UNESCO To Consider International Engineering Program

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.

UNESCO recently published its World Engineering Report.

Engineers play a vital role in developing and managing the infrastructure of modern life, including:

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

Industrial engineers play a key role in planning and managing factory work. Biomedical engineers develop and maintain the complex equipment on which modern medicine depends. Aeronautical engineers design and maintain our fleets of aircraft. Mechanical and electrical engineers design the machines on which our modern society depends.

There is an acute need for more and better engineers in developing nations. Indeed, there is a major need for research and development of new engineering technologies to meet the needs of poor people, many of whom live in regions for which engineering solutions developed in rich nations in temperate climatic zones serve only poorly. Building engineering capacity will involve not only training new engineers and continuing education for all engineers and research and development, but also support for the the profession such as strengthening professional engineering societies and improving the dissemination of engineering professional information and tools.

In the United States, according to the most recent information from the National Science Foundation, there were some 1.5 million engineers employed in the country, compared to 2.9 million in computer and mathematical sciences, 258 thousand employed in the life sciences, 267 thousand in the physical sciences, and 291 thousand in the social sciences. While the U.S. practice is not representative of the global proportion of professionals in science and engineering fields, it does indicate that the engineering professions play a huge role in modern society.

It should be noted that other organizations in the United Nations system are concerned with specific fields of engineering. For example, WHO is concerned with biomedical engineering, FAO with agricultural engineering, and UNIDO with industrial engineering and other engineering professions concerned with industrial design and industrial equipment. Indeed, in its programs focusing on water, UNESCO already has programmatic activities dealing with engineering in water systems. However, there is no UN agency other than UNESCO with the charter to deal with engineering education and the general support for the engineering profession.

I would therefore suggest that UNESCO recognize that the importance of engineering is at least comparable to that of the natural sciences and the social and human sciences and draft a new International Engineering Program consonant with that responsibility. It is hard to see how that could be accomplished without either significant cuts in the resources devoted to other programs or an increase in the UNESCO resources.

One might expect that a program for the next biennium might be conceptualized as a modest step toward building a major program and as a step by which UNESCO could demonstrate its competence in building engineering capacity.

John Daly

The opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.

World Philosophy Day 2010

Celebrated at UNESCO’s initiative every third Thursday of November since 2002, World Philosophy Day takes place this year on 18 November 2010.

The events organized by UNESCO, or by its partners, provide an opportunity to make philosophical reflection accessible to all (professors and students, scholars and the general public, the young and the less young), thereby enlarging the opportunities and spaces for the stimulation of critical thinking and debate.

This year the day contributes to to the celebration of the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2010).

Simultaneous launching of the UNESCO Science Report 2010

Go to the World Science Report website from which you may purchase or download a copy.

Engineering: Issues and Challenges for Development

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.

Click here to download the entire report (PDF)!

UNESCO Science Report 2010

Europe, Japan and the USA (the Triad) may still dominate research and development (R&D) but they are increasingly being challenged by the emerging economies and above all by China. This is just one of the findings of the UNESCO Science Report 2010.

Written by a team of independent experts who are each covering the country or region from which they hail, the UNESCO Science Report 2010 analyses the trends and developments that have shaped scientific research, innovation and higher education over the past five years, including the impact of the current global economic recession, which has hit the Triad harder than either Brazil, China or India. The report depicts an increasingly competitive environment, one in which the flow of information, knowledge, personnel and investment has become a two-way traffic. Both China and India, for instance, are using their newfound economic might to invest in high-tech companies in Europe and elsewhere to acquire technological expertise overnight. Other large emerging economies are also spending more on research and development than before, among them Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey.

If more countries are participating in science, we are also seeing a shift in global influence. China is a hair’s breadth away from counting more researchers than either the USA or the European Union, for instance, and now publishes more scientific articles than Japan.

Even countries with a lesser scientific capacity are finding that they can acquire, adopt and sometimes even transform existing technology and thereby ‘leapfrog’ over certain costly investments, such as infrastructure like land lines for telephones. Technological progress is allowing these countries to produce more knowledge and participate more actively than before in international networks and research partnerships with countries in both North and South. This trend is fostering a democratization of science worldwide. In turn, science diplomacy is becoming a key instrument of peace-building and sustainable development in international relations.

Taking up from where its predecessor left off in 2005, the UNESCO Science Report 2010 proposes a world tour of the status of science today that should enable ‘science watchers’ everywhere to decipher the trends that are shaping our rapidly changing world.

Special thanks to Tom Ratchford and Bill Blanpied for again taking on the responsibility of writing the chapter on science in the United States.

Click here to go to the report website!

A comment on the Obiang Prize controversy

I quote from Science magazine, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science:

A battle over a prize in the life sciences that honors Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president and longtime dictator of Equatorial Guinea, has ended with the effective cancellation of the award. The executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has adopted a diplomatic compromise that would require "consensus," thus putting the award on indefinite hold. In an interview, an Obiang representative said the decision sends "the wrong message."

