The UNESCO Courier 2009

The 2009 Archives of the UNESCO Courier provides links to all the monthly issues of UNESCO's principle online magazine as well as to three special issues.

Focus on UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST)

This is a 20-minute film that describes the UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Program. The program is the flagship for UNESCO's Social and Human Sciences program, focusing on the use of social science results by governments, civil society and academia to improve social and economic development processes and decisions.

The video is primarily in French, but includes sections in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The non-English portions have English subtitles.

My computer played the video using the Windows Media Player.

Click here to watch the video!

U.S. UNESCO category 2 centre on freshwater

On Thursday 29 October 2009, the outgoing Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, signed with Major General Don T. Riley, Deputy Commanding General of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), an agreement establishing the UNESCO International Centre for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM) in Alexandria, Virginia.

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Atlas of Transboundary Aquifers

The worldwide Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management (ISARM) Initiative is an UNESCO and IAH led multi-agency effort aimed at improving the understanding of scientific, socio-economic, legal, institutional and environmental issues related to the management of transboundary aquifers. Since its start in 2000, ISARM has launched a number of global and regional initiatives. More than 200 transboundary aquifers have been identified. Inventories undertaken in the Americas, Asia, Africa, South-Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus, and Middle East have been already published separately. This Atlas presents a compilation of available data.

Go to the Atlas website!

In recent years water security for people and the natural environment have taken a centre stage in much of the dialogue on international policy. Coordination among countries is essential for the sustainable management of transboundary aquifers. This atlas is intended to be a valuable reference that will encourage the sound and sustainable management of transboundary aquifers.

UNESCO publishes WSIS Followup brochure

The brochure, entitled Fostering Information and Communication for Development, is a short introduction to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and its follow-up. It presents different aspects and outcomes of WSIS. Read more!

Pensez-vous que le monde globalisé menace les cultures nationales ? ... Forum d'Avignon 2009 Irina Bokova.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics Report on Research and Development

The number of researchers in developing countries jumped from 1.8 million to 2.7 million in five years (2002-2007), according to the new data release from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

The rise in numbers of researchers equates to a 45% increase, from 344 to 499 researchers per million inhabitants in developing countries. During the same period, the number of researchers in developed countries increased by only 8.6% to 4.4 million. In relative terms, this amounts to 3,592 researchers per million inhabitants, still far more than in developing countries.

The information was collected through the third UIS survey on statistics of science and technology (S&T), which is conducted every two years. It focuses on human resources devoted to research and development (R&D), as well as expenditure on R&D. Results of the survey reveal global and regional trends in the allocation of R&D resources.

The UNESCO Courier: Memory and History

Image source: UNESCO

From the cruel dictatorships of Latin America and Cambodia, the destruction of the Burgundian kingdom, and the Korean enlightenment, to the splendour and intrigues of the Malagasy Empire, the saga of the Kalahari and the constructive failure of the League of Nations – memory and history wend their way through this issue, revealing the extraordinary wealth of the documented heritage of humanity.

This issue of the UNESCO Courier (2009, Number 9) was produced in partnership with UNESCO’s Memory of the World program.

Go to the issue webpage!

Happy Birthday UNESCO

The Constitution of UNESCO, signed on 16 November 1945. Yesterday Irina Bokova began her term of office as 10th Director General of the Organization. Best wishes to both!

• Mission Statement
• Video and Text Version of Director General Bokova's Statement on Taking Office

UNESCO contributes to the fourth Internet Governance Forum

UNESCO will participate in the fourth Internet Governance Forum, to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, from 15 to 18 November 2009, to advocate the principles of freedom or expression and universal access as fundamental elements of the Internet Governance structures.

Read more!

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.

UNESCO is recruiting a new senior staff

UNESCO has published the announcements of the competitive recruitment of the following posts:

• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR AFRICA DEPARTMENT
• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR COMMUNICATION
• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR CULTURE
• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR EDUCATION
• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR NATURAL SCIENCES
• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR SOCIAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES
• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION
• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR ADMINISTRATION

Click here to go to the announcements.

UNESCO pays tribute after death of anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss

The world has lost one of its greatest thinkers with the death of Claude Lévi-Strauss, the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said today, as he paid tribute to the renowned anthropologist.

Mr. Lévi-Strauss was “one of the giants of the 20th century,” said Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO Director-General, in a statement issued from the agency’s headquarters in Paris following the announcement of the Frenchman’s death at the age of 100.

Read more....

A World of Science, vol. 7, no. 4

The October-December issue of UNESCO's A World of Science is now out. Click here to download the issue as a PDF file.

SHS views, 26

The October-December issue of the lead social science online magazine of UNESCO has been published. Click here to download the PDF file.

Knowledge and Future: World Science Forum in Budapest

Ten years after the first World Conference on Science (Budapest, 1999), the fourth World Science Forum will take place in Budapest (Hungary) from 5 to 7 November. The meeting, whose theme this year is “Knowledge and Future”, coincides with World Science Day for Peace and Development, celebrated annually on 10 November.

Read more!