DG/2002/61 Original: English UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION Address by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to the meeting of the Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO Ljubljana, 13 June 2002
1 Mr Chairperson, Madam Secretary-General, National Commission members, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to be here today. This is my first official visit to Slovenia and, though brief, its agenda has been full and richly varied. Already today I have met with President Kučan, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and three other Ministers - of Education, Science and Sport; of Culture; and of the Information Society. I have visited this morning the Ciril Kosmac ASP school in Pisan, where I was touched by the warm welcome I received and was impressed by the dedication with which both the teachers and the pupils promote UNESCO s ideals in their daily lives. At this school, I planted an olive tree which I am sure will grow as a strong and healthy symbol of peace. I also have had the chance to meet the press and the media, which I consider particularly important. And now I am pleased to have this opportunity to meet and engage with you, who represent civil society and the academic, educational, scientific and cultural life of your beautiful country. Let me take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Professor Aleksandra Kornhauser, the Director of this most impressive International Centre for Chemical Studies with which UNESCO has enjoyed a mutually enriching relationship for a quarter of a century. I would like to thank you for this valuable collaboration. My visits this week to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia should be seen in the context of UNESCO s efforts to contribute to peace, stability and development in South-East Europe by engaging actively with the countries of the region, with their neighbours and with the many international actors involved. In early April of this year, UNESCO organized at its Headquarters in Paris a High-Level Conference on Strengthening Cooperation in South-East Europe; this useful and successful meeting was attended by senior officials from many governments. Though not part of the sub-region of South-East Europe, Slovenia is an important neighbour with a strong interest in sustaining peace and
2 building the conditions for long-term development. My current visit to your country is designed to strengthen relations between UNESCO and Slovenia for the benefit of Slovenia itself and to encourage closer cooperation that will assist the broader processes of peace-building and reconstruction in the entire region. I certainly look to the Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO to play a key role in these efforts. I would like to thank Dr Darko Štrajn, the chairperson of the Slovenian National Commission, for the warm welcome I have received. In addition, I would like to express my appreciation to the Secretary- General, Ms Zofija Klemen-Krek, and to salute her long-standing commitment and dynamism which have done so much to advance the work not only of the National Commission but also of UNESCO, its agenda and its activities. Thank you very much indeed. And I would like to thank you, the members of the National Commission, for the time, expertise and effort that you are devoting to UNESCO, its causes and its work in Slovenia. Let me assure all of you that UNESCO greatly appreciates the contribution that you make. I am honoured by the invitation to speak with you today. The theme of my presentation, UNESCO and globalization, is potentially vast and complex. Hence, I shall focus on selected items which are vital to the Organization and its work in the period ahead namely, the role of the Organization in the globalization process and questions relating to education, cultural diversity and dialogue, and the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs). My starting-point is the recognition that globalization undoubtedly can bring about many benefits, especially in the economic and financial spheres, but there is also an equally important downside regarding its impact on poorer countries or populations. UNESCO has set itself the challenge, in its areas of competence, to help those regions, countries, communities and individuals which the unfettered processes of globalization tend to bypass. Our aim is to help them cope with the new dynamics of rapid globalization and to reap substantive benefits. Clearly, our main clients, as it were, are developing countries and countries with economies in transition which face special circumstances and difficulties. These concerns and priorities find clear expression in the Medium- Term Strategy (2002-2007) approved by the General Conference last November. The overarching theme or leitmotif of the Strategy is UNESCO contributing to peace and human development in an era of
3 globalization through education, the sciences, culture and communication. In a nutshell, our aim is to humanize globalization. UNESCO, as a member of the United Nations system, is fully committed to implementing the Millennium Development Goals, adopted in September 2000. These goals represent a grand design and strategy, agreed by the international community at the highest levels, to tackle the challenges of globalization and improve the prospects and fortunes of developing countries. Poverty, of course, is the most disturbing feature of our world, one in which almost half of humanity is required to survive on less than US $ 2 a day, and a quarter must make do with less than US $ 1 a day. Seventy per cent of the poor are women and two-thirds are under fifteen years of age. Poverty is a blatant denial of human rights and the very antithesis of development. And so UNESCO, like its sister agencies of the UN system, feels fully committed to strive towards halving poverty by 2015 which has become the central international development target informing and guiding all our efforts. For the next six years, UNESCO has chosen the eradication of poverty, especially extreme poverty as one of only two cross-cutting themes which must permeate all the Organization s activities. This, then, is the first and most significant dimension of UNESCO s activities in response to globalization. Globalization is also at the root of the emergence of knowledge societies. UNESCO must make a significant contribution in this area through all of its fields of competence and through its focus on ICTs, its second cross-cutting theme for the medium-term period ahead. Knowledge without education is inconceivable. UNESCO s central mission to promote education must be seen in this context. The World Education Forum held in April 2000 in Dakar, Senegal, set out the principles and the agenda for Education for All (EFA) which all countries agreed to pursue and make a reality. In the Dakar vision, formal and nonformal education are the central channels to deliver quality education, to empower individuals, especially girls and women, and to propel countries towards a more promising path of development. The Dakar Forum identified six goals which must be pursued globally: Expanding and improving early childhood care and education;
4 Fulfilling the learning needs of all children, including the poor and the excluded, by ensuring that access to and completion of primary schooling become a universal norm by 2015; Ensuring equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes that meet the learning needs of youth and adults; Reducing adult illiteracy, especially for women, and ensuring equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults; Overcoming gender disparities; and Improving all aspects of the quality of learning. In Dakar, UNESCO was asked to serve as the coordinator of the various EFA partners and to help maintain the collective global momentum in the education field. UNESCO has therefore placed the priorities of Dakar at the heart of its work, not only in the education field but also in other sectors. Let me give you just some examples: in science: the promotion of science education and technical and vocational training; in communication and information: the use of new ICTs as more effective delivery mechanisms and as an access path to information and knowledge; and in culture: the promotion of reading and culturally diverse approaches to learning. The right to education is an indivisible human right. Unless it can be secured, all other goals are bound to suffer. The right to education must be transformed from ideal to reality since today, despite decades of effort, over 100 million children still do not attend school and many millions drop out without learning to read, write and use numbers. Gender inequalities constrain access, completion and achievement. The illiteracy of 900 million adults limits their individual growth and the social development of their communities. While, in relative terms, some progress has been registered, in absolute terms the numbers have grown dramatically on a global scale and for many regions.