New Issue: A World of Science

A World of Science in October

The growing role of knowledge in the global economy

From 1996 to 2007, the world experienced an unprecedented period of rapid economic growth. This ‘growth spurt’ was driven by the widespread diffusion of digital technologies and the emergence of Brazil, China, India and South Africa as economic powers, among other factors. In this excerpt from the introductory chapter to the UNESCO Science Report 2010, we examine the broad trends that have characterized the support system for science in recent years, including the impact of the global economic recession on investment in knowledge.

Indonesia has imposed a moratorium on logging

Jatna Supriatna explains what Indonesia is doing to safeguard its remarkable biodiversity, four months after the announcement of a moratorium on logging and the discovery of several new species in the Foja mountains of New Guinea.

The rise of innovation in India

In India, growth in knowledge-intensive production now surpasses that of the economy overall. In this excerpt from the chapter on India in the UNESCO Science Report 2010, we explore the rise of innovation in India.

The adventures of Patrimonito

In this cartoon for children based on a true story, UNESCO’s World Heritage guardian embarks on an adventure to save the birds and animals living in the sub-Antarctic Islands from a horde of little pigs that have overrun one of the islands.

Link towards the electronic version of A World of Science Vol 8 N° 4

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001896/189685E.pdf

The English Riviera Geopark Film

The Future of UNESCO is Being Planned Now!

Last year there was a comprehensive evaluation of UNESCO conducted by an independent committee of external evaluators. The purpose of the evaluation was "to provide actionable and timely recommendations to the Governing Bodies of the Organization and the Director-General in order to position the Organization for meeting future needs and challenges."

The Executive Board of UNESCO has decided to create a working group of 18 member states to follow up on the report of the Independent External Evaluation of UNESCO. The working group is to hold open ended meetings to allow all member states to participate in the follow up process. The first of those meetings is to be scheduled for December 19, 2010.

A general staff meeting is to be held in UNESCO on November 9, 2010 which according to Director General Bokova is "to pursue our reflection on the future of UNESCO."

This would seem an important time to provide information and suggestions to the governments of Member States and to UNESCO itself to help in the deliberations of the future of the Organization!

A Tribute to the Krityanand UNESCO Club

Since the first UNESCO Club was founded in Japan, in 1947, UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations have been very valuable partners for the Organization. According to the most recent count, there were some 3.700 associations, centres and UNESCO clubs in more than 100 countries throughout the world.

Of course, these groups vary greatly one from another in the number and vigor of the activities that they conduct. I recently came across information on a club in India, the Krityanand UNESCO Club in Jamshedpur. Jamshedpur is an industrial city with a population of over one million people in eastern India.

I came across the following description of the club's activities:

The Krityanand UNESCO Club was established in 1992. Since then the organization has been expanding continuously in terms of its social development service. It has worked for the promotion of sustainable, equitable and participatory development, social welfare and social justice through:

• A Program for social work,
• Human Resources Management
• Health service and other human service
• Through social research and dissemination of socially relevant knowledge
• Social intervention through training and field action
• Contribution to social and welfare policy and programs at state, National and International levels

Over the years, the organization has made a significant contribution to planning, action strategies and Human Resource Development in several areas, ranging from sustainable rural and urban development to education, health, agriculture, and Human Rights. In all cases the focus has been on the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of societies, such as women, children and tribal groups.

The Krityanand UNESCO Club has earned recognition as an institution (Organization) of repute from state Government of Jharkhand, India International agencies or organization such as the United Nations and its system, and various International NGOs. The organization contributing relevant education and Research work.

The club maintains a Facebook site. Here are links to descriptions of some of its projects and activities.

• The KRITYANAND UNESCO CLUB Rural Development Project
• The KRITYANAND UNESCO CLUB ICT Project for Rural Development
• An International Law Overview by Mukesh Kumar Mishra, the Secretary General of the club
• KRITYANAND UNESCO CLUB Human Rights Information and Documentation Center

The Krityanand UNESCO Club would appear to be exceptionally active, deeply involved in programs to help people in its environment. As such it would seem to be a credit to the UNESCO network of clubs and other organizations.

Mary Futrell Elected President of Americans for UNESCO

Mary Hatwood Futrell has been elected President of Americans for UNESCO. She has served for some years on the Board of Directors of AU. Dr. Futrell specializes in reform policy, professional development, and diversity issues in education.

Andre Varchaver now joins Richard Arndt as Presidents Emeritus of the organization.

Dr. Futrell has recently stepped down from the post of Dean of the School of Education and Human Resource Development of George Washington University. She is a recipient of the Jan Amos Comenius Medal, one of UNESCO’s most prestigious awards honouring outstanding achievements in the fields of education research and innovation.

