50 years for Education p.50

UNESCO's PARTNERS

RENEWED AND STRENGTHENED METHODS OF CO-OPERATION

A specialized agency within the United Nations System, UNESCO is an intergovernmental organization with governmental and intergovernmental partners. But, and this is one of its innovative aspects, the Organization also co-operates with a variety of non-governmental partners belonging to the international intellectual and scientific communities and civil society. Indeed, UNESCO’s Constitution places two liaison mechanisms next in importance to the General Conference and the Executive Board which are the executive bodies of the Organization and emanations of the Member States represented therein by Ambassadors and Permanent Delegates. First, within each Member State there is a National Commission which makes every effort to involve all public and private sector institutions in UNESCO’s work; second, at international level, non-governmental organizations forge close bonds with intellectual and scientific circles and with the associative movements. On the threshold of the twenty-first century, with the increasing influence of civil society as a partner of government, UNESCO’s capacity as an intergovernmental organization to mobilize governmental forces, as well as those in the non-governmental sector, is an invaluable asset.

UNESCO’S NATIONAL COMMISSIONS

UNESCO’s action is targeted first and foremost at its Member States where, in line with the aspirations of its founder members, the Organization’s action is relayed not only through the channel of governmental authorities, but also through representative bodies of civil society (associative movements, mass organizations, specialist or learned societies, community institutions, economic operators, etc.). In order to harmonize such co-operation the Constitution of UNESCO, reflecting a structure created before the Second World War by the International Institute for Intellectual Co-operation, requests each Member State to set up a committee with representatives from both government and the main national groups interested in the work of the Organization. The Charter of the National Commissions states in its first Article that ‘The function of National Commissions is to involve in UNESCO’s activities the various ministerial departments, agencies, institutions, organizations and individuals working for the advancement of education, science and culture’. In 1995, the General Conference invited the Director-General ‘to ensure that through co-operation with National Commissions new partnerships will be forged both with competent representative bodies of civil society and with private bodies’.

THE NATIONAL COMMISSIONS IN 1947

The Netherlands became the seventh nation to establish a Commission and plans are progressing for the creation of Commissions in Canada, China, Denmark, New Zealand and Turkey. National Commissions are functioning in Brazil, France, Haiti, Norway, Poland and the United States.

National Co-operating Bodies for Education, Mass Media, Museums, Social Sciences, Arts and Libraries, and an Inter-Departmental Committee, have been set up in the United Kingdom in the place of a National Commission. Plans have been made for active association of National Commissions with the execution of the programme of UNESCO. Practical proposals are being worked out for each country.

A national conference on UNESCO, at which more than 500 Organizations were represented, was held at Philadelphia on March 24-26, under the auspices of the U. S. National Commission.

Dr Julian Huxley, the Director-General of UNESCO, was able to describe the work and importance of the National Commissions, as well as report on the progress of UNESCO, on his tour of ten Latin American countries during June and early July.

The UNESCO Monitor, August 1947.

Numbering 6 in 1946 and 178 in 1996, the National Commissions for UNESCO, the only institutions of their kind, are a precious conduit in each country between government services and the non-governmental sector. As vehicles for liaison, the National Commissions organize exhibitions and arrange conferences, translate and publish books and newsletters in national languages and conduct a wide variety of educational pilot activities. Regional and international meetings of the Secretaries-General of National Commissions organized regularly since the 1950s ensure that the activities and programmes of the Organization are matched to the contexts of each region or country.

UNESCO's PARTNERS IN 1946 We have considered the obvious necessity of co-operation with all existing agencies with similar aims. We could never hope to undertake everything ourselves; duplication of effort would be grave, partly because it would give rise to wasteful and dangerous competition, partly because there are not enough good people to carry out this difficult and exacting type of work, and perhaps most of all because we feel it right in principle that people should help themselves, rather than transfer all their responsibilities to some remote overgrown organization. Thus, wherever responsible voluntary agencies exist, capable of carrying out the work for which we exist, we shall endeavour to assist them to do so. For instance, one of the items before this Conference will be the proposed agreement between UNESCO and the International Council of Scientific Unions. Numerous other agreements, of varying scope, will undoubtedly have to be made with other bodies in other fields. And when such bodies do not exist, it should, we believe, be UNESCO’s policy to encourage their formation. Extract from the Report of the Preparatory Commission to the first Session of the General Conference, UNESCO, Paris, 10 December 1946.
AND ITS 41 MEMBER STATES IN 1948
Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Canada China Colombia Cuba Czechoslovakia Denmark	Dominican Rep. Ecuador Egypt El Salvador France Greece Haiti Honduras Hungary India	Italy Lebanon Liberia Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Peru Philippines	Poland Saudi Arabia Switzerland Syria Turkey Union of South Africa United Kingdom United States of America Uruguay Venezuela
States which have signed, but not yet ratified the Constitution:
Argentina Chile	Guatemala Iran	Iraq Nicaragua	Panama Yugoslavia

1950
THE WEST GERMAN COMMITTEE FOR UNESCO

The people of Germany will be able to play an increasingly active part in UNESCO’s work and make a greater contribution to international co-operation in the fields of education, science and culture through the formation of a German Committee for UNESCO activities, in Frankfurt, last month.

Germany thus becomes the first non-Member State of UNESCO to set up a representative group whose composition and functions compare with those of the National Commissions formed in Member States of the Organization. The German Committee will be able to contribute effectively towards the achievement of UNESCO’s aims, and its work will be watched with interest in other countries.

The sixty members of the Committee include prominent men and women and representatives of organizations in the fields of education, science and culture, representatives from the federal and state governments and from women’s organizations and trade unions.

Three international centres
Among the projects for Germany which UNESCO has prepared for 1951, are the setting up of three international centres - for the social sciences, for youth activities, and for pedagogical work. The newly formed German Committee should be able to give substantial help in co-ordinating the work of the three centres.

The UNESCO Courier, December 1950.