Irina Bokova, Director-General, UNESCO.
Click here for more on UNESCO's support for sustainable development and Rio + 20, The Earth Summit.
Showing posts with label Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Development. Show all posts
Sunday, July 08, 2012
UNESCO: Building Equitable, Inclusive Green Societies
Irina Bokova, Director-General, UNESCO.
Click here for more on UNESCO's support for sustainable development and Rio + 20, The Earth Summit.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Rethinking Development: Ethics and Social Inclusion
A two-day conference, “Rethinking Development: Ethics and Social Inclusion," is to be held in Mexico City, August 17 and 18, 2011. Organized by UNESCO and the Government of Mexico, the conference will bring together 25 experts to look at ways of moving beyond purely economic and technical approaches to development towards more democratic, environmentally sustainable, socially just and culturally pluralistic societies. More specifically, it is also to provide a framework for reflection in academic, activist and policy communities.
The conference is to help set an agenda for UNESCO’s thinking and action in the decisive period for the international community that will run from the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development to the expiry in 2015 of the Millennium Development Goals commitment period. It will also, more broadly, provide a framework for reflection in academic, activist and policy communities.
The conference will be opened by a formal introduction by Pilar Álvarez-Laso, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences.
The conference is open to the public, subject to prior registration. To register, you may contact Ricardo Guerrero, Tel: (52-55) 3601-1650, r.guerrero@unesco.org.
For further information on the content and objectives of the conference, or on UNESCO’s activities in ethics, you may contact Josepha Montana, j.montana@unesco.org.
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
UNESCO's work in promoting sustainable development in Africa
Naoline Raondry-Rakotoarisoa talks about UNESCO's work in promoting sustainable development in Africa. The presentation was made as part of the discussion at the Nairobi Manifesto Roundtable.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
World Science Day for Peace and Development: 10 November
Celebrated each year on 10 November, World Science Day for Peace and Development provides an opportunity to shine the spotlight on the contribution science makes to achieving sustainable development and enhancing the prospects for peace.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
OECD DAC Recognizes an Increase in UNESCO's Development Aid
The Director-General of UNESCO has been notified that a DAC Working Party has decided to raise the UNESCO ODA coefficient from 25% to 44%, with the change to take effect as from the current year reporting on ODA flows in 2008.
At its May 2009 meeting the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Council (DAC) Working Party on Statistics reviewed and approved a general methodology for assessing official development assistance eligibility (ODA-eligibility) of international agencies and for deriving coefficients for international agencies. This coefficient is designed to assess the percentage of an organization’s activities which contribute to development according to OECD’s definitions.
At its May 2009 meeting the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Council (DAC) Working Party on Statistics reviewed and approved a general methodology for assessing official development assistance eligibility (ODA-eligibility) of international agencies and for deriving coefficients for international agencies. This coefficient is designed to assess the percentage of an organization’s activities which contribute to development according to OECD’s definitions.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
ITU Reports Global Development in ICT
The evidence that developing information communication technology (ICT) is becoming an increasing priority around the world continues to mount. In illustrating this, the International Telecommunications Union (ITC) recently published its ICT Development Index (IDI) and indicated all but 1 of the 154 countries under study improved their levels of ICT from 2002 to 2007. These findings included data from UNESCO and were based off of 11 indicators that measured factors like ICT access as well as use and skills of the population. The countries with the most developed ICT levels were largely from Northern Europe then primarily from other high-income regions in Europe, Asia, and North America. Sweden ranked highest with South Korea in second place; the United States was ranked 17th.
Growth, however, was not uniform. Eastern Europe, for example, had some of the highest IDI value gains that were fueled by dramatic development in the Baltic states and in Romania. In contrast, countries in Africa did show signs of improvement but had relatively little ICT development.
