UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Current developments and long-term responsibilities

In addition to passing the Anti-Doping Convention and adopting the Declaration on Bioethics, a further important result of the UNESCO General Conference in October 2005 was the adoption of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. It created a binding basis in international law for the right of all countries to independent cultural policies.
This was the 33rd of the General Conferences, which are held every two years, and marked the end of Germany's stint as chair of the Executive Council, an important steering committee within UNESCO.

UNESCO considers education to be the basis of peace and development. That is why UNESCO is the UN agency responsible for coordinating the Education for All (EFA) action plan. This programme was launched at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000 and includes a commitment to achieve six important international education goals by 2015, including primary education for all and the reduction of illiteracy rates.

As a follow-up to the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, the United Nations proclaimed the years 2005-2014 as the World Decade for Sustainable Development and mandated UNESCO to coordinate it. The goal of this Decade is to spread the idea that education is the key to an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable development across the world.
In Germany, the BMBF has commissioned the German Commission for UNESCO to coordinate the implementation of the Global Decade. To this end, the German Commission for UNESCO has appointed a national committee that has selected 170 best practice examples of education for sustainable development as the official German contribution to the World Decade.

Germany's nine UNESCO professorships form part of a global network for university cooperation. Two UNESCO educational organizations are based in Germany: The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training has been operating in Bonn since 2000, with the support of the Federal Government. The UNESCO Institute for Education (UIP) has been based in Hamburg since 1951. This institute is making an important contribution to the implementation of UNESCO's Education for All programme and the UN World Literacy Decade (2003-2012). Its aim is to ensure that the learning needs of young people and adults are met.

In order to achieve equality between this institute and other comparable UNESCO education institutes, a decision was made in 2005 to make the UIP a fully-fledged international UNESCO institute and to give it a new name: the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL). The 160 German UNESCO project schools are part of UNESCO's international associated schools network, which comprises approximately 7500 schools in almost all of the UNESCO's 191 member states. Their curricula place special emphasis on Human Rights, intercultural learning, sustainable development, and a fair distribution of wealth. The main educational goal of the UNESCO project schools is to teach people to live together in a pluralistic world full of cultural diversity.

With its numerous long-term scientific programmes, UNESCO promotes research into and the protection of people's living environment, for example by engaging in international cooperation in the field of environmental research (Man and the Biosphere, MAB), coordinating marine research through the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), carrying out research on geological processes in the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) and researching the water cycle and water resources management in the International Hydrological Programme (IHP). The International Basic Science Programme (IBSP) has been active since 2004. It focuses on areas such as chemistry, physics, mathematics and certain fields of engineering that do not fall within the responsibility of other UN agencies.

Germany plays a very active role in UNESCO's science programme. After consulting the German Commission for UNESCO, the Federal Ministers responsible for the respective areas have appointed national committees for a total of four UNESCO programmes.

In addition, UNESCO runs an intergovernmental programme for the Management of Social Transformations (MOST), through which it supports social science research projects that are comparable and networked across different regions and which focus on topics such as urbanization, living together in cultural diversity and migration. In its scientific fields of work, UNESCO supports the establishment and development of  scientific research and training institutions and international basic research networks in science and technology, particularly in developing countries. Within the UN system, UNESCO is the only specialized agency with competence in cultural matters. Its main responsibilities are the protection and preservation of cultural heritage, the conservation and support of cultural diversity and the promotion of dialogue between different cultures.

The programme for the preservation of the world's cultural and natural heritage is the most  famous of all UNESCO programmes. The UNESCO world heritage list currently includes 830 world heritage sites, including 32 from Germany. The old town of Regensburg was the latest to be included (in July 2006).  The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was adopted in 2003 and came into force in 2006. It will ensure that UNESCO's long-standing efforts to gather, archive and revitalize cultural traditions, skills and endangered languages are given a binding status in international law.

The Memory of the World programme has the aim of protecting and disseminating documentary heritage. The international Memory of the World Register includes 120 entries, including nine from Germany (e.g. Beethoven's 9th symphony). UNESCO has appointed two commissions in the area of the ethics of science. The Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights was prepared by the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) and adopted by the 29th session of the UNESCO General Conference. The impact of this declaration was analysed in subsequent years. The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights was adopted unanimously in 2005.

Ethical aspects of progress in science and technology are dealt with by the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST). This commission initially focused on issues relating to freshwater, space and energy. Ever since the conference held in Berlin in late 2001, however, the subject of ethics in information technology has been at the forefront of its work. As part of the Information for All programme, UNESCO is working on the improvement of the international exchange of information (databases, libraries, archives). In recent years, the organization's programmes have been concentrating on the problems arising in modern media technology.

Structure and budget

UNESCO's structure includes the General Conference (sessions take place every two years), the Executive Board with its 58 members, and the Director-General. There are scientific committees and intergovernmental or international councils that provide expert advice for the programmes.
The German Commission for UNESCO is an intermediary organization for international cultural policy. Its role is to advise the Federal Government and other responsible bodies, participate in the implementation of the UNESCO programme in Germany, keep the public informed, and establish contact between UNESCO and specialist organizations, institutions and experts.

In 2005, UNESCO's total budget was approximately €251 million. Germany, as the third-largest contributor after the USA and Japan, provided 8.8% of this amount.

Spending on important programmes from the UNESCO regular budget in 2004-2005

Area	Expenditure in million US $
Research on the effective management of freshwater resources with a focus on the risks and social challenges (including an intergovernmental focus on the International Hydrological Programme-IHP)	8.8
Environmental and earth sciences, with special emphasis on biological diversity, sustainable development and earth observation (including a focus on the intergovernmental programme Man and the Biosphere - MAB)	3.0
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)	3.8
Principles of natural sciences, engineering sciences, renewable energy sources, disaster prevention	3.7
Science policy advisory services, regional science cooperation (esp. for island states) and the preservation of indigenous knowledge	1.7
Ethics of science and bioethics	2.9
Promotion of Human Rights	4.3
Research on social transformation (with a focus on the MOST intergovernmental programme)	2.5
Creating an environment that benefits freedom of opinion	3.5
Promoting access to information at a community level, including the diversity of cultural contents	6.5
Promoting and encouraging the use of the media and information technology	3.0

Contact

Address
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Phone: 00 33 1 - 45 68 10 00
Fax: 00 33 1 - 45 67 19 00
Internet: http://www.unesco.org/
Specialized Agency of the United Nations

German Commission for UNESCO (Deutsche UNESCO Kommission; DUK)
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53115 Bonn
Internet: http://www.unesco.de/?&L=1
E-mail: sekretariat@unesco.de

Source: UNESCO