Executive Board Hundred and eightieth session

Transcription

1 Executive Board Hundred and eightieth session 180 EX/INFORMATION MEETING REPORT OF THE INFORMATION MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD (Friday 18 July 2008, a.m p.m. and 3.15 p.m p.m.)

2 REPORT OF THE INFORMATION MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD (Friday 18 July 2008, a.m p.m. and 3.15 p.m p.m.) In accordance with 155 EX/Decision 5.4, confirmed by the Executive Board at its 156th session, an information meeting between representatives of the States Members of the Executive Board and the Director-General was held at UNESCO Headquarters on 18 July Fifty-five Member States out of 58 were represented at the meeting which all the Permanent Delegations to the Organization were invited to attend, as well as non-board members and Permanent Observers. An account of the meeting follows. Morning meeting 1. The Chairman in extenso: Mr President of the General Conference, Mr Director-General, Members of the Executive Board, Your Excellencies, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our second information meeting of this biennium, the twelfth since the tradition was inaugurated. I am especially happy to welcome colleagues who have come from our capital cities. Their presence here, sometimes after a journey of thousands of kilometres, is further proof of the relevance of this tradition, and of the growing importance Member States attach to it. 1.2 Dear colleagues, over the past years we have made the information meeting a forum for exchange and dialogue, an occasion for give and take, that becomes freer and more convivial every time. All this is the fruit of your efforts. 1.3 Through the successive information days, the Member States and the Secretariat have worked together to structure the dialogue about the nature and goals of the information meeting and the results expected from it. In this area, I believe we have made substantial progress along the path that leads from dissensus to consensus. 1.4 Like me, you will, I hope, have noticed that the questions put by Member States are more and more relevant, targeted and even pointed, and are not bilateral in nature. Such progress for progress it is will, I am sure, allow the Director-General himself and his team to be clear, precise and, I hope, convincing. 1.5 Dear colleagues, for this meeting, we will follow the same scenario we adopted for our January information meeting, which, in my view, contributed to the generally satisfactory way it unfolded. 1.6 Based on the nature of the questions submitted in advance, I propose, if you have no objections, to organize the meeting once again in two parts. Part I will be devoted to the programmes, and Part II to United Nations reform, administration and management. Both parts will be broken down into subsections, as shown on the draft plan you have before you. Each part will begin with a brief introduction by the Director-General. He will focus on those issues he wishes to highlight, and he will identify the written questions to which he is responding in his statement. 1.7 Dear colleagues, you also have before you the list of questions submitted in advance, as well as an addendum containing additional questions received after that list had been drawn up. I hope that today will be as productive and efficient as our last information meeting. 1.8 To make the meeting as interactive as possible in the limited time available to us today, a list of speakers will be drawn up for each question and answer session following the Director- General s statement. Speakers will be given the floor for three minutes each. Members of the Board who feel that the Director-General has not replied to their questions, or has only replied in part, in his introduction, will thus be able to put them again during the question and answer sessions. I would invite you to formulate concise remarks and/or a reasonable number of pertinent questions, within the time allocated. We will have the usual music to remind us when the time is up. The Director-General will respond to three questions at a time. At any moment, obviously, he may

3 2 call upon the DDG or the ADG of his choice, or any other member of his team to provide more detailed information. 1.9 If this procedure seems clear to you, I should now, before moving to Part I of our meeting, like to give the floor to my friend, His Excellency Mr George Anastassopolous, President of the General Conference, who wishes to make a major contribution to this information day. 2.1 The President of the General Conference in extenso: Mr Chairman of the Executive Board, dear Director-General, dear colleagues, I should make it clear that this is not a major contribution, but a point of information. As you know, at an additional meeting I convened at the end of the General Conference, at the request of several Member States, to take stock of the strengths and weaknesses of the session, the General Committee of the General Conference unanimously encouraged me to work during this biennial period on certain aspects of the preparation of the next session through the establishment of a working group. 2.2 I sensed from remarks by the representatives of Member States that a window of opportunity was upon us for making some sensible and constructive changes, and, immediately following the closure of the session, in consultation with the different electoral and regional groups, I set up an informal working group composed of prominent and experienced colleagues. 2.3 This Informal Working Group has worked hard from November 2007 to May The group first identified the major areas of interest and study and, following some initial general discussion and exchange of points of view, I entrusted a number of colleagues with the preparation of individual reports on each of the major themes examined. These reports, which contain an analysis of each subject inasmuch depth as possible by their respective authors, were duly examined and debated by the Group at its fourth and fifth meetings. Their final versions, which have been transmitted to all permanent delegations, incorporated the main trends of the debates held by the Group and also took account of individual written comments sent in at my request. They thus reflect the broadest possible consensus on a number of important issues reached by a wide-ranging group of permanent and experienced representatives from Member States from all regions. 