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As the participants in the Audience had recommended the establishment of a follow-up, supervision and evaluation mechanism for the execution of its recommendations, the International Follow-up Committee to Audience Africa was set up in 1995. Its members come from African civil society. The Committee’s terms of reference are, on the one hand, to make recommendations on implementing the conclusions of the Audience and, on the other, to act as an observatory of the changing situation in Africa as a whole in fields of concern to UNESCO, and to formulate the necessary recommendations to set the Organization’s action on a course that will be relevant to the social development needs of the African continent. Three meetings of the Committee have already been held: The first (10-11 September 1996) noted that it was necessary for Africans to take and keep the initiative in developing Africa, since they alone can be the actors involved. To this end, the international community must promote regional and subregional integration and cooperation in all fields of UNESCO action and pay the greatest possible attention to scientific and technological development in Africa and the promotion of a culture of maintenance. The Committee also expressed interest in UNESCO action in the field of democracy and governance in Africa; Africans themselves must take account of democratic principles in the management of their daily lives. The second meeting (11-13 May 1998) discussed the consequences of political trends in Africa since the holding of Audience Africa, and made recommendations for developing a culture of peace and stressing the contribution by women and young people to the building of peace and the non-violent resolution of conflicts. The Committee members also considered that the new information technologies should play a major priority role in the development of the continent . The third meeting (5-7 July 1999) identified the challenges to be taken up by the continent, more particularly in fields relating to peace, indebtedness and globalization, democratization, human rights and the changeover of political power between parties, youth, women and their role in development, education, vocational training, science and technology, the information society generated by the combination of information technology, multimedia and telecommunications, multiculturality, intercultural dialogue between cultures, inter-faith dialogue, integration and pan-Africanism. The Committee also expressed the hope that UNESCO would help OAU to draw up an African Charter for Peace with a view to a solemn commitment by all the countries of the continent to renounce war, violence and recourse to arms. The present membership of the Committee is as follows:
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