Dr. Futrell has been president of the National Education Association (NEA). In 2004, she completed her term as president of Education International (EI), a global federation of 30 million educators from 152 countries that works with governmental and non-governmental organizations in advocating education for all. She also is the former president of the World Confederation of Organization of the Teaching Profession.

UNESCO and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of the Parties (COP 10)

Nagoya, Japan 18 to 29 October 2010

At its 10th meeting the CBD COP 10 is due to adopt a revised and updated Strategic Plan including new biodiversity target(s) for the post-2010 period as well as the International Regime on Access and Benefit-sharing.

UNESCO is contributing to COP 10 by highlighting specific UNESCO-relevant biodiversity issues through side-events (exploring traditional knowledge; cultural and biological diversity; and the involvement of youth); and by presenting the Japanese version of the UNESCO-led official IYB travelling exhibition.

• UNESCO and COP 10
• Go4BioDiv youth forum
• Young people unite for biodiversity
• UNESCO: A Key Actor in the Fulfillment of the Global Biodiversity Agenda

More links to UNESCO biodiversity related activities:

• Biodiversity in UNESCO

• International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD)

• Conserving Cultural and Biological Diversity: The Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes (Proceedings of the Tokyo Symposium)

• Convention on Biological Diversity

• Biosphere reserves as biodiversity laboratories

• United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

• Cultural Diversity and Ethics of Science and Technology

Official video of the International Year of Biodiversity 2010

UNESCO drops prize sponsored by E.Guinea's Obiang

AFP reports today that the UNESCO Executive Board has decided to put a controversial science award on hold "and continue consultations among all parties concerned, in a spirit of mutual respect and until a consensus is reached."

The award which was made possible by a donation of $3 million, was to be named after the President of Equatorial Guinea. When the award was announced, a firestorm of protest came from human rights organizations and intellectual leaders dismayed by the potential of naming a prize after a man most known as a dictator of a country with a poor human rights record.

Read the UNESCO announcement of the decision!

A Center of Excellence for the Islamic World

At the opening of the plenary session of the Executive Board of UNESCO, Director General Bokova announced a project for the development of centers of scientific excellence in the Islamic world as a partnership between UNESCO and the New York Academy of Sciences. You may read the announcement (in French) here on page 6.

Director General is amazingly multilingual. She delivers talks in English, French and Spanish in headquarters meetings, while doing so also in Russian in the recent meeting in Moscow; all this in addition to her native language of Bulgarian. Reports from observers are extremely impressed with her encylopediac knowledge and understanding of the programs of UNESCO, her ability to put those programs in the larger framework of the United Nations system, as with her leadership in setting programmatic directions for the Organization, and with the leadership team she has gathered for her administration of the Organization.

The United States Reengages with Multilateral Development Institutions

As President, I have made it clear that the United States will do our part. My national security strategy recognizes development not only as a moral imperative, but a strategic and economic imperative. Secretary of State Clinton is leading a review to strengthen and better coordinate our diplomacy and our development efforts. We’ve reengaged with multilateral development institutions. And we are rebuilding the United States Agency for International Development as the world’s premier development agency. In short, we’re making sure that the United States will be a global leader in international development in the 21st century.

President Barack Obama

Remarks by the President at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit

September 22, 2010

Leveraging innovation, investing in sustainability, tracking development outcomes, and enhancing mutual accountability

I’d like to take a moment and talk a little bit more, specifically, about the Millennium Development Goals...........Now, as you know, the next week’s session begins with a high-level plenary meeting on the MDGs, the Millennium Development Goals, which will occur during the first three days of next week. This will be an important opportunity for the United States to elaborate the President’s development agenda as well as our approach to the Millennium Development Goals. We will focus on core principles of leveraging innovation, investing in sustainability, tracking development outcomes, and enhancing mutual accountability.

Esther Brimmer
Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
"U.S. Goals and Priorities at the United Nations General Assembly"
September 17, 2010

(W)hile the world has made strides in meeting some of the MDGs, including significant reductions in rates of extreme poverty and improved access to primary education, that progress has been uneven. The remaining MDG challenges will require a determined, strategic, and analytically-grounded approach, guided by four imperatives:

• Leverage innovation
• Invest in sustainability
• Track development outcomes, not just dollars; and
• Enhance the principle and practice of mutual accountability, including transparent and effective management of development resources.

Esther Brimmer
"The U.S. at the U.N. and Beyond: A World of Transnational Challenges"
Remarks delivered at the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies
September 15, 2010

Building the Defenses of Peace in the Minds of Men

It has been said before, but it needs to be said again: “While UNESCO has several mandates, it has but one mission – that of constructing peace”. When discussing detailed questions relating to the programmes, activities and functioning of our Organization, it is right that we set aside a moment to reflect on UNESCO’s fundamental purposes so as to focus on the goal that must shape and inform our particular policies and projects.