5 I have already mentioned the knowledge society, which was the subject of a most constructive thematic debate at the recent session of the Executive Board. We are concentrating on novel ways to share knowledge and information through ICTs, which have the potential to reach unprecedented numbers of people who otherwise are often isolated and excluded. Currently, the distribution of the benefits of such technologies is very uneven. The digital divide is also a reality in Europe, which is among the most prosperous of all continents. Economic, social and cultural factors are combining to generate a new illiteracy affecting those deprived of technological access and competencies. Our challenge is to identify and seize digital opportunities so that all people can benefit from the marvels of technology. Our Information for All Programme is designed to address the issues arising from digital exclusion. This Programme seeks to contribute substantively to such initiatives as the UN Task Force and the preparations for the forthcoming World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005). Our work on the Draft Recommendation on the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace will be fed into the preparations for the World Summit in Geneva. It is my hope that the General Conference, at its next session in 2003, will unanimously adopt this important Recommendation. Clearly, for UNESCO, globalization embraces issues of culture, education, science and communication. Such issues are less prone to be captured in economic or financial terms and require a much more subtle approach. The impact of globalization is also reaching into the realm of governance, decision-making, human rights and the practice of democracy. It is affecting the way we live, increasingly conditioning our personal behaviour and impacting on social values. Above all, globalization must be understood and cast as a cultural process, one that influences how knowledge is constituted and disseminated and how cultural identities form and change. Indeed, in many countries, the cultural impact of globalization is a particularly sensitive issue, though for different reasons. For some, globalization threatens to bring global cultural homogeneity or the dominance of one or several cultures over all the others. However, others fear that the reaction to globalization is leading to cultural fragmentation or narrow localism.
6 In response to the march of globalization, we must not reduce our options to choosing between the global and the local, especially where culture is concerned. Both dimensions are equally important. Consequently, we must defend and promote universality, which expresses our shared humanity as well as the rights and freedoms we all share. And we must maintain our links to our own cultures, out of which we derive our sense of identity and our sources of creativity. Today, heated debates revolve around how cultural goods and services are produced and traded, how cultural expression and creativity may be frustrated due to the import of cultural products, and how cultural choices are being narrowed. The globalization of trade, moreover, has a real impact on how intercultural dialogue may be conducted. If cultural differences are eroded and if the channels of intercultural exchange do not respect these differences, on what terms can genuine intercultural dialogue take place? Hence, the promotion of dialogue across all frontiers political or historical is becoming an ever more important task for UNESCO. Globalization has also entered into the complex dynamics through which scientific-technological advances are generated, applied and disseminated. Historically, all societies have been knowledge-based in one form or another. Today, however, some societies are increasingly reliant on scientific knowledge, technological capacity and innovation. Many developing countries do not partake in this process; as a result, global divisions are widening and, in such circumstances, the potential for frictions and conflicts is growing. Let me mention here also the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in late August 2002. Sustainable development denotes a development which meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs. The quest for sustainable development therefore transcends sectoral concerns and requires an integrated and holistic approach. Educating for sustainability, water for sustainability, the ethics of sustainability, cultural diversity and sustainability all of these will be central themes which UNESCO will promote in Johannesburg. How does UNESCO deal with questions of cultural diversity in particular? The adoption by the General Conference of the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity last year was a real milestone for it
7 represents the world s first standard-setting instrument to address this issue. By establishing a set of principles, norms and practices to protect and preserve all forms of cultural diversity, the Declaration provides a much-needed point of reference for the entire international community. Moreover, it will act as a tool for advocacy, especially against those who use cultural differences to violate human rights. The implementation of the Declaration s action plan in the coming years will be decisive in measuring the success of this unique standard-setting instrument and how effectively it can address the multiple challenges associated with globalization. For UNESCO, the preservation and promotion of cultural diversity cannot be separated from the protection of cultural heritage. As you know, the General Assembly of the United Nations has declared 2002 to be the United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage, making UNESCO the lead agency for coordinating activities celebrating this Year. These celebrations, which coincide with the 30 th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, have two main thematic emphases, namely, dialogue and development. Slovenia s engagement with globalization appears to centre around the tensions between independence and inter-dependence, especially as it attempts to consolidate its separate political identity at the same time as seeking to enter the supra-national embrace of the European Union. Other concerns vary, ranging between the growing disappearance of Slovene trade marks, the perceived threats to the Slovenian language and culture, and the fallout from economic transition. My hope is that the experience Slovenia gains from handling these tensions can be turned to good effect for the benefit not only of itself but also of less advantaged countries, particularly through inter-cultural dialogue and international cooperation in education and science. UNESCO, by virtue of its mandate, its areas of competence and its experience and expertise, is well placed among international organizations to seek to ensure that globalization contributes to peace and development, its core mission. Ultimately, globalization presents challenges that call for responses grounded upon what UNESCO s Constitution calls the intellectual and moral solidarity of humankind. It is here that UNESCO s work must have its real focus and outcome. Let us then join hands and intensify our common efforts! Thank you.