2.4 I must take this occasion to pay unreserved tribute to the commitment and the quality of the contributions of the members of the Informal Working Group, particularly those of the individual rapporteurs, and to thank them all warmly for their support and collaboration. I should just point out, to give you an idea, that between 33 and 35 of the 40 members of the Group, or 95%, attended each of the five meetings from start to finish, which is quite rare. 2.5 Following the final meeting of the Group at the end of May, I have devoted the last month and a half to the elaboration of my report to the General Conference. This report, while it generally reflects my points of view and stems from my personal responsibility as President to report to the General Conference, upon its request largely draws from the individual reports as validated by the Group and is based upon broad consultations and consensus-building in the spirit of the longstanding tradition of our Organization. 2.6 The report s conclusions and recommendations are a carefully crafted and delicately balanced whole. We are not seeking to revolutionize UNESCO s institutional fundamentals: there is no desire to do so among Member States, nor, perhaps, is there any need to. We have a rather solid and well-balanced constitutional set-up, and what is needed is to use the provisions we already have to better account so that our Organization s two governing bodies work more efficiently in their respective roles for the good of UNESCO as a whole. The recommendations seek to adjust some things here and enhance other things there, to make the General Conference what it was always meant to be the foremost policy-setting instance of UNESCO, while recognizing the enhanced intergovernmental nature of the Executive Board and its important responsibilities in between sessions of the Conference. 2.7 My report is now finalized and I transmitted it yesterday evening to the Chairman of the Executive Board and to the Director-General, whom I also thank for the support and contributions

4 3 he has provided to the work of the Group, both personally and through his representatives, headed by Mr Marcio Barbosa. 2.8 As you may know, the report will be issued as an information document of the Executive Board attached to item 32 of the next session. This item is tabled for examination partly by the Special Committee and then by the Plenary meeting. I hope that my report will serve to enlighten these debates and I shall be glad, as an ex officio member of the Board, to provide any information or clarification needed. I am certain this will be the case also with my colleagues who have drafted individual reports or participated in discussions with the Group. 2.9 Furthermore, I would like to inform you that I plan to hold an information meeting on 11 September 2008 in order to present the report and to afford the opportunity of discussing its contents to the representatives of all Member States, whether or not members of the Executive Board. We believe and this has been the character of our Group that since, as we hope, changes are going to be made, they have to be decided by everyone, and everyone needs to be fully informed of all the stages of preparation of these changes By the time my report is examined by the General Conference, I would like to be confident that several of its recommendations may already have been taken into account both by the Director-General and by the Executive Board within their respective responsibilities for the preparation of the 35th session of the General Conference, and will thus shape the structure of the session if the Conference so decides I sincerely hope that the representatives of all Member States will appreciate the hard efforts made to render the Conference more manageable, interesting and pertinent, still always keeping in mind that its first and ultimate goal is to determine the policies and main lines of work of our Organization. Thank you very much, Mr Chairman and colleagues. 3.1 The Director-General in extenso: Mr Chairman of the Executive Board, Mr President of the General Conference, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to begin by extending a warm welcome to you all, and my special thanks to you, Mr Chairman, for your opening remarks. I know that under your stewardship we can look forward to a very frank and productive exchange. I wish to extend, on behalf of UNESCO and in my own name, very happy birthday wishes to Nelson Mandela, who is celebrating his 90th birthday today. Let me remind you that Nelson Mandela is UNESCO s Goodwill Ambassador in charge of human rights, a role of particular importance this year as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 3.2 Following the pattern we have established for these meetings, I shall make my statement in two parts. The first will focus on programme-related questions, the second on those regarding United Nations reform and management. I will do my best to respond to all of the 60 questions posed, so please bear with me, as it will require some time to do justice to the important matters you have raised. 3.3 Turning, therefore, to our programmatic action, let me begin with education. I am pleased that so many of your questions concentrate on UNESCO s top priority: achieving Education for All (EFA). With respect to our global coordination role, UNESCO has been pushing hard for all stakeholders to fulfil the commitments they made in Dakar in In particular, in the run up to the G8 Summit in Hokkaido, I have been making a concerted appeal for donors to honour their funding pledges. At a forum on official development assistance (ODA) organized during the recent ECOSOC high-level segment in New York, I stated that aid to basic education was not rising nearly fast enough to achieve the EFA goals on target. I called on donors to urgently scale up their assistance, especially to Africa. The Assistant Director-General for Education has also been arguing this point in the context of the United Nations Secretary-General s MDG Africa initiative. 3.4 It is therefore encouraging to see that G8 leaders have restated their determination to meet past promises. More importantly, they have recognized the need for aid in particular aid to Africa to increase beyond current commitments, although it is disappointing that the G8 did not make explicit quantitative pledges for education. As I have been arguing for some time, on the

