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177th UNESCO Executive Board
October 3, 2007
Statement by Ambassador Louise V. Oliver (As delivered)
Permanent Delegate of the United States of America
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Thank you Mr. Chairman, and thank you Mr. Director General for the strong leadership you are giving to UNESCO, and in particular, for promoting reform throughout the Organization, as we believe that the reforms now underway will help UNESCO become a stronger and more influential organization.
Of course reform by itself will not create a dynamic effective UNESCO. There must also be a vision for the Organization, one that is compelling and feasible. Do we have such a vision? To some degree, the C4 and the C5 are our answers to that question.
But how realistic are those answers? Although not perfect, we think that the C4 provides a satisfactory framework for UNESCO’s work for the next six years since it is a rolling document that can respond to both internal and external changes.
However, despite the hard work of the drafting group
and its excellent co-chairmen, we think that the C5 is
still overly ambitious. Certainly we are pleased that the C5 includes expected
results for UNESCO’s
initiatives, but is it really possible for the Secretariat
to achieve those results in only two years, especially if we insist that
their work is of
high quality?
And what will happen if Member States continue to add to the work of the Secretariat with resolutions that call for new activities and programs, instead of focusing on the ones we already have? Unfortunately it seems that we still have multiple visions for UNESCO.
Mr. Director General, we are pleased that your vision includes strengthening UNESCO’s organizational structure so that our programs can achieve long-term sustainable results. Although the United States has consistently advocated a zero nominal growth budget, and believe that was needed in past budget cycles to encourage UNESCO to become more efficient and effective, we have decided to support your $631 million dollar budget scenario because the additional funds will help reinforce UNESCO’s infrastructure, establish an ethics program for UNESCO staff, and strengthen initiatives focused on the needs of Africa and the developing world.
Several weeks ago I was in Mali for the African regional
literacy conference, the third of UNESCO’s six literacy regional conferences
that follow up on the White House Conference on Global
Literacy hosted by Mrs. Laura Bush one year ago. I was impressed by the
determination of
the participants, including 11 First Ladies, to advance
literacy and health in Africa. They seemed tired of talk, and ready for
action. The interrelationship
between health and literacy was also the theme for the
recent lunch hosted by Mrs. Bush in New York.
The regional literacy conferences held thus far all demonstrate that there are many individuals and grassroots organizations ready and willing to work with UNESCO to advance its programs in the field. A decentralized UNESCO should take advantage of this enthusiasm.
Since decentralization also involves the delegation of authority, there must be a high degree of accountability, for that is the only way to ensure coherence among the entities that comprise UNESCO’s extended family. Therefore we would like UNESCO to accelerate the development of its accountability framework, which ought to help us get timely information on how funds are being spent in the field and what results are actually being achieved. Transparency is important, and field offices should respond promptly when asked to describe their programs and activities.
Transparency is particularly important when activities are funded by extra-budgetary contributions, since we must be confident that every program that carries the name of UNESCO is of high quality and appropriate for this Organization. That is why we join our French colleague in emphasizing that evaluation must play a central role in UNESCO’s work. We simply cannot have a repeat of the situation that occurred in the Brasilia field office. Although it seems that progress is being made in reorienting the work of that office, we are disappointed that it is taking so long, and hope that the outstanding issues will be resolved soon.
Greater attention must also be paid to UNESCO’s Category II institutes and centers, which are legally independent from the Organization. Although Category II centers can enhance UNESCO’s visibility in the field, each of these centers place additional responsibilities on UNESCO’s limited resources, as the agreements all state that the Organization is expected to provide technical assistance, and in many cases fund-raising assistance, to these institutions.
We are pleased that Document 177 EX 29 addresses these issues. Given the rapidly increasing number of Category II centers, we must adopt a strategy that will help guide our decisions on the establishment of these entities in the future, and enable us to better understand what it means to be an organization “under the auspices” of UNESCO.
As we all know, there is nothing more important for UNESCO than the use of its name and reputation. In addition to maintaining the quality and relevance of UNESCO’s institutes and centers, we must be vigilant about UNESCO partnerships. Certainly partnerships, particularly those with academic and research institutions, as well as with the private sector, can be very valuable for UNESCO’s work.
However, we have serious concerns about some of UNESCO’s commercial partnerships
that in some instances have rather weak justifications
with minimal benefit to the Organization. For example, why is UNESCO giving
its name to help
sell Allumonde rings when it seems that almost none of
the proceeds go to UNESCO or to supporting cultural industries in the developing
world?
The same issue relates to the use of independent experts, either in their own capacity or as members of a UNESCO expert body. Although we agree that it can be interesting to hear the points of view of independent experts on topics that relate to UNESCO’s work, we are concerned that their views are often mistakenly seen to be the views of the organization and/or UNESCO’s member states. Moreover, we are puzzled as to why delegations can be discouraged or even prevented from attending expert meetings as observers. When individuals serve as UNESCO experts in meetings organized by UNESCO staff, their discussions should be open to interested delegations.
Well-qualified staff at all levels are indispensable for UNESCO’s work, and we are pleased that Nick Burnett has been chosen to be the new ADG of Education. In addition to continuing the reforms in the Education Sector, we hope that he will make UNESCO’s initiatives in literacy, teacher training, and HIV-AIDS education more effective and results-oriented.
We also hope he will focus on gender parity and on individuals with disabilities, so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of education. Finally we hope that he will develop initiatives that address hatred and intolerance, with a particular emphasis on programs for children.
UNESCO must also continue its commitment to freedom of opinion and expression, which is fundamental to the promotion of freedom and democracy. We congratulate Colombia on the excellent conference that it hosted last spring on the occasion of the awarding of the World Press Freedom prize posthumously to the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya that highlighted this important issue, as well as the need to ensure the safety of journalists.
We also want to extend our condolences to our colleagues from Denmark on the passing of IPDC Chairman, Torben Krough. Mr. Krough’s energy and enthusiasm for the work of the IPDC helped make that program an effective force for the creation of independent media in the developing world. The United States will continue to give strong support to this important program.
Improving the quality of the work of the two science sectors, with an emphasis on capacity building, continues to be a top priority for the United States. Given the importance of science, technology, and engineering, particularly for the developing world, UNESCO must play a leadership role in this area. In addition to implementing the recommendations of the Science Review Panel, UNESCO must not waste its limited resources by duplicating work being done in other UN agencies. This will also enable us to give more support to successful programs like the IOC, which has achieved worldwide recognition for its work.
Although this Executive Board has a very full agenda, we are confident, Mr. Chairman, that with your leadership, we will be able to make good decisions that will help UNESCO address the complex issues of today’s world more effectively.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
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