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Information AboutUnited Nations Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization |
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UNESCO (the '''United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization''') is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. Its purpose is to contribute to Peace and Security by promoting International Collaboration through Education , Science , and Culture in order to further universal Respect for Justice , the rule of Law , and the Human Rights and fundamental Freedom s proclaimed in the UN Charter . {Link without Title} In total 191 nations belong to UNESCO. The organization is headquartered in , technical, and teacher-training programmes; international Science programmes; regional and cultural History projects, the promotion of Cultural Diversity ; international cooperation agreements to secure the world cultural and natural Heritage and to preserve Human Rights ; and attempts to bridge the world-wide Digital Divide . CONTROVERSY AND REFORM UNESCO has been at the centre of controversy, particularly in the United States , the United Kingdom , and Singapore . During the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO's support for a "New World Information Order" and its MacBride Report calling for democratization of the media and a more egalitarian access to information was condemned in these countries as attempts to destroy the Freedom Of The Press . UNESCO was perceived as a platform for communist and Third World countries to attack the West . In 1984, the United States withheld its contributions and withdrew from the organization in protest, followed by the United Kingdom in 1985 and Singapore in 1986. The UK later rejoined in 1997 and the United States in 2003, after considerable reforms were implemented in the organization. The organization's reforms included the following measures: the number of divisions in UNESCO was cut in half, allowing a corresponding halving of the number of Directors -- from 200 to under 100, out of a total staff of approximately 2,000 worldwide. At the same time, the number of field units was cut from a high of 79 in 1999 to 52 today. Parallel management structures, including 35 Cabinet-level special advisor positions, were abolished. 209 negotiated staff departures and buy-outs took place from 1999–2003, causing the inherited $10 million staff cost deficit to disappear. The staff pyramid, which was the most top-heavy in the UN system, was cut back as the number of high-level posts was halved and the “inflation” of posts was reversed through the down-grading many positions. Open competitive recruitment, results-based appraisal of staff, training of all managers and field rotation were instituted, as well as SISTER and SAP systems for transparency in results-based programming and budgeting. In addition, the Internal Oversight Service (IOS)was established in 2001 to improve organizational performance by including the lessons learned from program evaluations into the overall reform process. In reality though, IOS' main tasks involve auditing rather than programme oversight; it regularly caries out audits of UNESCO offices that essentially look into administrative and procedural compliance, but do not assess the relevance and usefulness of the activities and projects that are carried out. Programming coherence and relevance remains a challenge at UNESCO. One of the main reasons for this is that activities and projects can be identified and supervised by various services within the organisation (divisions and sections based at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, UNESCO regional and cluster field offices and international insitutes) with insufficient coordination between them. UNESCO ACTIVITIES
DIRECTORS GENERAL OF UNESCO # Julian Huxley , United Kingdom ( 1946 – 1948 ) # Jaime Torres Bodet , Mexico ( 1948 – 1952 ) # John Wilkinson Taylor , United States ( Acting 1952 – 1953 ) # Luther Evans , United States ( 1953 – 1958 ) # Vittorino Veronese , Italy ( 1958 – 1961 ) # René Maheu , France ( 1961 – 1974 ; Acting 1962 ) # Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow , Senegal ( 1974 – 1987 ) # Federico Mayor Zaragoza , Spain ( 1987 – 1999 ) # Koïchiro Matsuura , Japan ( 1999 –present) EXTERNAL LINKS
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