5 4 basis of past pledges aid to basic education will still only reach at most US $6 billion annually by This is still $5 billion short of what we estimate is needed to achieve Education for All. 3.5 In this context, I would like to inform you that on 17 September I shall be organizing an information meeting on global trends in ODA, with the participation of the chair of OECD/DAC. This will be an occasion both to assess where donors stand in meeting their commitments, in particular to basic education, and to analyse progress towards greater aid effectiveness, in line with the Paris Declaration. 3.6 With respect to the outcomes of the Hokkaido G8, it is also pleasing to note the holistic approach to education, in particular the emphasis on quality and teacher training, and the direct reference to UNESCO s role in promoting education for sustainable development (ESD). However, UNESCO would have liked more explicit pledges in support of adult literacy and early childhood care and education. We shall continue to advocate strongly for this. 3.7 Another focus of UNESCO s global coordination efforts is to mobilize more coherent support for those countries with the greatest EFA needs, especially in Africa. In this regard, I would like to draw your attention to UNESCO s proactive engagement in the Fourth Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD IV), held in Yokohama in late May. I attended the Conference personally, chairing a special MDG breakout session on education. UNESCO s advocacy for investment in quality at all levels of the education system was taken up in the TICAD IV outcome documents, helping to influence the positive results of the G Mr Chairman, the status of preparations for the eighth meeting of the EFA High-Level Group in Oslo, in mid-december, has raised a number of questions. I can tell you that plans are advancing well. Invitations to the Oslo meeting have already been sent. The selection of participants is based on three criteria: multi-stakeholder representation; relevance to the themes under discussion; and geographical balance. I would ask for the help of Board Members in following up these invitations. If we are to build on the renewed momentum of last year s meeting, and secure real commitments, we must have top-level participation from all stakeholders. 3.9 UNESCO has been working closely with the International Advisory Panel (IAP) on the draft agenda, which we intend to circulate in September. As in the past, the High-Level Group s deliberations will be informed by the EFA Global Monitoring Report. The next Report will be officially launched during the International Conference on Education (ICE) in Geneva on 24 November. Its theme, Overcoming inequality: why governance matters, ties in closely with the ICE s focus on inclusive education, which, as we know, is vital to achieving EFA. As was the case last year, an advance copy of the GMR will be made available to the EFA Working Group ahead of its meeting in mid-november. This will enable the Working Group to distil the Report s findings into clear policy recommendations for the High-Level Group Already, UNESCO is working with the IAP to identify targets in key areas such as quality and teacher training, for which stakeholders can be held to account. This is the first time that the High-Level Group meets in a donor country, and we are particularly concerned to use this to achieve firm commitments on financing. As you can see, the IAP is helping to ensure more strategic planning and follow-up within the High-Level Group process. It is also building greater ownership, especially among multilateral agencies. All five Dakar convening agencies are members of the Panel. This regular interaction is helping to reinforce multilateral cooperation internationally. However, I agree that more needs to be done to translate this into greater coherence at the country level, in line with the EFA Global Action Plan (GAP) and United Nations efforts to deliver as one In this regard, UNESCO is convening a special meeting of the Dakar five to discuss how we can accelerate progress, working through existing mechanisms such as United Nations joint programming processes and the EFA Fast Track Initiative. We will be particularly interested to examine how the UNESCO National Education Support Strategy (UNESS) can facilitate joint efforts at greater harmonization and alignment, especially in those countries with the greatest EFA needs. The meeting will take place either on the margins of the next IAP session, in mid- September in Paris, or around the MDG high-level event, which is to be held on 25 September at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. I have been invited to act as rapporteur for the

6 5 roundtable on education at the MDG high-level event. In the build up to the Oslo meeting, this will be an important occasion to advocate for a comprehensive approach to education that encompasses not just the two education-related MDGs but all six EFA goals As you know, UNESCO has been working hard to galvanize action to meet the youth and adult literacy goal, which of all the EFA goals has been the most neglected. The series of international meetings we have been leading in support of global literacy will be drawing to a close this September. The final regional conference, for Latin America and the Caribbean, will take place in Mexico early in September. This will be followed by a wrap-up event hosted by Ms Laura Bush, Honorary Ambassador for the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD), in New York on 22 September. The White House symposium will be an occasion both to assess the outcomes of the regional UNESCO meetings, and most importantly to identify the next steps ahead. As part of our mid-term report to the General