Presented by Bwsrang Basumatary, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai 2015

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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. Introduction
2. Brief History
3. UNESCO: How does it Work ?
4. Activities & Priorities
5. Projects
6. Publication and Archives
7. UNESCO Library
8. 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