Irina Bokova
On the occasion of the 185th Session of the Executive Board Thematic Debate "Intercultural Dialogue in the 2010s: Revisiting policies within the context of culture of peace"

Happy Birthday UNESCO

This week UNESCO celebrates the 65th anniversary of its founding!

More About the Obiang Prize Controversy

Here are links to some articles on the controversy over the proposed Obiang Prize for the Biological Sciences that is being debated at UNESCO's Executive Board.

• U.S. Calls for Withdrawal of United Nations Prize Financed by a West African Dictator (The New York Times)
• Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa Joins Latin American Writers in Condemning UNESCO-Obiang Prize (Open Society Justice Institute)
• African Intellectuals Say No to Unesco's Obiang Prize (AllAfrica.com)
• A Corrupt Dictator Tries to Buy UNESCO's Brand Name (The Huffington Post)

I understand that a committee has been appointed to work during the current session of the Executive Board to produce a draft resolution, and that a final vote on the matter may not occur until the final day of the 185th session on October 25th.

"Decision Time at UNESCO"

There is an important Special Report in The American Spectator by Louise Oliver, the former U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO. The article summarizes the controversy over the proposed "UNESCO-Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences." While the UNESCO Executive Board agreed to accept a donation from Equatorial Guinea to fund a major prize, the decision was opposed by several members during the debate (including by Ambassador Oliver who at the time was on the Executive Board), and was greeted by an outpouring of criticism by non-governmental organizations and others who felt that UNESCO should not honor "Obiang, the president of Equatorial Guinea, (who) is thought to be one of the most corrupt dictators in Africa" by attaching his name to a UNESCO prize. (See for example this posting by the Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.) Director General Bokova suspended the award earlier this year, requesting that the Executive Board reconsider its decision. The Board is about to meet with the opportunity to do so.

Ambassador Oliver concludes:

If the Executive Board is serious about using prizes to enhance UNESCO's visibility and prestige, it must reverse its earlier decision and reject the Obiang prize. It should also encourage Equatorial Guinea to spend the $3 million it has allocated for the prize on improving the lives of the suffering people in its own country -- which ranks near the bottom of the UN human development report, and where 20 percent of the children die before reaching the age of five. 

Ms. Bokova is right: UNESCO's reputation is on the line. If the Executive Board does not reject the prize at its October meeting, it will forfeit the respect of the international community. This should be an easy one, but the Executive Board's tradition of consensus and collegiality will make taking a principled stand difficult. Will they do it? Don't hold your breath.

The New Issue of the UNESCO Courier is Out

Rebirth for Haiti

How can Haitian society be rebuilt? What is the role of culture, education, the economy, in its rebirth? These are the questions raised in this issue of the UNESCO Courier.

It reflects the Forum held at UNESCO on 24 March 2010 that brought together experts and intellectuals from Haiti and elsewhere. Articles are signed by Raoul Peck, President of La Fémis film school in Paris; Wole Soyinka, Nigerian laureate of the Nobel prize for literature; Jacky Lumarque, rector of Quisqueya University and Alex Dupuy, American sociologist.

Read the issue!

UNESCO's Research Featured in The Economist

Map of the world's groundwater resources

There is an article in the current issue of The Economist on efforts to protect aquifers that cross national borders. I quote:

Aquifers, like fish stocks, are most at risk when they cross national borders, making property rights weaker. Groundwater provides about a fifth of the planet’s water needs and half its drinking water. In arid countries such as Libya or Saudi Arabia, that figure is close to 100%. Almost 96% of the planet’s freshwater resources are stored as groundwater, half of which straddles borders. UNESCO, a United Nations body, estimates that 273 aquifers are shared by two or more countries.

The United Nations passed a resolution in 2008 on creating a legal regime for aquifers (it may become a full convention next year). Now sampling and monitoring have resumed, under the aegis of the International Atomic Energy Agency (which has a sideline in environmental monitoring).

Such scientific work is crucial because aquifers are still poorly understood. Until a UNESCO inventory in 2008, nobody knew even how many transboundary aquifers existed. Experts are still refining the count: the American-Mexico border may include 8, 10, 18 or 20 aquifers, depending on how you measure them. Defining sustainability vexes hydrologists too, particularly with ancient fossil aquifers that will inevitably run dry eventually. Estimates for the life of the Nubian sandstone aquifer range from a century to a millennium.

Read more about the Law of Transborder Aquifers!

What Does UNESCO Do?

