UNESCO in the Spotlight: Science and Communications

At its recent meeting, UNESCO's Executive Board directed the Secretariat to propose a new International Engineering Program in conjunction with its draft Program and Budget for the period 2012-2013. The program should "strengthen research, education and capacity-building in the field of engineering." The Board had considered a report by the Director General on the feasibility of creating such a program.

At one time UNESCO had a significant program in the Engineering Sciences but that program had been reduced in scope and impact due to reductions in its resources. The new International Engineering Program would presumably restore resources devoted to engineering.

• roads, railroads, airports and ports
• potable water and sanitation systems
• dams, canals, and irrigation systems
• electric power systems
• computer and information systems

This is the first ever international report on engineering from UNESCO. It

• Identifies issues and challenges facing engineering
• Encourages better public understanding of engineering and its role in society, and
• Highlights ways of making engineering and engineering education more attractive to young people, especially women

Engineers create knowledge, technology and infrastructure – our knowledge societies and economies were built by engineers and much of the history of civilisation is the history of engineering, which is perhaps the oldest profession.

Engineering is so successful and pervasive; however, that it can be taken for granted and is often overlooked by the public and policy makers. At the same time, less young people in many countries are going into engineering, and there are worldwide concerns about declining human capacity and the consequences for poverty reduction and sustainable development. Reports of shortages of engineers in key sectors are common. This is compounded by the brain-drain of engineers from developing countries and out of engineering. These issues are linked and provide an opportunity for change: the public perception of engineering reflects the changing needs for engineering, and need for engineering to change, and young people are concerned about global issues and attracted to engineering as a means to address them.

Source: Tony Marjorem, UNESCO, December 2008

The World Engineers' Convention was held in Brasilia on December 5, 2008 with the participation of UNESCO. President Lula of Brazil addressed the participants, describing the needs for engineers in his country, and the inability of the university system to train enough engineers to meet national needs.

There are in many countries shortages of engineers to address national priorities in infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, construction, transport and communications. In the oil and gas and mining industries, for example, recent peaks in the price of commodities were partly attributed to the shortage of engineers. Engineering and technology are also vital for sustainable development and addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation – where shortages of engineers to develop renewable energy are also indicated. The same is true for many fields of engineering - civil, mechanical, electrical and electronics, chemical and new and emerging areas such as materials engineering and nanotechnology.

David Dickson wrote an editorial for SciDev.Net making the important point that more should be done to enable people to exercise their rights to access to scientific information and the beneficial products of its application.

We must clarify the 'human right' to science — and remind governments of their contractual obligation to uphold it.

I agree completely!

The right is acknowledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Remember, the United States is not only a signatory to this Declaration, but encouraged its development and supported Eleanor Roosevelt as the chair of the committee that drafted the report.

It is also acknowledged in the United Nations in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:

Article 11

2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international co-operation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed:

(a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources;

Article 15

1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone:

(a) To take part in cultural life;

(b) To enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications;

(c) To benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

2. The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for the conservation, the development and the diffusion of science and culture.

3. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity.

4. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the benefits to be derived from the encouragement and development of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific and cultural fields.

The United States ratified this Covenant in 1977, and thereby obligated to abide by its provisions.


The rights to science must be understood in the context of the overall set of rights. Half the world's population is extremely poor by American standards. That poverty is not merely lack of income and wealth, it also involves poor education, poor health services, poor access to knowledge and education, poor access to technology, poor access to food and inadequate housing. Unless poverty is ameliorated, there will be no real access to science and its beneficial applications.

Everyone, even those of us fortunate enough to live in affluent societies, obtain our access to science via institutions, including importantly educational institutions. However, market institutions provide us to products produced by corporate institutions applying scientific knowledge in their production. Assuring people the rights to knowledge involves implanting the needed policies and building the needed institutions. It also involves educating not only the consumers of science and its products, but also the vast workforce needed to develop, disseminate, and utilize scientific knowledge.

