for postage, from 1951 to 1966 it issued a series of 41 "gift stamps" to raise money for its activities. Designed by artists in various countries, they were sold at a desk by the UNPA counter located in the United Nations Headquarters building in New York City. No longer available at the UN, most of these Cinderella stamps can be purchased at low cost from specialty stamp dealers.

[edit] Directors General

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

[edit] Locations

UNESCO has offices in many locations across the globe; its headquarters are located in Paris, France.