What is Expected of a UNESCO Chief

A reporter contacted me to ask what will be expected of the new Director General of UNESCO, to be elected in October. I will share my thinking with the readers of this blog:

Of course, the Director General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, responsible to its General Conference and Executive Board for the conduct of the programs of the Organization. He leads an organization with some 2000 staff members spread over some 58 nations, which has a budget in excess of US$500 million. The designers of the organization, recognizing the complexity of the governance pf UNESCO, created the post of Director General with a considerable amount of authority and independence.

I believe however that this traditionalist view of UNESCO and its Director General tells only a part of the story. UNESCO is especially important in its roles of convening people and organizations to work together. Thus it reaches out to the global education, science and cultural communities through a network of National Commissions in each of its member states. The U.S. National Commission, for example, has 100 members, most of whom in turn represent important educational, scientific or cultural organizations within the United States. UNESCO links educators worldwide in leading the Education for All program. Its intergovernmental scientific organizations link scientists worldwide in areas such as oceanography and geology. It has convened networks of nearly 900 world heritage sites, hundreds of bioreserves, thousands of UNESCO clubs, thousands of UNESCO associated schools, as well as a large network of university chairs. The Director General stimulates and encourages the work of these networks, of course often working through his staff and offices reporting to him.

UNESCO, created in the aftermath of World War II, states in its constitution that since wars are created in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that we must begin to build the defenses of peace. UNESCO's mission is thus to build those defenses. One of my friends has called UNESCO the conscience of the United Nations system. The Director General has singular moral authority to encourage the development of a culture of peace and a dialog among nations. He regularly denounces violence against reporters and abuses of freedom of the press.

The first Director General was Julian Huxley, scion of the famous Huxley family and a world famous scientist in his own right. He was followed by Luther Evans, a historian who had been the Librarian of Congress, world's largest library and certainly its most influential library at the aftermath of World War II. These men, with their successors by their examples endowed the Director General of UNESCO with great moral authority, especially in matters of education, science, culture and communications.

Rather than try to say what is "expected of" the new Director General, I would say that was is hoped for from the man is:

• leadership in advancing the mission of UNESCO
• to be a strong and credible spokesperson for education, science, culture, communications, and peace
• to effectively promote intercultural understanding and respect for cultural diversity
  
• continued progress in improving the operation of the staff of the organization, as well as leadership in developing and allocating resources, and managing UNESCO's programs
  
• promoting and leadership in coordinating the global efforts of the networks inspired by and linking to UNESCO.

Today is the last day for nomination of candidates for the post of Director General!

Call for Abstracts

UNESCO Chair International Scientific Conference on Technologies for Development
Lausanne, Switzerland, 8-10 February 2010.

Abstract deadline: June 15, 2009

The conference has four objectives:

1. Promote research for technologies and innovations that are appropriate for developing countries and enable solutions for specific problems affecting the most vulnerable populations.
2. Raise awareness concerning the potential of these technologies to advance innovation for the benefit of developing countries.
3. Create a platform for discussion, scientific exchange and knowledge sharing in a spirit of solidarity.
4. Encourage North-South research partnerships.

Read more!

L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Booklet

Science/AAAS in collaboration with the L'Oréal Corporate Foundation a new Young Women in Science booklet, following on from last year's very successful Women in Science booklet,

Click here to read more or download the booklet.

UNESCO and Sun Microsystems Announce Joint Education and Community Development Effort Powered by Open Technologies

In an effort to support social and economic development, UNESCO and Sun Microsystems signed a Collaboration Agreement last week at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 09. At the signing ceremony, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Abdul Waheed Khan, and Executive Vice President and Chairman, Europe, APAC and Emerging Markets for Sun Microsystems, Crawford Beveridge, outlined details of the initiative. The agreement recognizes open source technologies as key to increase access to information, communications technologies and ICT skills training in under-served communities throughout the world.

Read more!

SHS Views 24:

Special Section: First World Social Sciences Forum

The first World Social Sciences Forum brought together more that 800 participants in Bergen (Norway) from 10 to 12 May on the theme: “One Planet – Worlds Apart?”.

