UNESCO Partners Forum. Paris, 5 October Report

Transcription

1 inf Information document 35 C/INF.27 9 October 2009 Original: French/English UNESCO Partners Forum Paris, 5 October 2009 Report On 5 October 2009, a UNESCO Partners Forum was held for the first time at UNESCO, following on from the International Forum of Civil Society held in October 2007 in parallel with the General Conference. This time, the Partners Forum was fully a part of the 35th session of the UNESCO General Conference and this report is to be presented in plenary meeting by the Forum s Rapporteur, Mr Bernard Loing, Chair of the NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee. The purpose of the now institutionalized Forum was to bring together and mobilize a broad range of the Organization s partners in order to give them the opportunity to engage in exchanges and sharing and to open up to others, from the private and public sectors, governmental and non-governmental spheres, with the aim of better attaining the Organization s goals and raising its profile. The Forum gathered together all those actively supporting and defending UNESCO s ideals: National Commissions and non-governmental organizations, parliamentarians, local elected officials, business leaders and representatives of UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations, UNESCO Chairs and the national committees of intergovernmental science programmes. The Director-General opened the Forum by emphasizing that the policy of intellectual and moral cooperation was consubstantial with UNESCO. Furthermore, the possibility henceforth open to the Forum to report its conclusions to Member States has broadened its scope considerably. He recalled that the Forum was the occasion for taking stock of the various kinds of cooperation UNESCO maintained with its partners, and he called for reflection on ways of consolidating that cooperation, while forging innovative partnerships so as to extend the Organization s action and pass on its benefit to the most disadvantaged communities. As he described the results of an intellectual and moral partnership that included the many elements of the great UNESCO family, the Director-General underscored, in particular, the successes achieved by the establishment of regional forums of parliamentarians for education, the launch of regional coalitions of cities against racism, the involvement of NGOs in the Education for All (EFA) movement, and the active part they had played in preparing and implementing the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the

2 35 C/INF.27 page 2 Intangible Cultural Heritage and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. He welcomed the close cooperation and innovative projects with private sector partners such as TV Globo in Brazil and Hewlett-Packard in the Middle East and Africa. He also referred to the National Commissions for UNESCO as being the Organization s best asset, owing to their crucial role in national mobilization. Mr András Lakatos, Chair of the Committee on International Non-Governmental Organizations of the Executive Board, began his statement by stressing that the twenty-first century would be the century of women and civil society, in particular in a context of crisis. He went on to emphasize the diversity and complementarity of UNESCO s partners, which enabled the Organization to renew its ideas and gave it a presence in every region of the world, including in the most remote areas. He recalled the key role played by non-governmental organizations in times of crisis, and regretted the fact that there were still different levels of development. He stressed the lack of resources, which impeded the Organization in working towards its objectives, especially in the field, and which forced it increasingly to enlist the help of its partners, which acted as intermediaries. Lastly, he recalled, in that connection, the need to ensure a minimum budget for UNESCO and to find new funding sources: civil society could play an important role in seeking them, and thus ensure that education and culture were not the first to pay the price of financial crisis or recession. After those introductory remarks, Mr Philippe Douste-Blazy, former French minister, Chair of the Executive Board of UNITAID, United Nations Under-Secretary-General, spoke first of UNESCO s unique mandate within the United Nations system, underlining that it was perhaps the most noble of all, fostering peace and understanding through a better sharing of knowledge and culture, filling a role as a pathfinder laying down ethical foundations. He then spoke of his research mission for new funding sources on behalf of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, stressing that such financing would prevent budgets failing due to a financial and economic crisis, that globalization should be more humane and better managed and that financing should not come solely from State budgets. Hence the innovative idea that should allow the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for health to be attained more quickly and more efficiently. The statistics were still so alarming that he spoke of humanity s shame. He spoke emphatically about the current crisis and the harmful repercussions it would