What is the UNESCO?
UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
On November 4th, 1946 the UNESCO was founded and based in Paris. As a special organization of the United Nations it has its own declaration with the famous principle "As wars emerge from people´s minds peace needs to be positioned right there as well".
The UNESCO has its own members - not less than 192 independent states which come together in Paris on a biannual basis in order to decide on the UNESCO program and budget. The UNESCO is represented by offices and specialists in 55 countries. Each member state holds a National Commission for UNESCO that is urged to spread the ideals and the work of the UNESCO. In Germany this is the German Commission for UNESCO in Bonn (www.unesco.de).
General Director of the UNESCO is since 2009 Mrs. Irina Bokova.
Adresse:
UNESCO
7 Place de Fontenoy
F-75007 Paris
Homepage: www.unesco.org
The main spheres of action of the UNESCO
The UNESCO boosts the dialogue and cooperation between different peoples in all humanitarian and cultural domains. This leads to a very broad field of activity splitting up into four main program:
Education for everyone - on a lifelong basis
- science in the service of development
- cultural development: heritage and creativity
- a communication and information society for everyone
This is about world topics like alphabetization and school education for all children; the new role of universities; research and protection of the environment of mankind by scientific cooperation; protection of important cultural and natural heritage; cultural diversity and the necessary dialogue between different cultures; the advancement of creativity and artistic work; freedom of the press and a better approach to new media and important information in general for developing nations.
How does the UNESCO work?
To organize and spread the latest knowledge in all of these fields is the job of the UNESCO specialists all over the world. They organize e.g. trainings for the expert staff of all member states, especially the poorer ones that depend on these trainings. On international conferences they try to come to agreements between all member countries concerning global questions. They offer their expertise as consultants for free and work together with international partners like the World Bank, UNICEF, or the United Nations Development Program. And they accomplish hands-on development aid in selected projects, especially in the field of education.
One of the main sources of private donations is Germany, where more than 40 million US$ have been collected in favor of the UNESCO program "Education for Children in Need" by UNESCO Special Ambassador Dr. h.c. Ute-Henriette Ohoven within the last ten years.