• In Bergen: “One Planet – Worlds Apart?”
• Migration, the missing link of globalization
• Heide Hackmann: “The current crisis raises critical questions for social sciences”
• Debate on social development at the 17th IGC of MOST
• Why is UNESCO making the research-policy nexus a priority?
• Integrity of scientific research
• A new World Social Science Report
• “Social integration”, a priority for the United Nations

"US asks to host its first UNESCO institute"

Image source: West African Water Initiative

Source: Yojana Sharma, SciDev.Net, 25 May 2009.

"The Center for Integrated Water Resources Management, hosted by the US Army Corps of Engineers in Alexandria, Virginia, is set to become UNESCO's first US-based institute.

"We consider UNESCO to be a serious part of the UN system and we want to take the UN system as a whole seriously," says Steven Engelken, the US delegate to UNESCO in Paris.

"Water security is 'the next climate change' as a global concern, Engelken says. 'We can all see looming problems for the future.'

"The center is already linked to a number of US government agencies, universities and scientific organisations. Linking up to the UN 'will be a mechanism to work with a very robust group of institutes of UNESCO,' says Engelken, who has been lobbying hard in Paris on behalf of the US administration.

Read more!

UNESCO Names 22 New Biosphere Reserves

Lagunas de Montebello, Chiapas, Mexico

The 21st session of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB-ICC) (held from 25 to 29 May 2009) added 22 new sites from 17 countries to the UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) which now counts 553 sites in 107 countries. Read more:

• 553 sites
• More on ICC
• Photo Gallery
• Video

Have you checked these social networking sites?

Here are three social networking sites for those interested in UNESCO:

• Americans for UNESCO on Twitter (short messages via Internet or phone, with more than 500 followers)
  
• UNESCO's Friends (discussions, news and jobs with more than 350 members on LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals)
• UNESCO (basic information, discussion board, "wall", links and photos with more than 1000 members on Facebook, the popular social networking site)
  

Flash: Israel Withdraws Opposition to Hosny

According to Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper:

Israel agreed to lift its objection to the appointment of Egypt's vehemently anti-Israeli culture minister as head of UNESCO, following a recent meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Farouk Hosni, who has served as Egypt's culture minister since 1987, has declared that if he could, he "would burn Israeli books in Egyptian libraries." Despite such rhetoric, Hosni is a leading candidate for the top spot in the UN's education and cultural organization, having been recommended by Mubarak.

As part of a secret agreement, reached during their May 11 meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Netanyahu promised Mubarak that Israel would cease the international campaign it has waged against Hosni's appointment during the past year. It is still unclear whether Netanyahu, who is known for his insistence on the principle of quid pro quo in Israel's relations with the Arab world, received something from the Egyptian leader in return.

Editorial comment: This would seem to greatly increase the likelihood that Farouk Hosny will become the next Director General of UNESCO. JAD

On the Election of UNESCO's Director General

SciDev.Net has published an excellent article by Yojana Sharma reviewing the candidates for Director General of UNESCO. The article is timely since nominations close on the 31st of May. Ms. Sharma names the following individuals (presented here in alphabetical order):

• Ivonne Baki, Ecuadorian, 48
• Marcio Barbosa, Brazilian, 57
• Mohamed Al Bejawi, Algerian, 81
• Irina Bokova, Bulgarian, 58
  
• Mounir Bouchenaki, Algerian, 66
• Farouk Hosni, Egypt, 71
• Ina Marčiulionyté, Lithuanian, 47
• Sospeter Muhongo, Tanzanian, 54

With a few days left for nominations, new candidates may appear. Indeed, it has been hoped by many that someone of the stature of Al Gore might be nominated. (Gore has said he is not available.)

Editorial comment: I would hope that the next Director General would bring a serious background in science or education to the job, given the critical challenges faced by UNESCO in these areas in the next decade. Of the people listed above only Sospeter Muhongo, a geologist who is the African regional director of the International Council for Science, seems to bring such qualifications to the race.

The post of UNESCO Director General should involve extensive travel, many public appearances, and long periods of intense intellectual concentration; the physical and mental capacity of each candidate to handle such a job should be taken into account in the election.