Assembly on the UNLD, UNESCO will present a strategy aimed at accelerating international efforts to eradicate illiteracy, building on the recommendations of the regional meetings One final point I would like to make with respect to EFA concerns the need to broaden the EFA agenda to include post-primary learning opportunities and the world of work. The recent biennial meeting of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), which I attended in Maputo in early May, identified this as the major emerging challenge for African countries. UNESCO will carry this issue forward to the High-Level Group, highlighting the need for an evolving and needs driven approach to basic education, which comprises the lower secondary level and gives attention to knowledge and skills for life, work and citizenship I shall present to the Board a report on UNESCO s action in EFA, where you can find more information on the points I have mentioned here. I shall also submit a draft outline of the new strategy that UNESCO is developing on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), which is one example of how we are expanding our support beyond the basic level in response to Member States demands. Ambassador Overfeld of Germany has offered to call a co-sponsors meeting on 5 September, which would help the Secretariat gain a better understanding of Member States needs and priorities in this area. We intend to submit the final version of the strategy to the Board at its 181st session Mr Chairman, a question has been asked with respect to capacity for managing the four world education conferences that UNESCO will organize over the coming twelve months. I agree that it is a heavy workload, but each event is of major strategic significance. I have already mentioned the ICE, and the importance of inclusive education to achieving EFA. The other conferences to be held in 2009 are: the mid-term review conference for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, to be held in Bonn, Germany, in late March; CONFINTEA VI, which will be held in Belém, Brazil, in late May; and the Second World Conference on Higher Education, to be convened here at Headquarters in early July. Each conference, in its own field, will be an occasion to take stock of progress, identify emerging new challenges, and exchange good policies and practices upon which we can build. The global conferences will also be preceded by regional meetings to gain a finer understanding of specific country needs and priorities, and ensure focused and action-oriented outcomes Given the significance of these conferences, all relevant education divisions and institutes have been mobilized, as have other sectors concerned. The Deputy Assistant Director-General for Education Programme Management, Ana Luiza Machado, is assuring overall coordination, under the leadership of Nicholas Burnett. We are working very actively to ensure synergies across the Conferences, and also to make sure there is follow-up through the next C/5 document UNESCO is also drawing on the support of other partners and experts. This includes the United Nations University (UNU), which is involved in preparing for these major education events, as well as for the Second World Forum on Science, to be held in Budapest in November The UNU Rector, Konrad Osterwalder, is himself a member of the planning committee for the World Conference on Higher Education. In response to the question posed by Morocco, this is a good example of how UNESCO is reinforcing its cooperation with the UNU.

7 Before closing on the subject of world conferences, let me express my thanks to all those Member States who are providing support. However, UNESCO is still seeking extrabugetary funds, in particular for the World Conference on Higher Education and its preparatory meetings, but also to fill the remaining financing gap for the ICE. I therefore strongly hope that more countries will be encouraged to lend their support. An information meeting has already been held for the ICE. If necessary, similar meetings will also be held for the other conferences Finally, let me say a few words about the South-South Cooperation Fund. I fully share the conviction of those who see greater collaboration among countries of the South as crucial to international development. Our support to the E-9 initiative is an example of the importance we attach to this. I am therefore eager to see resources under the Fund used effectively. We have worked closely with the G77 and China to develop the Terms of Reference for the Fund s management. When these are finalized, activities will be selected for funding, in line with UNESCO s priorities Mr Chairman, let me now turn to the sciences, staring with the follow-up to the overall review of Major Programmes II and III. You have asked how this is progressing. The recommendations adopted by the General Conference are gradually being implemented, and I am pleased to report that significant results have already been achieved. For example, the Natural Sciences Sector has reinforced its support to Member States in the review of national science, technology and innovation policies, an area where UNESCO has longstanding expertise. We are giving special focus to Africa, with reviews currently being undertaken in 14 countries in the region. Earlier this month, during the ECOSOC High-Level Segment, I organized a ministerial round table breakfast meeting to discuss how we could better harness scientific knowledge for sustainable development through effective policies. It aroused considerable interest, and many interesting proposals for action were made, which UNESCO will actively follow up Interdisciplinary and intersectoral activity is also being strengthened. The ADGs of SC, IOC and SHS lead four of the platforms, on Science Education, Climate Change, Small Islands and National Research Systems. One example of successful intersectoral work is in the field of science ethics. In response to the question of how UNESCO is bringing together its expertise in ethics and the natural sciences, let me mention the effective collaboration between the two sectors in addressing subjects such as biotechnology, nanoscience and new developments in the life sciences. In this