Planning Policies for Early Childhood Development: Guidelines for Action

Download Planning Policies for Early Childhood Development: Guidelines for Action by Emily Vargas-Baron, UNESCO/UNICEF/ADEA, 2005.

This is an Early Childhood Development (ECD) toolkit intended to help governments and other stakeholders to collaborate in establishing policies that will ensure all children achieve their full potential.

Emily is one of the Directors of Americans for UNESCO (as well as a friend and long time colleague). JAD

UNESCO also publishes a series of Policy Briefs on Early Childhood and the UNESCO Early Childhood and Family Policy Series.

Click here to go to the facet of the UNESCO website devoted to Early Childhood.

Planning Policies for Early Childhood Development: Guidelines for Action

Download Planning Policies for Early Childhood Development: Guidelines for Action by Emily Vargas-Baron, UNESCO/UNICEF/ADEA, 2005.

This is an Early Childhood Development (ECD) toolkit intended to help governments and other stakeholders to collaborate in establishing policies that will ensure all children achieve their full potential.

Emily is one of the Directors of Americans for UNESCO (as well as a friend and long time colleague). JAD

UNESCO also publishes a series of Policy Briefs on Early Childhood and the UNESCO Early Childhood and Family Policy Series.

Click here to go to the facet of the UNESCO website devoted to Early Childhood.

UNESCO and Non Governmental Organizations

Download "UNESCO and NGOs" (two pages in PDF format).

Since its foundation, UNESCO has given great importance to partnership with civil society organizations, in particular NGOs. Relations between UNESCO and NGOs are essentially intellectual and moral. The Organization maintains a website promoting collaborative linkages with Non Governmental Organizations and Foundations as well as a list of UNESCO sectoral focal points for NGOs.

Many NGO's have long term relations with UNESCO, and have established formal organizational links with the Organization. (Click here for a list of those organizations.) UNESCO regards these NGOs as "valued partners owing to their active presence and concrete action in the field, the expertise they represent, and their ability to channel the concerns of the people." Requests for establishment of such a formal partnership can be made by an NGO to the Director-General of UNESCO at any time and will be processed as quickly as possible.

An NGO International Conference takes place every other year and includes all NGOs maintaining official relations with UNESCO. The NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee, elected by the NGO International Conference, is responsible for permanent coordination and continuity of this collective cooperation. It is based at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

National Commissions act as a liaison body for all matters of concern to UNESCO. Their task is to involve in the work of the Organization all the different ministerial departments, services, institutions, organizations and citizens in their country working for the advancement of education, science, culture and communication. In the case of the U.S. National Commission, many NGOs are represented directly on the Commission, and its Secretariat is available to help other NGOs with contacts with UNESCO.

For the Education sector, there is a specific NGOs Reflexion Group on Education for All. The Reflection Group provides a mechanism for UNESCO to inform and generate action with NGO's involved in EFA. It works on both conceptual aspects of EFA and their practical application.

Here is a link to the "Evaluation of Non-Governmental Organizations as UNESCO’s Programme Delivery Mechanisms," D. Daniels and Associates, June, 2006.

The evaluation found that there are NGOs that are relevant to achieving nearly all UNESCO programmes objectives and to advancing each of UNESCO’s functions. NGO contributions are identified for each of the UNESCO functions with their contribution being greatest in capacity building and least in contributing to standard setting.

All programme sectors work with some kind of NGO but the level of involvement with NGOs appears to be greatest in the Education, Culture and Social and Human Sciences programmes.

UNESCO and Non Governmental Organizations

Download "UNESCO and NGOs" (two pages in PDF format).

Since its foundation, UNESCO has given great importance to partnership with civil society organizations, in particular NGOs. Relations between UNESCO and NGOs are essentially intellectual and moral. The Organization maintains a website promoting collaborative linkages with Non Governmental Organizations and Foundations as well as a list of UNESCO sectoral focal points for NGOs.

Many NGO's have long term relations with UNESCO, and have established formal organizational links with the Organization. (Click here for a list of those organizations.) UNESCO regards these NGOs as "valued partners owing to their active presence and concrete action in the field, the expertise they represent, and their ability to channel the concerns of the people." Requests for establishment of such a formal partnership can be made by an NGO to the Director-General of UNESCO at any time and will be processed as quickly as possible.

An NGO International Conference takes place every other year and includes all NGOs maintaining official relations with UNESCO. The NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee, elected by the NGO International Conference, is responsible for permanent coordination and continuity of this collective cooperation. It is based at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

National Commissions act as a liaison body for all matters of concern to UNESCO. Their task is to involve in the work of the Organization all the different ministerial departments, services, institutions, organizations and citizens in their country working for the advancement of education, science, culture and communication. In the case of the U.S. National Commission, many NGOs are represented directly on the Commission, and its Secretariat is available to help other NGOs with contacts with UNESCO.

For the Education sector, there is a specific NGOs Reflexion Group on Education for All. The Reflection Group provides a mechanism for UNESCO to inform and generate action with NGO's involved in EFA. It works on both conceptual aspects of EFA and their practical application.