Every Day UNESCO

• PROMOTES EDUCATIN FORALL, now impacting 1.5 billion children, youth and adults
• Monitors World Heritage properties in 151 countries and intangible heritage in 130 countries
• Fosters sustainable development through 564 biosphere reserves in 109 countries
• Combats violations of press freedom and condemns harassment, imprisonment and killings of journalists
• Monitors some 2500 endangered languages and tracks some four million translated works in over 1000 languages.
• Leads 26 UN agencies in assessing freshwater resources leads 121 countries in developing Tsunami warning systems
• Runs the only global database on bioethics, environmental ethics, and science and technology ethics.
• Fights discrimination through sic regional coalitions of 4858 "Cities Against Racism."
• Promotes conservation of documentary heritage with items from 84 countries on the Memory of the World Register.

A Role for UNESCO Assuring the Ethical Treatment of Laboratory Animals

Source: "ANIMAL RESEARCH: Long-Fought Compromise Reached On European Animal Rules," Gretchen Vogel, Science 24 September 2010: Vol. 329. no. 5999, pp. 1588 - 1589

The European Parliament gave its final approval on 8 September to a new directive spelling out rules governing animal research in academic and industrial labs. The directive will take effect through laws enacted by each member country of the European Union. The rules cover research with all vertebrates and extend coverage for the first time to cephalopods, which include octopi and squid; all research using such animals must pass an ethical evaluation that takes into account possible alternatives and refinements that could improve the welfare of the animal subjects. The directive also sets out for the first time minimum housing and care standards for dozens of the most common animals used in research. The previous E.U. rules on animal research date from 1986, and officials have been working on the new regulations since 2001.

The NAS Guide for the Care

 and Use of Laboratory Animals

The United States, with a research program comparable in size to that of the European Union, has a complex system of rules governing animal research in laboratories. There are separate rules for non-human primates and other mammals. (There are also rules for research involving livestock outside the laboratory and animals involved in research in the wild.)

UNESCO is the only United Nations Organization with charter authorizing general oversight for science; it has a broad program dealing with the natural sciences as well as a program dealing with the ethics of science and technology. However, other U.N. agencies -- notably WHO, FAO and the UNDP -- also deal with research that involves laboratory animals.

Perhaps this is a time in which UNESCO could play a useful role by convening a working group of U.N. Agencies to discuss the role of the United Nations system in promoting rules that assure the ethical treatment of laboratory animals. Such a group might provide a useful service to the world by creating an online observatory of such rules that exist in individual nations and in regional organizations such as the European Union.

John Daly
The opinions expressed in this posting are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO or any other organization.

Photo from awionline.org via the NYU website

U.S. Prize Winner May Hold Promise for UNESCO Tsunami Warning System

Liquid Robotics Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., won the Wall Street Journal Technology Award in the category of Robotics for developing an unmanned seagoing craft propelled by the power of ocean waves. According to the WSJ:

Most unmanned ocean craft can remain at sea for only a short time, relying on batteries to power propellers or pumps. The heavier their payload, the less time they have.

Thanks to its propulsion system, Liquid Robotics' Wave Glider avoids those limits.

The craft, which consists of a surface buoy and a submerged glider with wing-shaped panels, converts the up-and-down motion of waves into forward thrust, making it possible to propel the buoy indefinitely without relying on batteries or other power sources.

The craft can be controlled remotely via satellite over an Internet connection. Instruments are powered by a solar panel on the surface of the floating buoy.

The technology should be of interest to UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, since it can be used for be used for observing weather and ocean conditions. Since it can also be used to monitor tsunamis, it could be especially interesting to the IOC Tsunami Program which supports Member States in improving capabilities for tsunami risk assessment, implementing early warning systems and enhancing preparedness of communities at risk.

UNESCO and the Smithsonian sign a Memorandum of Understanding for cultural and natural heritage

On 17 September, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Culture Francesco Bandarin signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding with Francine C. Berkowitz, Director of International Relations of the Smithsonian Institution. This is an unprecedented agreement between the two institutions for cooperation on cultural and natural heritage programs.

Together the Smithsonian and UNESCO will develop programs and work together on a wide range of projects, including a travelling exhibition and an international conference on the 40th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in 2012. Other initiatives will be directed to conserving natural World Heritage sites, developing outreach on World Heritage and indigenous issues, conducting research on the means of preserving the world's languages, activities for the dissemination of traditional music, and aiding in the recovery of Haiti's cultural heritage following January 12 earthquake.

The Smithsonian Institution with its 19 museums and 137 million objects, artworks and specimens in its collections is not only "America's attic" but one of the great scientific and curatorial institutions in the world.

Francesco Bandarin and Francine C. Berkowitz

Rita Colwell Named Science Envoy

Dr. Rita Colwell, a member of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO, has been named a U.S. Science Envoy. The Science Envoy program, announced by President Obama in Cairo in June 2009, is a centerpiece program to implement U.S. global engagement in science and technology. Dr. Colwell is one of six distinguished scientists to have been appointed to this prestigious as well as important position.