There are still government policies that deny people access to scientific knowledge, censoring information that government officials feel would be dangerous for the public to know or censoring information generally catching scientific information in the net as part of the total injunction. I find the deliberate obstruction of access to scientific knowledge even more unforgivable than failure to take the positive steps needed to promote such access.


Not only does UNESCO seek to promote human rights through all of its programs, it has been intimately involved in the United Nations processes through which the nations of the world have agreed to honor those rights. Through its natural science programs it has fostered international cooperation in science. Its programs focusing on oceans, water, geology, and other sciences have helped to make information widely available on natural resources and their sustainable development.

Information from the social and human sciences is especially sensitive in many countries. While people must understand their societies and their economies if they are to progress, and indeed must understand human behavior, such knowledge can challenge traditional beliefs and threaten dysfunctional elites. UNESCO has been especially involved in improving the use of scientific knowledge in the policy making process.

Science education has been an important element of UNESCO's programs since its inception, involving both its educational programs and its science programs. UNESCO has focused not only on science in the pre-college years, but has also promoted university education, and indeed has helped establish post-graduate opportunities for students of the pure and applied sciences.

UNESCO's Communications and Information Program has worked to help developing countries to improve both the information and communications infrastructure and the content provided through that infrastructure. For many people in developing nations, the mass media are the most available means of access to scientific information, and thus it is critical that the content broadcast through the media be appropriate for their needs and interests.

Thus one way to promote peoples rights to scientific knowledge and its application is to support UNESCO and its programs.

John Daly
(The ideas expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.)

Read about UNESCO's celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The first ever international report on engineering from UNESCO, and it is intended to:

• Identify issues and challenges facing engineering
• Promote better public understanding of engineering and its role in society, and
• Highlight ways of making engineering and engineering education more attractive to young people, especially women

The report had a "soft launch" this week at the World Engineers’ Convention in Brasilia on 2-6 December 2008, and be published at UNESCO in spring 2009.

Daimler and UNESCO invite engineering students to enter Mondialogo Contest

Project proposals to improve living conditions in developing countries; address poverty; sustainable development; and climate change

€300,000 in total prize money for the best teams

Mondialogo, a partnership between UNESCO and DaimlerChrysler, works to bring young people together to foster meaningful dialogue and exchange between cultures and civilizations. One major pillar is the Mondialogo Engineering Award, of which two rounds have been held so far.

Participants are young engineers and engineering students from developing and developed countries who have cooperated in mixed teams to develop project proposals which can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those of poverty eradication and sustainable development, in developing countries.

In June 2007, for the second time, an international jury of prominent scientists selected the top thirty-one nominees, out of 92 participating teams. Ten of these top teams will receive cash prizes of €20,000 each for the initiation of their projects, and twenty of whom will receive honourable mention and €5,000 each in prize money.

The prizes were awarded during the Mondialogo Engineering Award Ceremony & Symposium which will take place in Mumbai, India from 7-10 December 2007.

Gender Indicators in Science, Engineering and Technology: An Information Toolkit
By Sophia Huyer and Gunnar Westholm
UNESCO Publishing, 2007. 20.00 €
Click here if you want to purchase a copy.

Read Head counts and headaches measuring women in science,which summarizes a survey by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics of women's participation in research in 86 countries (A World of Science, April 2007, pages 21-23).

Read also the editorial on The Glass Ceiling by UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences (A World of Science, April 2007).

A meeting on the Empowerment of women in engineering and technology organized by WFEO in collaboration with UNESCO was held from 6 to 8 June. For details, contact the UNESCO focal point.

Oil refinery in Scotland
Source: UNESCO

UNESCO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Energy of the Russian Federation, will convene a Ministerial Conference entitled “Energy in a Changing World” at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 31 May to 1 June 2007.

This high-level consultation of Ministers of Energy will address the energy challenges facing the international community in the twenty-first century, the role of science in sustainable energy development and the reduction of energy poverty. The UN and other main international organizations concerned are to be also associated with this event.

Report by the Director General on the Feasibility Study for the Establishment of a Sustainable Energy Development Center in Moscow. (176 EX_17.pdf)