I would hope that the State Department will take a strong interest in this election. I understand that Assistant Secretary Ester Brimmer has visited UNESCO recently, and her personal interest in the election is important.

The United States should not simply chose a candidate most likely to minimize potential controversy, but rather help elect the candidate most likely to provide the leadership UNESCO needs and deserves in order to meet the challenges of the coming decade. State should work closely with the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO in this respect, as well as with the international development, educational, scientific and cultural agencies of the government. The meeting of the National Commission (that had been scheduled for May) has been postponed, but the members of the Commission could be contacted individually for support and advice. Indeed, they might well take the initiative to contact State if State does not contact them.

John Daly
(The opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily respresent those of Americans for UNESCO.)

Sun & UNESCO Partner to Promote Open Source

The agreement includes the use and promotion of Centers of Excellence for Adoption of Open Technologies. As part of these, Sun staff will provide expertise and training materials for the open technologies "stack", while UNESCO will focus on promoting adoption of open technologies and will work to identify institutions that would become partners for providing support and training on these technologies: the partners will be putting at the service of these communities a full range of open and free technologies that provide them with the ability to shape the ICT landscape, enabling transformation and modernization efforts.

The words of Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO are encouraging.

“UNESCO values the possibilities offered by all software models and advocates a diversity of choice to ensure that all can benefit from information and knowledge. We are glad to work with Sun to harness the power of free and open source software for extending and disseminating knowledge and to foster community approaches to software development”

Three in Opposition to the Election of Farouk Hosny

Three intellectual leaders have written an opinion piece in the French journal Le Monde calling for opposition to the election of Farouk Hosny as Director General of UNESCO. Bernard-Henri Lévy, a philosopher, Claude Lanzmann, a filmmaker and director of the review Les Temps modernes and Elie Wiesel, writer and 1986 Nobel Prize winner cite a history of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic statements to conclude:

L'évidence est donc là : Farouk Hosni n'est pas digne de ce rôle ; Farouk Hosni est le contraire d'un homme de paix, de dialogue et de culture ; Farouk Hosni est un homme dangereux, un incendiaire des coeurs et des esprits ; il ne reste que très peu de temps pour éviter de commettre la faute majeure que serait l'élévation de Farouk Hosni à ce poste éminent entre tous.

I translate this as:

The evidence therefore is that: Farouk Hosny is not worthy of this role; Farouk Hosny is the opposite d' a man of peace, dialog and culture; Farouk Hosny is a dangerous man, one who inflames hearts and spirits; There remains very little time to avoid the major mistake of elevating Farouk Hosni to this eminent position.

Comment: It appears that there is increasing opposition to the candidacy of Hosny, currently the Egyptian Minister of Culture. I have heard that the French government has abandoned its original support of his candidacy, and that the governments of the United States and Israel remain adamant in their opposition to Farouk Hosny. The Brazilian government, which has announced support for Hosny, is running into a firestorm of criticism from Brazilians calling for support of Brazilian Marcio Barbosa, currently Deputy Director General of UNESCO who has also been nominated for Director General in the coming election. JAD

Call for Articles from UNESCO

Naula: a surface-water
harvesting method

Source: India Water Portal Blog, May 21, 2009

UNESCO articles of up to three pages (about 1200 words) on traditional water harvesting structures. The articles should link water resources management with local culture. UNESCO will select a maximum of 6 of these articles for publication in the magazine Power of Creativity, a high-quality photo-based magazine.

Power of Creativity has a print run of 5,000 copies that are circulated to the government, embassies, consulates, the tourism sector, and the corporate sector. UNESCO will acknowledge and credit the author(s).

Read more!

U.S. Natural History Museum helps Mexico

Research conducted under the auspices of the San Diego Natural History Museum played a crucial role in the recent decision by UNESCO officials to list Mexico's Gulf of California, including 244 islands and coastal areas, as a World Heritage site. As such, the area joins a list of the world's most spectacular places, including the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Galapagos Islands, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef, and Yosemite National Park. The UNESCO decision was of course made on the basis of the nomination made by Mexico, the member nation claiming the Gulf of California.