regard, I should highlight the important roles played by the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) and the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO (IBC). In addition, international and intergovernmental scientific programmes are now cooperating in a more coherent way. For example: MAB and IOC now coordinate coastal and marine activities; and MOST and MAB work on outreach to youth and women in African biosphere reserves. We are also improving outreach through new partnerships, as for instance, with the BBC, to disseminate science programmes in least developed countries, as well as through international years, such as the International Year of Planet Earth Following the global launch of the Year at UNESCO Headquarters in February, regional launches were held for Latin America and the Caribbean in Brasilia in April and for Africa in Arusha in May. I had the great pleasure to attend the latter event personally, together with President Kikwete of the United Republic of Tanzania, and Chair of the African Union Responding to your question on UNESCO s Strategy for Action on Climate Change, it has been revised to take into account discussions at the last session of the Board, as well as ongoing efforts to promote a United Nations system-wide approach to the issue I am pleased to inform you that the CEB has accepted UNESCO s position to create a new working group, under the joint leadership of UNESCO and WMO, in the cross-cutting areas of science, assessment, monitoring and early warning, which will coordinate system-wide action in those areas for the United Nations system. Their work will then serve as a basis for proposals to be made by the United Nations Secretary-General to the 2009 Poznan meeting of the States Parties to the UNFCCC Under the Intersectoral Platform on Climate Change, which is charged with coordinating the implementation of UNESCO s strategy, efforts have been made to identify high-impact

8 7 intersectoral projects for extrabudgetary funding and to increase UNESCO s visibility and participation in international action to address climate change. These will be presented in a detailed plan of action at the 2009 spring session of the Executive Board In response to Member States requests, the strategy gives special focus to Africa and small island developing States. Another key area of concern is the effect of climate change on indigenous peoples, who often find themselves excluded from debates on the subject. In collaboration with Professor Malaurie, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for polar issues, and with the support of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, UNESCO will organize a meeting of international experts in Monaco in spring 2009 on the transformations of Arctic land and seascapes due to climate change and their implications for sustainable development IOC plays a key role in the area of climate change. I am pleased to note that IOC s Executive Council, which met from 24 June to 1 July 2008, endorsed the conclusion of the Working Group on the Future of IOC that the future of IOC should unquestionably remain, and be reinforced, within UNESCO. This is something I feel very strongly about, as do you, the Member States, who at last year s General Conference expressed unanimous support for IOC and decided to increase its resources for the biennium by $500,000. I have already allocated this extra funding and will soon identify its sources In the area of freshwater, the preparations for the third edition of the World Water Development Report are well under way. The Report s theme is Water in a Changing World and it will establish the links between water and climate change, the global food crisis, energy, demographics, economic development and changes in land use patterns. The preparatory process has been inclusive, with the participation of hundreds of scientists, professionals and decision makers in a variety of consultations, which included, for the first time, an open online consultation with the broader public. I will have the honour to launch the Report, on behalf of the United Nations system, on the first day of the fifth World Water Forum, on 16 March 2009 in Istanbul. This will ensure that the Report receives good visibility, and is used as a reference throughout the Forum With regard to the question on the global rise in food prices, let me remind you that FAO is the principal agency responsible for food security. Nevertheless, UNESCO is providing some support through scientific initiatives such as the recently-completed International Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The report considers such major issues as biofuels, GM crops, use of traditional know-how, and the impact of climate change, and underlines the pressing need to change the rules of modern agriculture Mr Chairman, in the human and social sciences, I know that UNESCO s action to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is of great interest to Member States The celebration of World Press Freedom Day 2008 took place on 3 May in Maputo, Mozambique, with major activities organized by UNESCO and numerous other events around the world. The richness of the deliberations is reflected in the Maputo Declaration: Fostering Freedom of Expression, Access to Information and Empowerment of People. On this occasion, I also had the pleasure of handing over the 2008 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to the Mexican reporter Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, in the presence of the President of Mozambique, Mr Armando Guebuza Preparations are well advanced for the high-level symposium on freedom of expression, including an exhibition on the safety of journalists and press freedom, planned for the 29th of October at UNESCO Headquarters. UNESCO is also involved in organizing the regional conference on the Contribution of the Media and Education to the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights, which will be hosted by the Government of Colombia in Cartagena, in early September In response to the specific request of Member States, the United Nations Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee on Human Rights Education in the School System (UNIACC) of which UNESCO is an active member will organize a side-event on human rights education at the forthcoming International Conference on Education. The ICE will be an important occasion to reaffirm education as a basic human right and, in response to Mexico s question, a meeting is