The IDI report also measured information regarding the development of the digital divide and includes a new ICT Price Basket that measures ICT tariffs across countries. The entire report can be found:
Sunday, March 01, 2009
"Scientific Stimulation From The Stars"
Judith H. Dobrzynski has an article on UNESCO's Year of Astronomy in Forbes magazine. She writes:the U.S. rejoined UNESCO in 2002 after the agency implemented reforms. UNESCO has changed; many of its programs can now be applauded. And this year, there's one that's fun, enlightening and universally engaging. It's one you may even want to participate in.
To mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first discoveries in the heavens, UNESCO has proclaimed 2009 to be the International Year of Astronomy (with the required approval of the U.N. General Assembly). The point is to spread scientific knowledge about the skies and the universe, encourage research in astronomy and raise awareness, as the proclamation declared, "of the importance of astronomy to social development through the establishment of links between scientific research networks and the cultural perception of the universe."
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
IPDC Meeting: February 25-27
Local, pluristic media projects will be given a large forum later this month during the 53 meeting of the International Programme for the Development of Communication February 23 through the 25th in Paris. During this meeting, the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Council will meet to discuss and allocate funds for submitted projects regarding how freedom of expression and local media can be promoted in developing countries. For more details about submitted projects and for the agenda, click here.The IPDC itself was created in 1981 as a result of a 1980 report given by the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems. Its focus is to rally and organize the international community to promote media development in developing countries. Since its inception, IPDC has supported over 1,100 projects in 139 countries.
Past IPDC-supported projects have included the International Freedom of Expression Exchange Network, Radio Toco for youth in Trinidad and Tobago, and the Cambodia Communication Institute.
Editiorial: The IPDC is a wonderful organization well worth supporting. For more information on how to become involved, click here
Sunday, January 11, 2009
"Press freedom and development:
an analysis of correlations between freedom of the press and the different dimensions of development, poverty, governance and peace"Guseva, Marina; Nakaa, Mounira; Novel, Anne Sophie; Pekkala, Kirsi; Souberou, Bachir; Stouli, Sami
UNESCO, 2008. (133 pages)
This study is the outcome of a research project implemented by the Centre for Peace and Human Security (CPHS) at Sciences Po University with support by UNESCO. The initial idea was to gather and collate quantitative and qualitative evidence of correlations between the indicators of environments conducive to media freedom and independence and the indicators of human development, human security, stability, poverty reduction, good governance and peace.
Monday, November 03, 2008
"It is the knowledge (not digital) divide that matters"
Abdul Waheed Khan, the Assistant Director General of UNESCO for Information and Communications, has published this article in A World of Science in the Developing World. He writes:Thanks to advances in ICTs, knowledge has never been easier to process, share and analyse. Having said that, it is important to note that the issue is not 'how' but 'what' information is communicated. That is why I prefer to use the term 'knowledge divide' instead of 'digital divide".
The book is published by Nature magazine and is available freely on the Internet. It commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Third World Academy of Sciences and its work building the scientific capacity of developing nations.Dr. Kahn's participation in this publication is symbolic of the importance of UNESCO to the development of science in the third world, and illustrates the close cooperation between UNESCO and other agencies building scientific capacity.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
International Conference on Women's Leadership for Sustainable Development
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleafaddresses the Conference
Jerusalem and Haifa, Israel
18-22 November 2007
The conference, a biennial event held by the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center, was cosponsored by UNESCO and Mashav (the Foreign Ministry-operated official body for international cooperation).
UNESCO Deputy Director-General Prof. Marcio Barbosa expressed gratitude to the government of Israel for hosting such a major event and to the eminent women leaders who had participated with such great enthusiasm.
18-22 November 2007
The conference, a biennial event held by the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center, was cosponsored by UNESCO and Mashav (the Foreign Ministry-operated official body for international cooperation).
UNESCO Deputy Director-General Prof. Marcio Barbosa expressed gratitude to the government of Israel for hosting such a major event and to the eminent women leaders who had participated with such great enthusiasm.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
What does the U.S. owe to developing nations?
