The proportion of UNESCO’s regular programme budget devoted to its activities and programmes in Africa during 1998 and 1999 was US $20 million. To this, should be added the funds of the Participation Programme in the activities of Member States. This programme is one of the levers used by UNESCO to achieve its objectives; by means of it, UNESCO participates in activities initiated by Member States themselves or local organizations or institutions, thus strengthening the partnership between Member States and UNESCO. Recourse to this programme is an excellent way of helping African countries to carry out projects which they have started themselves and for whose execution they are responsible.

As the Africa region is one of the Organization’s four target groups for priority action (the others being women, young people and the least developed countries), the countries of sub-Saharan African received 25% of the overall Participation Programme budget during 1998 and 1999, i.e. a total of US $6,626,610 allocated to national, subregional, regional or interregional projects. All requests for assistance under this programme must be forwarded to UNESCO through the National Commission of the Member State concerned or any other official channel authorized by Member States (Permanent Delegations to UNESCO, for example).

Assistance may take forms such as the provision of services of specialists and consultants, further training and study fellowships, publications, subscriptions to periodicals and documentation, supplies of equipment, the organization of conferences and meetings, seminars and training courses. However, the number of such requests is at present limited to 15 during a biennium, and financial assistance has an upper limit of $26,000 for the conduct of a national activity or project and $35,000 for a subregional, regional or interregional activity or project.

The Emergency Aid Programme, particularly relevant to Africa, was introduced to deal with conflict situations or damage caused by natural disasters. It enables the Organization to react rapidly and provide aid as necessary to meet the urgent needs of local populations. Since January 1998, the Africa region has received almost $400,000 to deal with exceptional situations within UNESCO’s fields of competence.
In the last two years, extrabudgetary resources have made it possible to finance 303 projects in Africa (70 regional projects and 233 national projects in 45 countries), for a total budget of $115.9 million. The breakdown by activities shows that the education sector clearly predominates, representing 38% of the total.

Out of the total number of projects, 100 have been carried out since January 1998, for a total cost of $30.4 million.