Here is a link to the "Evaluation of Non-Governmental Organizations as UNESCO’s Programme Delivery Mechanisms," D. Daniels and Associates, June, 2006.

The evaluation found that there are NGOs that are relevant to achieving nearly all UNESCO programmes objectives and to advancing each of UNESCO’s functions. NGO contributions are identified for each of the UNESCO functions with their contribution being greatest in capacity building and least in contributing to standard setting.

All programme sectors work with some kind of NGO but the level of involvement with NGOs appears to be greatest in the Education, Culture and Social and Human Sciences programmes.

UNESCO: What It Is. What It Does.

This nine page, easy to read brochure provides a great introduction to UNESCO. It describes its history, and each of its five major programs.

UNESCO: What It Is. What It Does.

This nine page, easy to read brochure provides a great introduction to UNESCO. It describes its history, and each of its five major programs.

"Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security"

Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security by A. Lawrence Chickering, Isobel Coleman, P. Edward Haley, and Emily Vargas-Baron, 2006.

One of the Directors of Americans for UNESCO and my long time colleague and friend, Emily Vargas-Baron, is one of the coauthors of this important new book on foreign policy.

Book Description:

Stopping terrorism at its source The emergence of global terrorism has created a new reality in national and international security. Governments and peoples must come together to encourage economic, political, legal, and social change within weak societies in which terrorists take refuge and to assist deadlocked governments in overcoming the explosive legacies of religious and ethnic conflict. In Strategic Foreign Assistance the authors show that, to do this, the United States must develop a strategic international cooperation and assistance policy that fosters strong civil societies. The book details the key role that civil society organizations (CSOs) could play in mitigating the conditions that promote terrorists and terrorism. The authors reveal how CSOs can help nations overcome internal conflicts by attacking the roots of violence and empowering people directly affected by the conflict to develop culturally appropriate strategies to pacify violent regions. They explain the value of informal society-based, nonstate initiatives--including initiatives aimed at religious leaders--in recruiting a country's citizens in the efforts for peace. And they show how CSOs can help accomplish strategic objectives for promoting social development and changing state policies in such critical areas as economic and educational policy reform, empowerment of women, property rights for the poor, and other vital areas. A. Lawrence Chickering is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Isobel Coleman is a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy and director of the Women and U.S. Foreign Policy Program of the Council on Foreign Relations. P. Edward Haley is the Wm. M. Keck Professor of International Strategic Studies at Claremont-McKenna College. Emily Vargas-Baron directs the Institute for Reconstruction and International Security through Education. "This is a profound and greatly useful exposition on a critical question yet strangely unexamined: how to use civil society to advance strategic objectives abroad, especially when government-to-government relations are incapable of moving adversaries away from conflict. The approach is useful and challenging and original, at once profoundly conservative and yet bound to be deeply appealing without regard to party to the most perceptive of those responsible for American foreign policy."

Emily tells me that you can buy this book at a discount at Amazon.
JAD

"Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security"

Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security by A. Lawrence Chickering, Isobel Coleman, P. Edward Haley, and Emily Vargas-Baron, 2006.

One of the Directors of Americans for UNESCO and my long time colleague and friend, Emily Vargas-Baron, is one of the coauthors of this important new book on foreign policy.

Book Description:

Stopping terrorism at its source The emergence of global terrorism has created a new reality in national and international security. Governments and peoples must come together to encourage economic, political, legal, and social change within weak societies in which terrorists take refuge and to assist deadlocked governments in overcoming the explosive legacies of religious and ethnic conflict. In Strategic Foreign Assistance the authors show that, to do this, the United States must develop a strategic international cooperation and assistance policy that fosters strong civil societies. The book details the key role that civil society organizations (CSOs) could play in mitigating the conditions that promote terrorists and terrorism. The authors reveal how CSOs can help nations overcome internal conflicts by attacking the roots of violence and empowering people directly affected by the conflict to develop culturally appropriate strategies to pacify violent regions. They explain the value of informal society-based, nonstate initiatives--including initiatives aimed at religious leaders--in recruiting a country's citizens in the efforts for peace. And they show how CSOs can help accomplish strategic objectives for promoting social development and changing state policies in such critical areas as economic and educational policy reform, empowerment of women, property rights for the poor, and other vital areas. A. Lawrence Chickering is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Isobel Coleman is a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy and director of the Women and U.S. Foreign Policy Program of the Council on Foreign Relations. P. Edward Haley is the Wm. M. Keck Professor of International Strategic Studies at Claremont-McKenna College. Emily Vargas-Baron directs the Institute for Reconstruction and International Security through Education. "This is a profound and greatly useful exposition on a critical question yet strangely unexamined: how to use civil society to advance strategic objectives abroad, especially when government-to-government relations are incapable of moving adversaries away from conflict. The approach is useful and challenging and original, at once profoundly conservative and yet bound to be deeply appealing without regard to party to the most perceptive of those responsible for American foreign policy."

Emily tells me that you can buy this book at a discount at Amazon.
JAD