Student Groups Call for UNESCO Ombudsman

Source: University World News, February 15, 2009.

At a meeting in Paris last month 17 organizations representing students across the globe took part in an official preparatory meeting for the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education to be held in July. Recognizing that student rights are being violated in institutions around the world, the students' groups at the meeting called on UNESCO to establish a global ombudsman's office to tackle breaches of their rights.

Comment: This would seem to be a role for which there is no obvious alternative to UNESCO, but such a role would engage the Organization in controversial confrontations with governments of member states, and would presumably require a substantial commitment of the Organization's resources. Perhaps the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO should consider the costs and benefits of such a role for UNESCO in order to advise the State Department. JAD

Ethiopian policemen look at students demonstrating at a campus of the Addis Ababa university, Ethiopia AFP photo, 6/7/05) via Fettan Archives

"Risk-Based Evaluation of UNESCO’s Capacity to Deliver"

The Evaluation Section of UNESCO's Internal Oversight Service has just published an analysis of the risks perceived by the Organizations leaders as they face the organization's future. The top ten risks that were identified are:

1) The gap between expected and available resources;
2) Uncertainty about future regular budget and reliance on extrabudgetary funding;
3) Complex structure which does not promote intersectoral collaboration;
4) Lack of responsiveness to our clients;
5) Inadequate information and network systems;
6) Insufficient accountability;
7) Incomplete performance-based monitoring;
8) Untimely succession plan;
9) Imbalance between process control and program delivery;
10) Predominance of central services over programs.

Read the full report!

Editorial Comment: These risks seem rather bureaucratic to me.

"SINCE WARS BEGIN IN THE MINDS OF MEN, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed."
From the preamble of UNESCO's Constitution

UNESCO was created after World War II. The United Nations, and especially the UN Security Council were created to allow the community of nations to take political action to prevent or limit wars. UNESCO was created simultaneously, with the primary mission of building the defenses of peace in the minds of men. The job of building those defenses is far from complete, and indeed the worsening global financial crisis may bring with it greater likelihood of intra and international wars. Perhaps the greatest risk faced by UNESCO is that it will not be able to make sufficient progress in the current crisis in building the defenses of peace in the minds of men.

I understand the charter of UNESCO, with the inclusion of education, science, culture and communications in its programmatic responsibilities, to include services to help develop the intellectual capacities of the world's societies. While the genesis of UNESCO was in the concerns of the allies to rebuild the educational and scientific institutions destroyed by World War II, decolonization has led to a major emphasis on helping developing nations to build towards "information societies" and indeed toward "knowledge societies".

UNESCO's flagship program in this respect is the Organization's support for Education for All, and that global initiative is surely going to fail to meet its goals set for 2015. Even those ambitious goals fall far short of what is needed to achieve a global community of knowledge societies. Thus there is a great risk that UNESCO will not adequately play the role envisioned by its founders and its member nations in helping to develop the intellectual capacities of the societies of its member nations.

John Daly
(The opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.)

Memory of the World logo competition

Image source: UNESCO

UNESCO has decided to launch an international competition for a new the logo for the Memory of the World Program. The logo should reflect the mandate of the Program which is "to promote, protect and preserve the world’s documentary heritage".

Since the logo will often be shown alongside of the UNESCO logo, the new logo should not repeat elements of the UNESCO logo. The two logos should look good side by side.

Proposals should be sent by 31 May 2009. The winner of the contest will be announced by July 2009 and will receive a monetary award of US $2,000. He/she will also be featured in a special news item on the Memory of the World website.

All rights for the selected logo will be held exclusively by UNESCO.

Read more about the competition and
the desired characteristics for the logo.

International Mother Language Day, 21 February

On February 18th, the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) group at UNESCO will sponsor a forum titled

Autochthonous Languages: cosmovision, globalization, development and peace

Doctor Esteban Magannon, professor emeritus of the national Institute for Languages and Eastern Civilizations (INALCO), from Philipines, and Guatemalan researcher and teacher Jesus Garcia Ruiz will be guests to the event.

The new edition of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing aims to answer these questions. It will be presented to the press at UNESCO Headquarters on 19 February, on the eve of International Mother Language Day (21 February).

On February 20th, the Design 21 prize will be awarded to the designer of the winning poster for International Mother Language Day.

In honor of the day, let me share with you the most famous poem by my ancestor, Raftery the Poet:

Mise Raiftearaí an file,
Lán dóchas ‘s grá,
Le súile gan solas,
Le ciúnas gan crá…
Féach anois mé
Is mo chúl le balla
Ag seimn ceoil
Do phócaí folamh.

In translation:

I am Raftery the poet.
Full of hope and love.
My eyes without sight,
My mind without torment.

Going west on my journey
By the light of my heart,
Tired and weary
To the end of the road.

Behold me now
With my back to the wall.
Playing music
To empty pockets.

Anthony Raftery, blind from a bout with smallpox as a young boy, lived in Ireland at the and of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries -- the time when English rulers sought to wipe out Gaelic culture and the Gaelic language. His poems were not published during his lifetime, but some survived in the memories of those who heard them, and some were written down by his listeners to be saved. In the Celtic Renaissance at the end of the 19th century the surviving Raftery poems were collected and eventually published. Today Irish schoolchildren learn this poem in schools so they do not forget the Irish language, nor the things that were expressed in it.

John Daly

After EFA: What Next

Last night in our seminar, UNESCO: Agenda for the 21st Century, we conducted a role playing exercise in which the students debated future priorities for the global educational system.