9 8 scheduled to be held during the conference by the UNESCO/ECOSOC Joint Expert Group on the Monitoring of the Right to Education The visibility of UNESCO s action on human rights will receive a boost when we host from 3 to 5 September the 61st annual United Nations Department of Public Information/NGO conference. We are fully involved in the preparation of this major event, and I will participate in the opening session. We also foresee various events at Headquarters in December, including the award ceremony of the first UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights. We will also stage an exhibition of UNESCO human rights-related posters from the past 60 years, and another of human rights learning materials demonstrating the diverse ways that Member States are carrying out human rights education in their countries I take this opportunity to emphasize again that the implementation of many of these activities depends on extrabudgetary resources, and reiterate my appeal to Member States to consider making financial contributions. I count on your full support to ensure the visibility of UNESCO s action in promoting Dignity and Justice for All of Us On a related subject, I must add that UNESCO s role in the fight against doping in sport has become highly visible. As of today, there are 86 States Parties to the Convention from across all five regions. Our cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is also very successful, and allows us to continue focusing on the harmonization of anti-doping rules and policies worldwide, as well as anti-doping education and prevention programmes Mr Chairman, the field of culture has gone through some critical phases in recent weeks, in particular in the area of standard-setting. Even though no specific question was raised with reference to them, four important meetings held in the month of June and at the beginning of July show how consistent and complementary our standard-setting framework is and what a broad span of issues it addresses The Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict held its third session from 4 to 6 June Established under the Second Protocol of 1999 to the Hague Convention of 1954, the Committee has pursued its task of developing guidelines that will enable it to implement this important protocol, which provides a higher level of protection than the 1954 Convention. This indicates the significance of the work being done by the Committee which, I hope, will finalize a set of consistent guidelines in the near future Another decisive phase was the General Assembly of the States Parties to the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held from 16 to 19 June The General Assembly adopted the operational directives that were needed to set in motion the procedure for inscription on the two lists, the Representative List and the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. At the Committee s next session, which will be held in Istanbul from 4 to 8 November 2008, the 90 Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity will be incorporated into the Representative List. That occasion will no doubt represent another important phase, full of emotion for all of us. I hope that many of the 97 States Parties will propose nominations for the initial inscriptions on the two lists, which will take place in autumn I hope, too, that the Convention will soon be ratified by many other States so that they may embark on the great adventure of safeguarding the intangible heritage to which the Convention invites them Mr Chairman, with respect to culture, the month of June ended with another important meeting, that of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, which was held from 24 to 27 June 2008 and preceded by a day of meetings between civil society and the Parties to the Convention, now numbering 88. That extraordinary session of the Committee, which is also involved in drawing up operational guidelines, led to significant progress in key areas such as the protection and promotion of cultural expressions under threat, partnerships, the role of civil society, and priorities and arrangements for the use of the resources of the International Fund for Cultural Diversity. At its next meeting in December 2008, the Committee will be examining the completed guidelines relating to those issues. The fact that the constructive spirit prevailing in Ottawa at the Committee s first meeting was maintained in Paris was most welcome, and I am confident that the Committee will manage, in

10 9 this same spirit, to present a set of finalized guidelines to the next Conference of Parties, which will be held in June 2009, thus enabling this Convention to also deliver its full promise Finally, the first days of July were dedicated to world heritage, when the World Heritage Committee met in Quebec City, on the occasion of the city s 400th anniversary celebrations. Twenty-seven new sites were inscribed and four were extended. While no new properties were included on the List of World Heritage in Danger, the reinforced monitoring mechanism, which over the past year has been used to monitor seven properties, was activated in respect of four others Among them, the Old City of Jerusalem and, in particular, the Mughrabi ascent, naturally attracted particular attention. It is therefore a source of great satisfaction to me that the Committee, faithful to its tradition, adopted a consensus decision in that regard The question of a more geographically balanced World Heritage List was also raised. That is of course an important aim which we must bear in mind and it should be combined with another key requirement, namely, the credibility of the List. We can meanwhile certainly make progress, especially by providing more active support for the preparation of nomination files by countries lacking the capacity to do so. Such support does not necessarily guarantee the success of a