have on developing countries, especially as a consequence of reductions in public development aid, investment and commodity prices. He then put forward the figure of $30 billion per year, which would allow health targets to be met. He thus introduced the idea of innovative financing mechanisms which were predictable, longlasting and easy to put in place, which would raise half of the funds necessary. This mechanism involved a tax on airline tickets, which 16 countries had already put in place and which 34 others had committed to implementing. In less than three years, $1.2 billion had been collected, allowing three children in four to receive AIDS treatment. As an extension to this initiative, and because many countries could not, like France, implement this type of tax, three private companies, which between them sold $2 billion worth of airline tickets over the Internet each year, agreed to offer their clients the possibility of making a voluntary contribution at the moment of purchase. Mr Douste-Blazy stated that people could be induced, in the same way, to take action on education or culture. Mr José Roberto Marinho, Vice-President for Corporate Social Responsibility, Globo Organizations, spoke of his country Brazil, a country that has a GDP of US $1.6 billion and is the eighth largest economy in the world. Perhaps the human development index (HDI) is not that high, which is due to social challenges that exist in any developing country. He informed the audience that Brazil has a high rate of school enrolment, but a large percentage of children leave school before graduation. Nevertheless, Brazil has fought against infant mortality. Brazil s problem is not a lack of wealth and resources; however, the problem remains how to administrate the money to ensure more equality in society. This scenario began to change in 1995 with the democratic movements working towards social development of cities and society. Mr. Marinho went on to talk about TV Globo and the Globo network of media, which reaches out to 150 countries in the world. He spoke about the project Criança Esperança, in which a Memorandum of Understanding has

3 35 35 C/INF.27 page 3 been signed between TV Globo and UNESCO. This project was created in 1986 to promote children s and adolescents rights in Brazil. José Roberto Marinho explained that initially, the objective of Criança Esperança was to mobilize and raise awareness of critical issues related to children. He added that this campaign continues to grow, benefiting over 4 million children and youth. Today, Criança Esperança is 23 years old, and attracts interest even outside of Brazil because of its innovative and creative nature. José Roberto Marinho stressed that this project is not only a philanthropic project, but it applies social technology seeking to inform, entertain and educate. After this inaugural session, Mr Ahmed Sayyad, Assistant Director-General for External Relations and Cooperation, opened the first round table on the theme of the Assessment of a successful endeavour: Necessary and complementary partnerships for UNESCO, and the first panel on A multiplicity of networks. The first panellist, Mr Bernard Loing, Chair of the NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee, described this Forum as ambitious and legitimate as it promised that all members of the UNESCO family wishing to express their involvement in joint action to support peace, progress and human dignity would be heard. He then reiterated that NGOs are UNESCO s longest-standing partners and that they are virtually part and parcel of the Organization owing to the historical and primordial nature of this partnership, formalized since the very beginning in UNESCO s basic texts. Mechanisms were subsequently put in place, which today serve as a reference for all international organizations and contribute to the establishment of smooth and mutually beneficial relations between States and civil society. The 330 NGOs with which UNESCO entertains official relations, and whose capacities cover all of UNESCO s fields of competence, often represent dozens more and are spread over the entire world, bringing together millions of people, most of whom are activists and volunteers. Cooperation is at times bilateral, but it is also essentially collective and organized by the Liaison Committee through seven joint programmatic commissions and three working groups, whose contributions are primarily of an intellectual nature. After mentioning some examples of cooperation, Mr Loing gave several pointers for progress, in particular, decentralization with regard to the reform undertaken by the United Nations, which should enable members of NGOs not based in Paris, field offices or National Commissions to join forces. An effort should be made with regard to information and communication on NGO initiatives and more direct and continuous dialogue instated with Member States, in particular with the Executive Board s NGO Committee. Mr Luis Ramallo, President of the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, recalled that the idea of National Commissions was a unique feature of UNESCO in the United Nations system, underpinning a participatory democracy that the Organization should promote. He stated