Education for All (EFA) has been the basis for international efforts in education since 1990, complemented by the educational Millennium Development Goals and the Fast Track Initiative. Universal primary education was to be achieved by 2015, with a broader agenda that focused on lifelong learning as well as schooling.

While there has been great progress towards universal primary education, there are many nations which will not achieve that goal. Moreover, the quality of education has often suffered from the expansion efforts, and many observers feel that there is a dramatic need for better education as well as more education. Similarly, there are huge needs for educational opportunities for youths who are out of school, for trade and vocational educational services, for growth and improvement of higher educational systems, for better opportunities for girls' and women's education, for education for the disabled, and for more and better educational opportunities for marginalized groups and for the poor.

My co-coordinator of the course, Frank Method, make the point that there surely should be some global agreement reached on priorities for education after 2015. It will surely take several years to achieve such an agreement. The question was posed: "what can UNESCO do now and in the near future to help the world reach such an agreement, and further, to reach an agreement that will be effective in promoting education worldwide?"

There are a number of things UNESCO can do, including:

• Continuing the monitoring of EFA so that the negotiations will be based on a clear understanding of what has been accomplished and what remains to be done;
• Providing a forum for Ministers of Education and others to discuss the issues and opportunities now, before agreements have to be formalized;
• Supporting educational planning efforts in member countries so that they will enter the negotiation process with a clear picture of their internal priorities and of the potential roles of donors, civil society and the private sector in achieving their educational goals;
• Networking via National Commissions for UNESCO, Associated Non-Governmental Organizations, University Chairs and Networks and other means to stimulate wide discussion of the future priorities within the global community of educators and those interested in education;
• Mobilizing and publishing expert advice through seminars and publications; and using the media to bring the matter to the attention of the general public and to promote public interest in the priorities for future efforts to promote education.

It seems likely that a well defined sequel to EFA will help:

• to stimulate global efforts to improve education, and
  
• help governments, donors, NGOs and others to coordinate their efforts to achieve greater efficiency and relevance.

On the other hand such efforts could easily founder by lapsing into platitudinous generalities, by failing to offer enough benefits to the various participants to engender compromise, by failing to recognize the legitimate interests of the key participants, or by degenerating into fruitless controversy over the sources of funding or the locus of control.

The conclusion: UNESCO can and should play a useful role now and in the next few years in helping its member nations to reach a useful accord on the sequel to EFA.

Election of the Director General

A new Director General of UNESCO is to be elected, with the final decision taking place in the meeting of the General Conference in October. The election seems to be heating up. Here are excerpts from two recent articles:

From the Media Line (February 2, 2009):

Controversy continues to follow Egypt’s minister of culture Farouk Hosny as he attempts to build a global consensus for his candidacy as the next chief of the United Nations cultural organization, UNESCO, with Israel and the United States the most outspoken critics of his election......

The United States and Israel have been lobbying against Hosny’s candidacy, arguing that he is not equipped to deal with the international community. The Bush administration allegedly asked Egypt to reconsider the minister’s nomination.

An American Embassy official in Cairo confirmed the Bush administration was opposed to Hosny’s election, saying that his past comments and actions had threatened to undermine international cultural institutions.

From an article by Beth Day Romulo in the Manila Bulletin (February 9, 2009):

Ambassador Irina Bokova, of Bulgaria, is campaigning for the post of UNESCO Director General with a tour of 15 countries, to drum up support for her campaign. In Asia, she will also visit Japan, South Korea and Thailand, then travel to the United States, Moscow and African countries.

From Petar Kostadinov in the Sofia Echo (Bulgaria):

In May 2008, Bulgaria's Government nominated the country's ambassador to France, Irina Bokova, to become Unesco director-general in the place of Koichiro Matsuura, whose term of office expires in 2009.

Bokova has already received the full support of the majority partner in the ruling coalition, the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

From the Penki News (Lithuania) (January 30, 2009):

During his visit to Davos for the World Economic Forum, President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus met with President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Gillani Syed Yousaf of Pakistan.......

President Adamkus asked for Azeri support to the candidature of Ina Marčiulionytė nominated by the three Baltic states for the position of UNESCO Director General. The issue of support for the Baltic candidature was also brought up in the meeting with the Prime Minister Gillani Syed Yousaf of Pakistan. According to the President, support from Pakistan as a member of UNESCO Executive Council would be highly appreciated in this matter.

Editorial Comment: I have heard rumors that current and former staff members of the UNESCO Secretariat are interested in running, if they can get the support of their governments.

I wonder whether there might be an intellectual leader from Latin America, India or China who might be a better candidate than any of those who have so far announced for the position. Ten years ago there were eleven candidates, so perhaps more will appear.

The time is fairly short for before the deadline for countries to nominate their candidates. For all practical purposes, the decision will be made long before October as the delegates and their governments pledge to support one candidate or the other. JAD

UNITAR Evaluation of Impact of World Heritage

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) will hold the Hiroshima Management and Conservation of World Heritage Sites Workshop from April 19 to April 24, 2009. The workshop is jointly sponsored with UNESCO's World Heritage Center, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, and the Getty Conservation Institute.

The 2009 Workshop is entitled “Conservation for Peace - World Heritage Impact Assessment”. It begins the second five year cycle in this program of workshops. There were five previous workshops.

The participants (up to 30) will consist of:

• Potential or actual heritage site managers;
• Natural/cultural conservation specialists and trainers;
• Decision makers and government officers within national World Heritageadministrations such as the Ministries of the Environment, Culture, Forestry, Conservation or Tourism;
• Representatives of national academic institutions, think-tanks and civil society.

Read more!