nomination, which remains the exclusive prerogative of the Committee. It requires, moreover, significant human and financial resources, which the World Heritage Centre lacks at the moment The Committee s decision not to accept my proposal to finance seven new posts out of joint funds, which would be supplied in part by the World Heritage Fund, is in that regard a source of great disappointment and concern for me. Under such circumstances, I do not think that I can pursue the ambitious work programme of the World Heritage Centre at the same level, and I will most likely have to take decisions that will be painful for all of us, which I regret most sincerely. I find this decision all the more difficult to understand as the Members of the Board, some of them also members of the World Heritage Committee, had given me the impression at the April session that they understood what was needed and were ready to give serious consideration to the proposal. While I will of course do everything possible to make the necessary arrangements internally, it must be recognized that the Committee s decision will have a strongly negative impact on the Centre s future operations. I therefore find myself obliged, Mr Chairman, to withdraw this item from the agenda of the next session of the Board since the Committee s refusal signals the end of the debate I cannot but profoundly regret this state of affairs as I have, as you know, no room for manoeuvre in the Culture Sector given the fact that the many other conventions for which the Sector is responsible are also understaffed. In that connection, let me remind you that the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which now has 17 ratifications, will very shortly enter into force and that we will have the added responsibility of ensuring its secretariat I can only hope that when we launch the debate on the budget ceiling, the Members of the Board will keep these circumstances in mind Mr Chairman, I turn now to the questions relating to the dialogue among cultures and civilizations, and interreligious dialogue. Since the 175th session of the Board, you will note that I have, as I have been invited to do, regularly included a review of this matter in my statutory reports. The intersectoral platform on the dialogue among civilizations and cultures and a culture of peace has been actively preparing its plan of action and has set four objectives to be reached by the end of 2009: the use of the general and regional histories, the development of intercultural competencies, the promotion of intercultural and interreligious dialogue among young people, and the role of the media in strengthening dialogue and mutual understanding. I should like to emphasize here, in response to a question raised by the Philippines, that in the field of interreligious dialogue we wished in this biennium to accord priority to work with young people rather than to a major conference at Headquarters. The plan of action largely reflects the cooperation priorities that we have agreed on with the Alliance of Civilizations. The intersectoral platform has consequently prepared several projects and submitted them to the Spanish authorities, which have made available extrabudgetary funds under our agreement with the Alliance. I met Mr Sampaio a few days ago to review the implementation of the agreement and he

11 10 said that he was very satisfied with UNESCO s active involvement. We have already identified several practical avenues for cooperation. Our work to promote dialogue is naturally not limited to the work done under the platform or that planned in cooperation with the Alliance. My periodic report in the EX/4 document will provide you with detailed information in that regard. I am thinking in particular of the meetings, held regularly since 2002, of Heads of State of South-East Europe, the most recent of which took place in Athens on 13 and 14 June 2008, and which are an extremely useful means of fostering confidence and mutual understanding in the region through culture. The theme of this year s summit was Intercultural encounters on maritime, river and lake routes of South-East Europe. An information meeting will be held in the autumn to provide more detailed information on our activities in the area of intercultural dialogue Mr Chairman, aanother key focus of our work in 2008 is the International Year of Languages, about which several questions were raised. The International Year is largely an occasion for communication and mobilization and, as its lead agency, UNESCO has been conducting since October 2007 an awareness-raising campaign under the slogan Languages matter. Its principal aim is to underscore the extent to which languages are a strategic factor in sustainable development. To date, more than 170 projects have been carried out worldwide, and new projects are being launched every day by various partners. News about these initiatives is updated as it happens on our Internet site. While global, regional, national and local activities are being developed above all in the fields of multilingual education and endangered languages, they also encompass intercultural dialogue, cyberspace, indigenous knowledge and social transformations, which includes the issue of migration. In this connection, I should like to mention a meeting to be held in Tokyo at the end of August to which Mr Yaï has been personally invited in his capacity as a linguist. The meeting will be held in cooperation with the United Nations University as part of an annual series of meetings on globalization, and the theme this year will be Globalization and languages. UNESCO, itself, will naturally be implementing a number of initiatives under the programme and budget, which will be coordinated through the intersectoral platform for languages and multilingualism With respect to building institutional capacities for the safeguarding of languages, about which a specific question was asked, the Section of Intangible Cultural Heritage, in close cooperation with the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) and the UNESCO Offices in Bamako and Addis Ababa, carried out a major project aimed at building capacities for the safeguarding of African languages and