that the United Nations movement began after the failure of the League of Nations, and that the United Nations marked the beginning of a true intellectual organization. The Charter of the United Nations starts with the statement, We the peoples, whereas UNESCO s Constitution opens with the phrase, The Governments of the States Parties to this Constitution on behalf of their peoples, hence setting the grounds for a framework which is participatory. He drew particularly on Article VII of the Constitution regarding national cooperating bodies, which encourages the cooperation of UNESCO with civil society, preferably by the formation of National Commissions in Member States. Luis Ramallo also highlighted other important concepts of the UNESCO Constitution which both National Commissions and civil society partners ought to reinforce, including peace and intellectual solidarity of mankind, as well as the objective of creating world governance for international peace. He added that National Commissions should serve a large group of partners since the world necessitates this solidarity to be built. Mr Lionel Vinour, President of the European Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations (EFUCA) that today boasts 600 bodies in 20 Member States, presented a few recent examples of successful partnerships. Three actions improved the visibility of UNESCO and WFUCA on the world stage: the update of the directory, distribution of the Organization s publications to civil society, and assistance with the coordination of the World Forum of UNESCO

4 35 C/INF.27 page 4 Clubs in July 2009 on the theme of peace and world heritage. Regional activities were focused on the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly in Africa and Europe. He then cited the blossoming cooperation between EFUCA and the International Coalition of Cities against Racism launched in The reasons behind the success of that partnership, despite some difficulties inherent in such collaboration, were the Federation s profound attachment to the ideals and values of the Organization, a dense and diversified network, and a capacity for initiative that enabled it to fulfil its role by distributing standard-setting texts, relaying information and implementing UNESCO s programmes. Mr Henri Djombo, Chairperson of the International Co-ordinating Council of the Programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB) and Minister of the Environment, Forestry and Sustainable Development, Congo, pointed out that UNESCO had addressed the scientific aspects of the use of natural resources with the launch of the MAB Programme in The purpose of UNESCO s Biosphere Reserves was to bring managers of reserves, scientists, neighbouring communities, civil society, the private sector and local authorities to the discussion table to solve the global problems associated with the loss of biodiversity, a warming climate and the eradication of poverty. National Commissions were called upon to assist in achieving that goal and he expressed the wish for improved communication on their part with ministries to support the role of MAB National Committees, which were key partners in educating on sustainable development. In that regard, he recalled that the German National Commission, drawing on its own experience, had taken the initiative of promoting better coordination in five African countries. An International Support Group (ISG) had been created to provide support to the MAB Secretariat and Member States. The initiative should be enhanced through the establishment of relevant partnerships, the promotion of South-South cooperation, and capacity-building in research and development and in conducting studies of the actions implemented in connection with the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. To that end, cooperation with the private sector and civil society was essential and innovation was needed to increase the capacities and financial resources available to World Biosphere Reserves, which were vital to their development. Ms Monique Fouilhoux, Deputy Secretary-General of Education International (EI), was the first member of the panel on the Diversity of partners, moderated by Mr Noureini Tidjani- Serpos, the Assistant Director-General for Africa, to speak. She recalled that her organization represented close to 30 million teachers worldwide and was working to make Education for All a reality one day. In that connection, she underscored the importance of establishing partnerships at all levels. In the context of Education International s partnership with UNESCO, Ms Fouilhoux highlighted World Teachers Day, celebrated the same day, which was the occasion for activities and the development of materials in various countries, in cooperation with the National Commissions and field offices. Education International was still endeavouring to draw the attention of the public, civil society and the authorities to issues in connection with teachers, who played a vital role in the delivery of quality education for all. In addition to those activities, Education International participated in numerous conferences and activities on various topics, including, the issue of violence on the recent initiative of UNESCO. Ms Fouilhoux then