About the MOST Program

The Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Program is UNESCO's flagship social science effort. In his address to the Eighth Session of the Intergovernmental Council (IGC) of the MOST Program, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, summarized recent progress.

Excerpt:

Four years ago, after the thorough evaluation of MOST’s Phase-One, the Intergovernmental Council underscored the need for MOST to fully play its role in efficiently bridging research, policy and practice. Since then, and particularly in the last biennium, MOST has made a specific effort to support multi-partite networks at sub-regional and regional level with a view to producing policy-relevant knowledge under its priority themes.

MOST has also strengthened its strategic alliances with, on the one hand, the users of social science knowledge: with governments, regional and sub-regional organizations and civil society organizations; and on the other hand, with international and regional social science organizations and national research councils.

All of MOST’s cooperation efforts culminated in what has been named the “Buenos Aires Process”. The process gave birth to the International Forum on the Social Science-Policy Nexus which took place simultaneously in three cities of Argentina: Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario; and in the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo, in February 2006 and to which you are dedicating tomorrow’s morning session.