Paris, September 15 {No.2000 - 88} - The coming weeks at UNESCO will have a strong African emphasis, as the leaders of three African regional and sub-regional groups pay important official visits to Organization Headquarters. The Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Lansana Kouyate, will visit UNESCO from September 18 to 20, followed by the Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Prega Ramsamy (September 27 to 29), and the Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Salim Ahmed Salim (October 23 to 25).

The high-level visits will provide the opportunity for an evaluation - through joint commissions in particular - of cooperation between UNESCO and the three African organizations. They will also help formulate action proposals liable to fit into the Organization's future strategy, which is due to focus on multinational programmes. A continent's hopes for the coming century will be set forth during the visits to UNESCO, which considers Africa a priority.

Lansana Kouyate, the Executive Secretary of the 16-member ECOWAS group of States, will visit UNESCO from September 18 to 20. Mr Kouyate will meet with UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura and the Chairperson of the Executive Board Sonia Mendieta de Badaroux, as well as the Assistant Directors-General and the Bureau of UNESCO's African Group. Mr Kouyate will also give a lecture on Regional Integration in Africa: The ECOWAS Experience (September 20, 11.15 a.m., Room IX). A cooperation agreement signed by UNESCO and ECOWAS in 1983 will be reviewed during the visit, with peace and security the main areas of reinforced partnership, along with follow-up of the OAU Education Decade in the sub-region.

Prega Ramsamy, the Executive Secretary of SADC - which groups together 14 Member States - will pay an official visit to UNESCO from September 27 to 29. Dr Ramsamy will meet Koïchiro Matsuura, Sonia Mendieta de Badaroux, the main programme sector officials and the Bureau of the African Group. Dr Ramsamy will deliver a public lecture on SADC's experience in regional integration (September 29, 3 p.m.). During the visit, a cooperation agreement between UNESCO and SADC, which was signed in 1996, will be reviewed and new projects are likely to emerge.

Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary General of the OAU, will visit UNESCO from October 23 to 25, and will address the Executive Board of UNESCO on October 24. The OAU is about to undergo radical change: a treaty adopted unanimously at last July's XXXVIth OAU Summit gave birth to an African Union, which will replace the OAU in the near future. At the dawn of the 21st century, Africa has thus equipped itself with a new tool of integration and cooperation with which to face the many challenges that lie in store. Within its fields of competence, UNESCO feels it is appropriate that it should assist this trend towards unification. On October 23 at 4 p.m., the Secretary General of the OAU will give a public lecture on Regional Integration in Africa: From the OAU to the African Union.