recalled that, despite significant results, it was necessary to continue to develop the partnership and its context, in particular with the National Commissions. She addressed them as pillars of UNESCO, and offered to bring them the expertise of the NGOs, their knowledge on the ground and precious added value. Lastly, she stressed that a partnership was an alliance born of an understanding that recognized respective prerogatives and projects and accepted differences, and that sharing different resources, energies and ideas was invaluable to achieve a common goal. Mr Michel Girost, President of the UNESCO Centre Louis-François de Troyes, described the originality and diversity of the Centre s activities which were conducted internationally, regionally and locally (visual arts competitions, travelling exhibitions), in an effort to gather together young people from all walks of life while integrating UNESCO s values. Those activities offered young people access to culture through cultural events, thereby teaching them that cultural diversity was a privilege to be preserved and an asset to be respected. The Centre also organized educational workshops on the visual arts, cultural heritage discovery, raising awareness of the natural heritage

5 35 35 C/INF.27 page 5 and book-related activities. As a result, in the last decade, approximately 120,000 children and young people had taken part in its activities and had been exposed to UNESCO s values. All those activities were made possible thanks to a special partnership between the city of Troyes and the Centre, enabling UNESCO s values to be disseminated and owing to various other partnerships mobilizing all possible sources of financing. What made the Centre original, in addition to its own internal richness, was that it brought together many different partners and helped to promote UNESCO by putting its values and messages into action. Mr Arief Rachman, Executive Chairman of the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO, referred to the Conference of Parliamentarians which took place in Jakarta in 2008, bringing 60 countries together from the Asia and Pacific region and resulting in the creation of the Forum of Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians for Education (FASPED). He stated that at a time when Education for All (EFA) remains a top priority, allocation of more resources to education priorities from national budgets remained primordial. He underlined a key role of the Indonesian National Commission, which is attached to the Ministry of Education, in the successful organization of the Conference. He informed the participants that there was an Education Commission within the Indonesian Parliament which was responsible for educational law, endorsing EFA goals by 2015 and other educational objectives. Underlining the importance of the regional parliamentarian forums on education, he proposed to extend such frameworks to all other spheres of UNESCO s competence: culture, sciences and communication. Ms Gabi Zedlmayer, Vice-President Corporate Marketing and Global Citizenship, Hewlett- Packard, stated that opportunity comes through education. She referred to the Clinton Forum which she had attended a week earlier, where Queen Rania mentioned that to get 75 million children into school would cost as much as people in the West spend consuming ice cream. She went on to talk about the Brain Gain initiative, in which HP, in partnership with UNESCO, has come up with a programme to avoid brain drain by offering incentives and opportunities in certain parts of the world including Africa, where such valuable knowledge may be used. In an effort to change brain drain of qualified scientists and researchers, UNESCO and Hewlett-Packard have developed a Piloting Solutions for Alleviating Brain Drain programme to help re-establish links between researchers who have stayed on in their own countries and those who have left. The project has been first launched in East Europe and was further scaled up to Africa and the Arab Region to reach a total number of 100 universities by Ms Zedlmayer also spoke about some other projects HP was carrying out in terms of social responsibility, such as distance learning through new technology allowing people to distribute their knowledge. The moderator of the afternoon meeting, Mr Pierre Sané, Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences, opened the second round table on the theme Future perspectives: Evolving and innovative partnerships for UNESCO and its first panel on Partnerships in movement. Mr Fouad Gargouri, President, Forum of Arab Parliamentarians for Education for UNESCO, stated that FARPED would fully cooperate and support UNESCO s partnership in civil society. FARPED is pleased with this initiative which was established as part of opening up to UNESCO in FARPED aims at serving education authorities of Arab and Gulf countries, by giving opportunities to all participants to learn more about UNESCO s programmes including EFA. A number of recommendations have been drafted since. This initiative has been very successful, and has allowed UNESCO to learn more about parliamentarians. He gave the example of one of FARPED s initiatives in Tunisia regarding quality of education, in which attention is paid to the quality of teaching. He added that it is important to involve the media and where the Arab world is concerned, make a bigger effort in binding together education, science and culture. Mr Roland Bernecker, Secretary-General of the German Commission for UNESCO, spoke of the question of governance and the private-public partnership. He emphasized UNESCO s special role in the United Nations system as an intellectual organization. Mr Bernecker affirmed that international cooperation in the fields of education, science, culture and communication would not