The Gulf is unique in the richness of its biodiversity: the area is documented as containing 695 vascular plant species; 891 fish species, 90 of them endemic; 39% of the world's marine mammal species; and a third of the world's marine cetacean species.

Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra, director of the Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias (the research arm of the Museum), edited a compendium of recent scientific research documenting the significance of the Gulf, A New Island Biogeography of the Sea of Cort?s, which was published in 2002. This book provided essential evidence in the argument to place the islands on the UNESCO list.

Read more!

Celebrating UNESCO's Attention to Media

The quest for gathering accurate information and protecting those who seek to disseminate it should always be a priority. This information, after all, can inspire countless numbers of individuals to understand their worlds, to promote knowledge societies, and to take action to improve their local and not-so-local surroundings. And--as history has consistently shown--the highest caliber of information often comes when individuals collaborate and constantly analyze what is distributed.

Given the importance of these practices, even a cursory look at UNESCO's initiatives encouraging collaborative, participatory media is encouraging. The initiatives are well worth reviewing. From the current World Summit on the Information Society to the Director-General's public condemnation of the murder of journalists and media professionals, UNESCO has striven to foster unhindered communication and best practices worldwide. More information on current initiatives can be found here.

One recent publication particularly worth noting is UNESCO's publication regarding the importance of civic education is one of the many ways the organization shows its realization that media shapes development around the world. See more information on this publication here.

This and other publications are valuable for anyone within or outside the media. Fighting for the right to gather and distribute information is important in any field, and being aware of what is being done to protect knowledge societies is essential if they are to be built or maintained.

UNESCO to help community media with mobile content production

© UNESCO

UNESCO is analysing the potential for mobile-friendly content to be generated by community media in the context of developing countries. As the use of mobile media steadily grows, the Organization is conducting a study on the possibility to shape alternative audio and video productions by community media into mobile content.

In January 2009 UNESCO launched a project aiming at empowering community media for mobile broadcasts of local content and news in order to better reach populations.

Read more!

Watch the WSIS Forum 2009 Online

Critical knowledge societies issues will be addressed in six high-level panels and 35 sessions with the participation of experts, practitioners, representatives of governments, civil society and the private sector during the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 09.

More than 850 participants have already registered for next-weeks event, which will be jointly organized by ITU, UNESCO and others in Geneva, Switzerland, from 18 to22 May 2009.

Go to the WSIS 2009 Forum website to watch!

Job: Director, Secretariat - Governing Bodies/Secretary - General Conference and the Executive Board

Level: D2
Location: Paris, France
Closing Date: 28 June 2009
For more information click here.
To apply click here.

An Interesting Initiative from Our Northern Neighbors

The Pimachiowin Aki (Pim-ah-chee-owe-in Ahh-key) Corporation is a non-profit corporation formed by four First Nations: Poplar River, Little Grand Rapids, Pauingassi and Pikangikum, Ont. Pimachiowin Aki’s goal is to achieve international recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for lands on the east side of Lake Winnipeg that straddle the Manitoba-Ontario border. The area under discussion is about 40,000 square kilometres. It includes the traditional territories of the Poplar River, Little Grand Rapids, Pauingassi and Pikangikum First Nations, Atikaki Provincial Park in eastern Manitoba and Woodland Caribou Provincial Park in northern Ontario.

The application for World Heritage status will include the final boundaries of the designated site and will describe the innovative ways the area will be managed using both traditional Anishinabe and western scientific knowledge. Extensive community consultations, research, mapping and comprehensive community-based, land-use planning are required to complete the nomination.

The Manitoba and Ontario provincial governments in Canada are partners with the corporation. The Manitoba government has announced $531,000 in new provincial funding to support efforts to achieve the prestigious international designation and to help east side communities develop their land use plans.

Perhaps we in the United States might emulate this Canadian initiative to develop partnerships with native Americans and state and federal governments to protect tribal lands which have both natural and cultural values of such magnitude to justify world heritage status.

Iowa City Book Festival set for July 18

As a UNESCO City of Literature, Iowa City this summer will inaugurate a new festival to celebrate and investigate the city's literary connections. The inaugural Iowa City Book Festival will be held Saturday, July 18.

Read more!