Dr. Colwell is a Distinguished Professor at both the University of Maryland at College Park and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has focused her research on global infectious diseases, water and health, and is currently developing an international network to address emerging infectious diseases and safe drinking water for both the developed and developing world. Dr. Colwell served as the 11th Director of the National Science Foundation from 1998-2004. She is recipient of the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize awarded on September 9, 2010 by the King of Sweden.

UNESCO contributes to the fifth Internet Governance Forum

The 5th meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was held in Vilnius, Lithuania, from 14 to 17 September 2010. It focused on the following issues:

• managing critical Internet resources, 
• security, openness and privacy, 
• access and diversity, 
• Internet governance for development, 
• taking stock of Internet governance and the way forward, and 
• cloud computing.

In conjunction with the meeting, UNESCO organizes two workshops:

Privacy and Social Networking (16 September)
This workshop examined the interaction between privacy protection, freedom of expression and security.

Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression: The Changing Legal and Regulatory Ecology Shaping the Internet (14 September)
This event is a follow-up to a well attended discussion on Internet Censorship and Filtering by the participants of IGF 2009 in Sharm el Sheikh. UNESCO took this opportunity to release an in-depth analysis entitled Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression: The Changing Legal and Regulatory Ecology Shaping the Internet. This report, conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute, builds upon previous discussions and provides a panorama of observations and useful exploration of the subject.

UNESCO also organized an open forum to present its activities on multilingualism in cyberspace, open educational resources and open access to scientific information. In addition, UNESCO installed an exhibition stand to present the Organization’s overall activities and programs.

Membership in the ILO as a Precedent for Membership in UNESCO

Frances Perkins was an interesting person. She was the first woman to hold a cabinet post in the Federal Government, serving for the entire period that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. After FDR died, Perkins wrote a book titled The Roosevelt I Knew which includes a discussion of the decision in the 1930s for the United States to join the International Labor Organization (ILO). I found that decision shed light on the likely intent of the United States in the creation of UNESCO, and especially the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO.

The legislation which enabled the United States to create the U.S. National Commission cites the Constitution of UNESCO in defining the duties of the NatCom. That Constitution allows but does not require that national commissions both associate the nation's "principal bodies interested in educational, scientific and cultural matters with the work of" UNESCO and "act in an advisory capacity to their respective delegations to the General Conference and to their Governments in matters relating to" UNESCO. People associated with the NatCom in the period prior to the departure of the United States from UNESCO membership have told me that the NatCom was both energetic and influential in that time. This is confirmed by Howard E. Wilson in his book, The United States National Commission for UNESCO, published in 1948.

Perkins worked with President Roosevelt to support the entry of the United States into the ILO. The ILO existed before the creation of the League of Nations, but was formally affiliated with the League after the League was created. Of course, the United States never joined the League. Perkins and Roosevelt agreed with State Department personnel and eventually the Congress that the ILO and the League of Nations were distinct entities, and that the United States might appropriately join the ILO. They did so in large part because the ILO had a separate governance structure in which member nations were represented by persons representing employers and workers as well as government; the participation of citizens outside of government of member states in the governance of the ILO made all the difference.

John A. Daly

The opinions expressed in this posting are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.

U.S. Financial Contributions to UNESCO

U.S. funds to UNESCO

are allocated by the Congress

There is a formula used by the United Nations and other agencies of the UN system to determine the portion of the assessed contributions to be paid by each member nation. According to this computation, the United States contributes 22 percent to the regular budget of UNESCO; the approved regular budget for the two years 2010 and 2011 is $653 million. In addition to the assessed budgetary contributions, UNESCO received voluntary extrabudgetary contributions. These are an important part of the Organization's financial resources amounting to an estimated $463 million for the same two years.

The U.S. contributes close to $3.7 million dollars in extra-budgetary funds to UNESCO each year in addition to its assessed dues. Those funds are devoted to specific projects:

• The Creative Cities Network Capacity Building and Partnership Program
• Development of UNESCO’s Cultural Heritage Laws Database
• The Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project
• Teach for Lebanon
• Strengthening Teacher Education in Pakistan
• Taking OERs beyond the OER Community: Policy and Capacity
• UNESCO OER Model Curricula for Journalism Education (MCJE)

Read more about:

• The U.S. voluntary contributions to UNESCO projects
• The UNESCO program and budget for the biennium 
• UNESCO's explanation of U.S. contributions to the Organization

Event to Honor Rita Colwell

The Maryland-Asia Environmental Partnership (MD-AEP) is honoring Dr. Rita Colwell, this year's winner of the Stockholm Water Prize, at their leadership event on September 22nd. Dr. Colwell is a member of the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO. Read more...