6 35 C/INF.27 page 6 have been successful without the involvement of National Commissions. He pointed out that while governance had become more complex today, UNESCO s architecture reflected a much more modern concept. He underlined the importance of strengthening the network of National Commissions, a task to be seen as part of UNESCO s reform. He informed the participants of the German-UNESCO Partnership Programme in Africa project, which aimed at strengthening the capacities of the National Commissions of the sub-saharan region. Stressing that the programme was extremely successful and fruitful, he thanked the UNESCO Secretariat for its unfailing support. Mr Bernecker also called on the importance of developing private-public partnerships, because the private sector has resources, know-how, large outreach to population, and most importantly, is engaged in education and training. He therefore encouraged UNESCO to expand its partnership with the private sector, which is ready to finance grassroots sustainable projects. Mr Miguel Essomba, Director of the UNESCO Centre of Catalonia, spoke of his strongly committed centre for UNESCO located in Barcelona, Spain and stressed the integration and reality of the global and the local. He called on UNESCO to develop a culture of partnership. He encouraged the importance of advancing into a multilateral cooperation, and that clubs should cooperate and execute with sectors. He stressed that clubs, centres and associations ought to provide UNESCO with evaluation reports because this will allow UNESCO to trust the clubs and give them the authorization to implement their activities. Hence, the Partnership Forum should set up a working group to reflect more, since working together will yield better and further results. Mr Stefan Bernhard, Head of Corporate Sponsorship, Corporate Brand Communications, Daimler AG (Mondialogo), explained what the Mondialogo project is all about and why the private sector is hence involved in a partnership with UNESCO. In 2003 this project was launched by the corporation to promote intercultural dialogue. Since Daimler is an international company, its core goals revolve around openness and diversity. The project reaches out to a network with schools and universities around the world, and aims at teaching students languages through use of ICT. He added that partnerships have been formed between schools in Europe and Africa, implementing projects that allow them to learn from each other. The project aims at meeting the MDG Goals of reducing poverty and achieving sustainable development. Daimler continues investing in the implementation of these projects. The company has also created an online platform where people can interact, and a good feedback has been received from the young: involving young people around the world is an important forward-moving phenomenon allowing as part of an international cooperation, as long as there is an established support from top management. Ms Simone de Comarmond, Chairperson of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) underlined that there had never been a more important time for citizens to engage closely with their governments in addressing social, cultural, economic and environmental challenges. Collaboration with partner agencies, the non-state sector and civil society organizations must be further strengthened, especially to achieve EFA and the MDGs. CSOs must pursue their advocacy programme of sensitizing governments in promoting gender equality and parity in education by fostering positive policies, practices and attitudes towards girls education and to influence the integration of gender in education policies in order to improve girls access, retention and performance, with special emphasis on partnerships. In this view, FAWE, which is today a leader and the torch-bearer in the promotion of girls education and gender equity in sub-saharan Africa, targets its efforts at community level where the barriers to girls education still persist. New challenges and directions need to be addressed, including the emerging ones, by focusing on new ways of partnerships and working together. Education provision across all stages is important because of their linkages and interdependence on one another. Development in one area requires and depends on development of another, necessitating the need for holistic approaches to education and development. Approaches to promoting lifelong learning are also important, with particular focus on the role of the State in providing regulatory and supporting frameworks to encourage active participation of non-state actors in real-world and non-formal education initiatives.