traditions and oral expressions in sub-saharan Africa during the period An evaluation of the impact of the project should be conducted in the coming months With reference to sign language, an issue raised by Serbia, a number of studies have been published by or with the support of UNESCO, a list of which is available online through the UNESDOC documents service. Several tools for learning sign language are also mentioned within the framework of the open training platform developed by the Communication and Information Sector Finally, the Secretariat has made all the necessary preparations for the implementation of 179 EX/Decision 10 which, as you are aware, invites me to convene a meeting of experts with a view to contributing to the reflection on a preliminary study of a possible standard-setting instrument for the protection of indigenous and endangered languages. Venezuela, which has offered to fund the meeting, was unable to mobilize the funds in time for the meeting to be held in September, and we are now considering the possibility of holding the meeting after the autumn session of the Executive Board Mr Chairman, a main focus of UNESCO s action in the field of communication and information continues to be the implementation and follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). In this context, UNESCO is closely cooperating with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) As one of the leading facilitator agencies, UNESCO co-organized the third cluster of Action Lines consultations in Geneva in May. On this occasion, a special session was held to explore ways to make the WSIS implementation, and in particular the consultation meetings, more

12 11 effective and participatory. There were a number of suggestions on the way forward, and I shall report back to you once the details have been finalized Another element to the WSIS follow-up is UNESCO s increasing engagement in the subject of Internet governance. For example, through the Ambassador of Latvia s role as chair of ICANN s Governments Advisory Committee, we hosted a meeting on how international domain names can promote multilingualism on the Internet Let me now turn to your question on the draft strategic plan for the Information for All Programme (IFAP). Further to your request for me to submit the revised strategic plan for consideration at the forthcoming Board session, the Bureau of the IFAP Council proceeded with a consultation of IFAP stakeholders and partners. The revised strategic plan is now ready and will be presented with my comments and observations in document 180 EX/ Overall, I feel that the proposed strategic plan corresponds to UNESCO s Medium-Term Strategy. The proposal to focus on the implementation of information policies as a means of building national capacities is sound. Unfortunately, it is clear that the current human and financial resources are not sufficient for the programme to implement the ambitious plan adopted by the IFAP Council. As such, the programme s success will depend on its ability to mobilize extrabudgetary resources, through the more effective engagement of IFAP Bureau and Council members, as well as IFAP National Committees. I should note in this connection that mobilizing and managing a fund-raising campaign has resource implications for the Secretariat in its own right Mr Chairman, a number of questions were raised on the intersectoral platforms and how they are functioning. I am pleased to inform you that the work of all 12 intersectoral platforms has begun. The initial phase of reviewing and adapting, as appropriate, the strategies and expected results of the joint activities under each platform has been completed. The indicative budgetary allocations, envisaged in document 34 C/5, have been adhered to. All Sectors have been invited to consider making additional financial commitments to reinforce the impact of this joint action It is too early to assess concrete results of this new modality. It would therefore be premature to think about adjusting the number and scope of platforms, as suggested by Sri Lanka. The proper time for such a review, and eventual adaptation, would be next year when the Board considers my proposals for draft document 35 C/ I agree that there might be a risk of some substantive overlaps in the current set-up of thematic intersectoral platforms. Nevertheless, I am confident that the lead ADGs will be able to avoid counterproductive duplication, while identifying possibilities for a more efficient overall management and division of labour. The ultimate criterion to judge the success of the platforms will be the quality and impact of their results Let me turn to three platforms that are the subject of specific questions. The Intersectoral Platform for Support to Countries in Post-conflict and Natural Disaster Situations chaired by the Deputy Director-General now coordinates UNESCO s field office and sectoral responses to postcrisis situations. In Iraq, UNESCO has been carrying out projects with some $60 million in extrabudgetary funding support since 2003, with a high implementation rate, as noted in the external evaluation of the Iraq Multi-Donor Trust Fund Furthermore, UNESCO was among the first agencies to respond positively to the United Nations call for increased support for humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in the country, which requires a strengthened in-country presence. We are in the process of establishing a permanent international presence in Baghdad. The post is currently being advertised, and an incumbent is expected to be in place by September. In addition, continued presence will be assured in Erbil, through the rotation on a two to three month voluntary basis of project officers currently based in Amman In Afghanistan, UNESCO s Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) has been adopted as the national framework for action for all education stakeholders to collectively plan and implement literacy activities. UNESCO also works to strengthen education television and news production for the national broadcaster, Radio and Television Afghanistan (RTA), through the support of the Government of Italy. Finally, the third phase project for the Safeguarding of the