Editorial: UNESCO should investigate Social Network Analysis as a tool for Development

An article on Social Network Analysis in The Economist states:

Last year America’s army, which jointly funds SOMA with the air force, began disbursing about $80m in five-year research grants for network analysis to promote democracy and national security. An authoritarian government, for instance, may have difficulties slowing the spread of a new idea in a certain medium—say, internet chatter about a book that explains how corruption undermines job creation...... An authoritarian government, for instance, may have difficulties slowing the spread of a new idea in a certain medium—say, internet chatter about a book that explains how corruption undermines job creation. Diplomatic services can use this information to help ideas spread.

SPADAC, a firm based in McLean, Virginia, performs such analyses on Egypt and other countries in Africa, the Middle East and South-East Asia. Clients include the United States, Mexico and various diplomatic services. Riots, bloody elections and crackdowns, among other things, can be forecast with improving accuracy by crunching data on food production, unemployment, drug busts, home evictions and slum growth detected in satellite images.

A key phrase in the UNESCO Constitution states:

That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.

This has been taken to define the core mission of UNESCO. The founders of created

the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for the purpose of advancing, through the educational and scientific and cultural relations of the peoples of the world, the objectives of international peace and of the common welfare of mankind for which the United Nations Organization was established and which its Charter proclaims.

UNESCO acts as an international intellectual leader, an honest broker, and a clearinghouse for ideas as well as by helping poor nations to build their capacity for social and economic progress.

I strongly suggest that UNESCO catalyze an investigation of the potential of social network analysis as a means to improve the planning, implementation and evaluation of social and economic development efforts. To do so would be very consistent with its mission in the promotion of social and human sciences, and specifically with its program on the Management of Social Transitions. The effort would also be consistent with the activities of UNESCO's Communication and Information Program, and specifically with its efforts to promote the dissemination of software and to promote the evolution toward Knowledge Societies.

John Daly
The ideas in this posting are those of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of Americans for UNESCO or any other organization.

THE LIFE OF WATER. WATER WHICH GIVES LIFE - Water Project H2Ooooh!

Water Project H2Ooooh!
3-D Animation/Cartoon - Gruppo Alcuni
in collaboration with UNESCO Venice Office

Water in a Changing World

The World Water Assessment Program, managed by UNESCO, has issued the Third United Nations Water Development Report. It is available online.

The structure of the WWDR3 has four main chapters, apart from the introduction and the recommendations:

• ‘drivers of change’,
• ‘the use of the resource for humans and for ecosystems’,
• ‘the state of the resource’, and
• ‘responding to a changing world: what are the options?’

Recommended: A Profile of UNESCO's Chief, Irina Bokova

Irina Bokova was elected to the position of Director General of UNESCO in October 2009 by the General Conference of the Organization as the winner of a close contest among nine formal candidates for the position. She assumed the office in November, and has since led the organization as it faced major challenges such as responding to the Haitian earthquake and the Pakistani floods. She is the first woman to head UNESCO and the first citizen of a former Communist country.

Toute l'Europe has provided this very useful profile of DG Bokova and her priorities as she leads the Organization.

The U.K. National Commission for UNESCO is more active than the U.S. NatCom

For example, the U.K. NatCom has the following working groups in the area of science:

• Working Group for Input to Development of UNESCO's Science Programs
• Working Group for Increased Cooperation Among UNESCO Intergovernmental and International Scientific Programmes in the UK
• Working Group for Improving Access to Scientific Information in Developing Countries
• Engineering Education in Africa

The UK National Commission for UNESCO (UKNC) is also working in a number of areas to support science, engineering and technology capacity building in developing countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa.

The U.S. National Commission has had a committee on UNESCO's Natural Science program, and it annually reviews reports from U.S. scientists following the work of UNESCO natural science sub-programs. Since the U.S. reentry into UNESCO, the natural science experts on the U.S. National Commission have been primarily involved in responding to (infrequent) requests for advice from the State Department. It does not have a significant role in promoting input to UNESCO's programs or increasing cooperation between U.S. scientific programs and those of UNESCO. Neither does it work on scientific information for developing countries, building African scientific capacity, nor science and engineering education in Africa.

It is my opinion that the U.S. National Commission should be asked to do more in the area of natural sciences, perhaps on the model of the U.K. National Commission, or those of other developed nations such as Australia, Japan, Germany, France or Canada.

John Daly
The opinions expressed in this posting are mine alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.

FIP-UNESCO University Twinning Network for Pharmacists formally Approved by UNESCO

On Tuesday 31st August, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and the UNESCO launched a unique global University Twinning and Networking Program. The Global Pharmacy Education Development network is a UNESCO sponsored initiative hosted under the UNITWIN scheme (for university-twinning). This UNITWIN collaboration is the first ever in the field of higher education for health professionals and the first for global pharmaceutical education.