7 35 35 C/INF.27 page 7 Mr Mircea Diaconu, Senator, Joint Parliamentary Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO, Parliament of Romania was the first panellist on the theme Developing new partnerships, and spoke about what had been done in Romania, mainly setting up a permanent commission at the parliament responsible for all activities with UNESCO. One of the priorities of this parliamentary commission was to gather all institutions and organizations with specific activities related to UNESCO, hence an inter-institutional working group composed of representatives from state, non-governmental organizations and other professional institutions. He highlighted that this initiative allowed the use of expertise towards the establishment of a national strategic plan for relations with UNESCO. He stressed the cooperation between the Romanian Parliament and UNESCO in the areas of education, scientific research, and implementing mechanisms of protection and conservation of cultural heritage and the promotion of cultural diversity. He encouraged the establishment of such parliamentary commissions as a first step towards mutual cooperation and development in the political, social, cultural and economic domains. Mr Yannick Guin, Vice-President of Nantes-Métropole, speaking on behalf of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), emphasized the importance of territorial collectivities, towns, regions and villages in the globalization process. During the early stages of globalization, it was believed that the world was headed towards deterritorialization. Now, in response to present challenges, it was moving more in the direction of reterritorialization. In relation to the global level, therefore, the local level was not powerless. It contributed creativity and innovation and could provide answers to present-day challenges. Present in 136 UNESCO Member States and composed of 13 commissions, UCLG had been working with UNESCO for some time in defence of democratic local self-government. Decentralized cooperation had been established, permitting a certain equality of opportunities; however, that cooperation could be reinforced and made systematic, particularly in promoting a culture of peace. While UNESCO easily established working relationships with cities, which were all facing major challenges, there was a greater distance with the cities networks, which should be reduced. Lastly, Mr Guin mentioned the close cooperation that existed between the city of Nantes and UNESCO, particularly in the field of the promotion of human rights and within the framework of the International Coalition of Cities against Racism. Cooperation with UNESCO was growing, since cities were confronted with major challenges and it was important that populations had renewed capacities to meet them. Ambassador Preciosa Soliven, Secretary-General of the National Commission of the Philippines for UNESCO, focused her intervention on the role of National Commissions in the United Nations Delivering as One reform process in the case of the Philippines. She underlined the importance for National Commissions of collaborating with United Nations Country Teams and the key role of the United Nations Resident Coordinator to facilitate that collaboration. In the case of the Philippines, it was the Director of UNESCO Jakarta who asked the Secretary-General of the Philippine National Commission to attend the UNCT meetings, taking into consideration that UNESCO is a non-resident agency in Manila. Thanks to that arrangement, the Philippine National Commission contributes to the elaboration of the CCA/UNDAF, especially through advising on educational needs in the country and other priorities. Ambassador Soliven also highlighted some activities carried out by her Commission in cooperation with the various partners and networks, including UNCT, government agencies and civil society. She referred to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between UNESCO and UNDP in October 2008, opening opportunities for National Commissions to take part in the UNCT discussions when programmatic issues are discussed. In concluding, she expressed her support to UNESCO s decentralization process, stressing that delivering as one was the way forward. Mr Henri Lopes, Ambassador of the Congo to France, spoke as a former holder of a UNESCO fellowship. He first recalled the context in which he had been awarded a fellowship. In 1963, three years after the independence of a number of African countries, numerous countries suffered from a shortage of teachers in secondary education as France could no longer provide as many as it had done in the past. Teachers had then to be trained, and UNESCO fulfilled that task. The funding came from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) while UNESCO,

8 35 C/INF.27 page 8 which had the expertise, managed the project, provided appropriate guidelines and conducted evaluations. He considered the training programme to be one of the greatest achievements of UNESCO, which was still seen in the Congo as the organization which had trained rapidly and effectively a large number of teachers. The fellowships were not then intended merely for studies, they provided cultural and educational training. He said that an important characteristic of the fellowships programme was that it was international, which gave its beneficiaries a sense of the relativity of cultural values and the world of teaching. In addition, the programme also had the objective of making the trained teachers trainers themselves so that they could pass on the baton in all the countries concerned. The final result was that it gave all of them the possibility of taking part informally in a network which would have tremendous importance in subsequent training. Lastly, Mr Lopes underscored that if he had gone to spend 18 years at UNESCO, it was because fellowship-holders remained attached to the Organization for ever. He concluded that such programmes must be continued, possibly funded by innovative financing as they enabled the gap between developed and developing countries to