Tunis (Tunisia), January 22 (No.2001-09) - UNESCO Director-General Koďchiro Matsuura today addressed the closing session of the General Conference of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and expressed the wish to reinforce co-operation between the two organizations.

Mr Matsuura paid tribute to outgoing Director-General Ibrahim El-Mili, and the “continued co-operation which he sustained and reinforced” between ALECSO and UNESCO during his eight years in office. In his address, Mr Matsuura also welcomed the new Director-General of ALECSO, Professor Mongi Bousnina, former Tunisian Culture Minister and the country’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO.

Mr Matsuura informed the General Conference of ALECSO about the progress of UNESCO’s reforms and its new Medium Term Strategy. Speaking of UNESCO’s refocused programme and its more limited number of clearly defined priorities, the Director-General highlighted the central role of education for all.

Concerning UNESCO’s priorities, Mr Matsuura highlighted the essential need to mobilize extra-budgetary funding and partnerships: “To avoid dispersion or duplication of efforts, it is absolutely necessary to identify precisely how UNESCO can take part in actions led with others or, in some cases, by others, and what its specific contribution can be. To this effect, co-operation with ALECSO should be considered closely, so as to reinforce and optimize synergies between our two organizations.”

Mr Matsuura added: “ALECSO has made a top priority for the Arab region of the effects of the application of modern technology on scientific development and the need to create an appropriate atmosphere in each Arab country so that the transfer of these technologies occur in a way that is respectful of the environment and of cultural particularities. Here too, education for all throughout life remains our best ally in achieving this objective.

“Peace and respect for human rights, as well as the development of Islamic-Arabic culture as an essential contribution to an international culture, also feature among our fundamental concerns. These concerns echo UNESCO’s major aims and priorities. The fields of co-operation that are opening up to both our organizations are thus very wide […]. UNESCO and ALECSO have a great deal to do, in particular, to improve knowledge of the deepest roots of the cultural and spiritual traditions of peoples, and to establish a culture of dialogue and tolerance,” Mr Matsuura said.

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