The San Francisco Chronicle published comments from a number of people who were responding to an article from a couple of Peace Corps Volunteers in Kenya. The PCVs said, as most of us concluded in the Peace Corps, that poor people have to change if they want to escape poverty. They said:
we were there to share our skills. Kenya - Africa - needs modern skills far more than it needs Western cash.The Volunteers also wrote:
Education is the key, and the Kenyans know it. In 2002, the government agreed to provide free primary schooling for all. Secondary schools, however, charge a fee, often beyond the reach of many students, even when the family pulls together to send them. This is indeed one area where Western donations can do the most good, because it gives young people hope.The folk who responded to the Chronicle gave a full spectrum of replies:
Tina Martin, San FranciscoThe website also generated a number of online comments.
Considering that the United States makes up less than 5 percent of the world population but uses more than 25 percent of the world's resources, I think it owes developing nations the chance to benefit from what they have before we liberate them from it.
Marcy Orosco, Guerneville
Nothing. Let's start with the United States first.
Bill Krumbein, Santa Rosa
We owe them fairness. We owe them a level playing field. Expecting them to play in the same league as our economic standards is impossible. We need to stop taking advantage of them.
Mike Haworth, Vallejo
It's not a matter of owing, it's more a matter of redemption. We need to redeem ourselves in the eyes of the world. Thanks to the current administration, the term "Ugly American" has been revived and multiplied a hundred times over. Repairing the damage will take decades, and every opportunity to do so should be acted upon immediately -- and we will, just as soon as all our resources stop funding this unwinnable war.
UNESCO is deeply involved in the efforts to help Kenya and all of Africa to help itself. It is the lead agency in the global effort to provide Education for All. It is also the key agency in the United Nations system seeking to promote culturally sensitive approaches to the changes that poor people and poor nations must make to climb out of the poverty trap.
Read the full article by Daniel Kohanski and Jean Dahlstrom Marcucci.
Read the responses from the public.
Visit the UNESCO Nairobi Office website.
Read the responses from the public.
Visit the UNESCO Nairobi Office website.
Leave us a comment (see below). What do you think America owes to developing nations? Do you think UNESCO is a good way to pay some of that debt?
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Editorial: The COM+ Alliance
The Com+ alliance is a partnership of international organizations and communications professionals from diverse sectors committed to using communications to advance a vision of sustainable development that integrates its three pillars: economic, social and environmental. Its partners are:
John Daly
(The opinion expressed is mine alone.)
Should one or more of UNESCO's publications be nominated for the COM+ Communications for Sustainable Development Awards for 2007?
- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service TrustUNESCO is the lead agency for the United Nations system in communications, focuses strongly on sustainable social and economic development, and especially through its science programs leads in the generation of scientific information on the environment. It seems clear that it should be a member of this consortium, but is not. I strongly recommend that the United States delegation to UNESCO encourage UNESCO to join and participate in COM+.
- Center for Applied Biodiversity Science/Conservation International (CI)
- Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
- GEF
- GlobeScan
- The International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ)
- Inter Press Service (IPS)
- The World Conservation Union (IUCN)
- Reuters Foundation
- Southern Caucus of NGOs for Sustainable Development
- Television Trust for the Environment (TVE)
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
- WThe World Bank
- World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
John Daly
(The opinion expressed is mine alone.)
Should one or more of UNESCO's publications be nominated for the COM+ Communications for Sustainable Development Awards for 2007?
Reporting on sustainable development key issues
COM+, in a joint effort with Inter Press Service (IPS) and the International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ), is encouraging environmental journalists around the globe to produce in-depth, independent articles on sustainable development key issues, through the initiative: “Bringing Sustainable Development Closer to the People through Mainstream and Civil Society Media Networks”. The articles can be read in English, Spanish and some of them in French and are distributed through the IPS global wire service, COM+ partners, Tierramerica, IFEJ network, Terraviva and Planet's Voice among others.
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