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UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

Presented by

Bwsrang Basumatary

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

2014-2015

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Contents

1. Introduction2. Brief History3. UNESCO: How does it Work ?4. Activities & Priorities5. Projects6. Publication and Archives7. UNESCO Library8. UNESDOC(Database)9. Conclusion

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1. Introduction

• UNESCO is a specialized agency of the United Nations. Contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and for human rights along with fundamental freedom without distinction of sex, race, language or religion -by the United Nations Charter.

• 195 member states and 9 associate members

• Helps member states to build their human and institutional capacities in diverse fields. Promotes international co-operation among them in the field of education, science, culture, Information and communication.

Official languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

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2. Brief History

UNESCO was born on 16 November 1945

“Mission is to contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and inter cultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information”

First director general Julian Huxley, United Kingdom

Present director general Irina Bokova(Bulgaria) since 2009 to at present.

Julian Huxley(1946-948)

Irina Bokova(2009--)

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3. UNESCO: How does it Work ?

• The General Conference: Primary decision making body.

• The Executive Board: composed of 58 members state. It is responsible for

the execution of the programme adopted by the General Conference.

• The Secretariat: consists of the Director-General and staff. The Director-

General is the executive head of the Organization. UNESCO has more than

2,000 staff members. 870 staff members work in 65 field offices and institutes

around the world.

• Financed ? UNESCO’s regular two year budget is financed by its Member

States.

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4. Activities & Priorities

Main Activities:

Education, Natural Sciences, Social & Human Sciences, Culture and Communication and Information.

Special activities:

Biodiversity Initiative, Africa, Climate Change, Culture of Peace & Non-Violence, Dialogue among Civilizations, Education for Sustainable, Development, Foresight and Anticipation, Gender Equality, HIV/AIDS, ICT in Education, Indigenous Peoples, Crisis and Transition Resonces, Science Education, Small Island Developing States and Youth.

UNESCO has official relation with 322 international non-governmental organizations(NGO)

UNESCO observed 37 International days

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Educational Priorities

Basic education: For all, with special attention being given to literacy, HIV/AIDS, prevention education, teachers training

Secondary education: technical and vocational education, training as

well as science and technology education, promoting quality

education special reference to teachers training.

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Natural Science Priorities

Water & associated ecosystems

Oceans

Capacity building : basic & engineering science

Formulation of science Policies

Promotion of a culture of maintenance

Promoting the application of science

Engineering and appropriate technologies for sustainable development

Disaster preparedness and alleviation and renewable sources of energy.

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Social & Human Science Priorities

• UNESCO has encouraging international conferences, seminars and symposiums in the various social science.

• Measures the improvement, reorganization, and expansion of libraries and museums in those countries which need its help urgently in this connection.

• The world war II considerably damaged schools, universities, libraries, museums and educational equipment in many countries.

• UNESCO supplied materials.

• Teachers and students have been granted financial help.

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Cultural Priorities

• Covers Promoting cultural diversity, with special emphasis to tangible and intangible heritage

• Cultural policies as well as inter cultural and interfaith dialogues and understanding

• Cultural industries and artistic expressions. Etc.

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Communication and Information

Open Training Platform(OTP)

Global and Open Access Portal(GOAP)

E-Learning Tool

UNESCO developed CDS/ISIS(DBMS), FOSS, J-ISIS(DBMS), IDAMS,

For archiving information UNESCO created RAMP(archive and record management program) in 1979.

Greenstone

World Digital Library(operated by UNESCO and LC)

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5. Projects

Projects sponsored by UNESCO include

– literacy– Technical– Teacher training programmes– international science programmes– regional and cultural history projects– the promotion of cultural diversity– translations of world literature– natural heritage(World Heritage Sites)– preserve human rights– attempts to bridge the worldwide digital divide. Etc.

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6. Publication and Archives

Published in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic.

These include books, multimedia(DVDs, CD-Roms, videos)

periodicals, and scientific maps for professionals

Archives: Documents available are Organization's history, documents,

publications, multimedia and electronic records.

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7. UNESCO Library

• Provides reference and information

services, including research, to the

Organization as a whole, as well as to

the general public with an interest in

UNESCO's fields of competence.

• E-books

• E-journals

• E-courses

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8. UNESDOC (Database)

Contains over 146,000 UNESCO

documents in full text published since

1945 as well as metadata from the

collections of the UNESCO Library and

documentation centers in Field Offices

and Institutes.

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9. Conclusion

UNESCO Contribute to peace and security through education, science, and culture in

order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and for human rights

along with fundamental freedom without distinction of race, language or religion.

The Organization focuses specially on two global priorities Africa and Gender

equality.

“UNESCO has all the qualifications to bring an intellectual and humanist response to

glottalization and to the economic crisis: we know that culture and art, the

sciences, education, communication and knowledge are the real values that form

the essence of humanity”

--Irina Bokova, Director-General

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References

1. Khanna, R. S. (1952). UNESCO. Indian Journal of Political Science, 13(2), 33–42.

Accessed from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42743339

2. Rajesekaran, K., Raman Nair, R., & Nafala, K. (2010). UNESCO Software. In Digital

Library Basics A Practical Manual (p. 193). New Delhi: Ess Ess Publications.

3. UNESCO. (n.d.). Retrieved September 23, 2015. From

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001887/188700e.pdf

4. UNESCO. (n.d.). Retrieved September 23, 2015. From

http://en.unesco.org/

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Thank You