be bridged. Mr Rasmané Ouédraogo, President of the International Federation of Cultural Diversity Coalitions (FICDC), recalled the origins of the Foundation. In the early 2000s, professional organizations in the field of culture had rallied in response to a growing threat to cultural diversity, endangered by trade agreements. An international instrument had proved necessary to ensure that cultural goods, which conveyed meaning and identity, were not reduced to their commercial potential alone. That was how, having noted the positive reception of UNESCO, the professional organizations had joined together in an international coalition, the FICDC, born of the urgent need to rally cultural actors in favour of the adoption and ratification of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. In October 2005, the international community adopted the Convention, which provided for the full involvement of civil society in its work. Awareness-raising activities were continuing to ensure widespread ratification, and cooperation with UNESCO was continuing with regard to implementation of the Convention. The cooperation established with the Federation at every stage in the preparation, adoption and implementation of the Convention reflected UNESCO s desire to further involve its partners and develop new forms of cooperation. Following each panel meeting, representatives of UNESCO s various partners took the floor to emphasize the importance of the Forum and the opportunities for exchange thus provided for all. The significant diversity of partners that participated in the discussions reflects the wide range of stakeholders involved in UNESCO s work. Participants included the National Coordinator of the UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network in Gambia, the representative of a UNESCO Chair in Morocco, the adviser to the Mayor of Moscow, a member of the Saudi Arabian Parliament, a representative of the African Youth Network which is a partner of the International Information and Data Exchange Network on Youth (INFOYOUTH), a representative of the Mayor of Marrakech, the Arab Federation of UNESCO Clubs, several non-governmental organizations, foundations, National Commissions and representatives of UNESCO Clubs, the Latin American Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament. Many stressed the importance of decentralized cooperation, particularly in the context of United Nations reform, and the need to take into account all communities with a view to strengthening UNESCO s role as an intellectual forum, enhancing the Organization s visibility and finding innovative funding sources. The issues UNESCO is dealing with were underlined as even more critical with the global economic crisis; this is why partnerships and connections between governments and civil society must be further strengthened, nurtured and taken to a higher level. At the closing session, Mr Bernard Loing, General Rapporteur of the Forum, summarized the key issues addressed. He drew particular attention to the value of the meeting, to the number and breadth of the interventions, and to UNESCO s special and efficient approach to establishing partnerships, for instance with National Commissions and non-governmental organizations. He also emphasized the importance of the issues addressed, especially education, culture, the environment and sustainable development, women s rights and highly successful examples of cooperation such as the International Coalition of Cities against Racism. Lastly, concerning

9 35 35 C/INF.27 page 9 partnership policy and the new approach to partnerships, the need to find new avenues and to initiate joint, interdisciplinary projects was often mentioned, together with the importance of communication and dissemination of information, and of the promotion of dialogue, particularly at the local level and in the current context of United Nations reform. Mr Marcio Barbosa, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO, then closed the forum by expressing his appreciation to all the moderators, speakers and partners. He added that UNESCO could not achieve its goals without the ongoing support of all members of society. He linked the objectives of the Partners Forum to the General Conference, as it brings the views of civil society partners to stand within the Organization s highest decision-making body. Mr. Barbosa reaffirmed that UNESCO continues to reach out to the world through engaging with civil society partners at the global policy level, adding that the imperative issue is how to reinforce such cooperation at the country level. He moved on to talk about decentralization, and referred to the Decentralization Review Task Force which he chaired, taking into account how it has reflected on new strategies to mobilize the larger UNESCO family and other partners at the country level with the support of the UNESCO field offices. He concluded that progress has been made in UNESCO s cooperation over the past decade, expanding and widening interaction with the broader UNESCO family and strengthening both UNESCO impact and visibility and the intergovernmental debate on ways and means to address the issues of global importance. At the end of the discussions, it was clear that this type of Forum should be held on a regular basis and be extended by one or two days in order for its work to be carried out in the best way possible. As the Director-General pointed out in his opening speech, the challenges of a world of multiple interactions cannot be met by the community of States alone: UNESCO must be able to rely on the solid commitment of its partners and the living strength they represent. A forum such as this is a unique opportunity to strengthen ties between the Organization and its traditional partners; to seek out new partnerships through which to strengthen UNESCO s intellectual role; to secure new sources of extrabudgetary funding; to promote the visibility of the Organization; and to rally the capacities of those determined to accompany UNESCO in meeting the challenges of the upcoming decade. Printed on recycled paper