In bringing together pharmacy schools from all regions of the world with UNESCO and FIP, the UNITWIN Network in Global Pharmacy Education Development (G-PhEd) will enable synchronised and powerful development in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences education and improve communication for scientific innovation, healthcare outcomes, and ultimately, the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Read more!

To find out more about the UNITWIN G-PhEd Network, please contact: 

education@fip.org. 

A Comment on the Ethics of Research: A Role for UNESCO

For a couple of decades I was involved in the management of grants programs that funded research in developing nations. One of the key issues in the management of such a program was assuring that the research we funded be conducted ethically.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that different societies have different views on ethics. For example, it is generally agreed that research involving human subjects should only be done with informed consent. However, different societies have differing views as to who should provide that consent. In the United States, the informed consent normally comes from the subject himself/herself. In some African societies, the consent must be communal, often provided by a village chief. There are also differences as to the age at which a subject is thought able to give informed consent, and who has the right to give consent for those deemed unable due to age or other condition.

Given such differences, our practice was to have research protocols reviewed by institutions in all of the countries involved in a specific project. That was often difficult in that institutions in countries that do not do much research were often poorly equipped to do effective ethical review. The capacity to do so depends on the existence of institutional review boards, clear statements of ethical standards, and people experienced in the ethical review of research. There were also questions as to which questions could be delegated, and which we had to directly assure ethical conduct.

Some of the ethical concerns involved in research ethics are:

• Ethical treatment of human subjects of biomedical, social science and other kinds of research
• Ethics of research involving human reproductive biology (e.g. research involving stem cells)
• Ethical treatment of non-human primates in laboratory research and/or in research on wild animals
• Ethical treatment of other laboratory animals
• Ethical treatment of livestock involved in field studies
• Ethical treatment of wild animals (other than primates) involved in field studies
• Safety of researchers (consideration of radiation risks, exposure to pathogens, exposure to noxious substances, etc.)
• Safe containment of human pathogens (to protect the public from accidental releases)
• Safe containment of animal or plant pathogens
• Ethical conduct of research involving recombinant DNA
• Protection of endangered species that might be affected by the research
• Ethical concern for environmental risks consequent to the research beyond those already mentioned (e.g. the risk of escape of exotic species which might damage agriculture)
• Safety in the international shipment of potentially dangerous materials (e.g. radioactive materials or samples that might contain pests or pathogens)
• The treatment of data collected during research (e.g. protection of confidentiality, appropriate sharing for scientific review)

UNESCO has a program focusing on the Ethics of Science and Technology, with an International Bioethics Committee, and Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee, and a World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology. The program and its international bodies do not seem to have taken much interest in the ethical conduct of research as described above. UNESCO has an affiliated network of University Chairs in Bioethics which could be the basis for an expanded role research ethics.

UNESCO could, and I believe should play an important role:

• as a forum for the discussion of ethical issues involved in the conduct of scientific research and technology development;
• as a clearinghouse for information on best practices in assuring the ethical conduct of research;
• as an agent helping developing countries develop the capacity to assure the ethical conduct of research conducted within their borders; 
• as the central UN science agency, in convening a working group of WHO, UNFPA, UNAIDS, FAO, UNIDO and other UN agencies to discuss research ethics; and
• as a legitimate neutral party to help in parties come to agreement on ethical standards for multinational research projects.

John Daly

(The opinions expressed above are mine, and do not necessarily reflect those of Americans for UNESCO or any other organization.)

UNESCO's History

The Controversy over a proposed UNESCO Science Prize

An earlier photo of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Principle source for this post: "African Union 'would consider taking on UNESCO-Obiang science prize'," Yojana Sharma, SciDev.Net, 27 August 2010

There is a controversy now over the proposed UNESCO-Obiang Prize. According to UNESCO, the proposed purpose of this Prize was "to reward the projects and activities of an individual, individuals, institutions, other entities or non-governmental organizations for scientific research in the life sciences leading to improving the quality of human life."

"UNESCO member states agreed in 2008 to establish the award with a US$3 million endowment from Equatorial Guinea's president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, but the decision on the first prize due to be awarded last March was postponed because of a public outcry over apparent association with the Obiang regime."

According to the New York Times, one of the precipitating actions that encouraged UNESCO's Director General, Irina Bokova, to request that the Executive Board reconsider the prize was a letter from U.S. Permanent Representative to UNESCO, David Killion, urging UNESCO to suspend plans to award the prize.

Now it appears that the African Union may be willing to step in and award the prise instead of UNESCO. A formal decision by UNESCO is expected  in October.

Clearly such a prize has the potential to recognize important scientific achievements, and equally clearly there are significant issues in associating UNESCO with the donor of this prize in so public a manner, as well as accepting funds from such a source. Were the African Union to accept the responsibility of awarding the prize, it might choose to limit the award to African scientists, which might be helpful in stimulating useful scientific research where it is so badly needed.

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