UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) was established in 1946. It seeks to build peace through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture.It is a specialised agency of the United Nations with the mission of contributing to building peace, alleviating poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue, through education, sciences, culture, communication and information. The functions of UNESCO are to contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication
Members of UNESCO
UNESCO has has 193 Members and 11 Associate Members
Headquarters of UNESCO
The headquarters of UNESCO is situated at Paris. UNESCO Staff is deployed in some 50 UNESCO
Field Offices in the five regions (Africa, Arab States, Europe and North America, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean). Their role is to coordinate and implement the work of the Organization at regional and national level.
Functions of UNESCO
The main functions of UNESCO are:
- Laboratory of ideas, including foresight: anticipating the great upheavals which will affect societies and assess the future of education, sciences, culture and communication.
- Standard-setter: setting, applying, monitoring and reviewing international norms and standards. This function is illustrated by UNESCO’s constant production and adoption of declarations, conventions, monitoring mechanisms etc.
- Clearing house: collecting, exchanging and disseminating information in its designated fields of competence.
- Capacity-builder in Member States in UNESCO’s fields of competence: providing advice and assistance to Member States on national policy and development programmes.
- Catalyst for international cooperation
UNESCO Director General
The Secretariat consists of the Director-General and the Staff (at Headquarters and the Field Offices) appointed by him. A new Director-General is elected every four yearsby the General Conference. The 39th session of UNESCO’s General Conference elected Audrey Azoulay as Director-General of UNESCO, succeeding Irina Bokova. She took office on 15 November for a four-year term.
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