UNESCO Full Form Name
Full
Form of UNESCO :
United
Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNESCO
Full Form is United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is a special agency that belongs
to the United Nations and was created around half century back. The primary
motive of UNESCO is to bring security and peace through the promotion of
international collaboration in the fields of science, education, human
resources, communication, information, and culture.
UNESCO
actively works to achieve the ‘Millennium Development Goals’ of United Nations
along with significantly bringing down extreme poverty in various developing
countries. It also aims to eliminate gender inequalities in education and
reduce the loss of resources in the environment. Let us explore more about
UNESCO Full Form.
Today,
UNESCO is divided into 3 different branches – policy making, administrative and
governing branches. Culture is another theme that is closely related to UNESCO,
as it promotes cultural acceptance, maintains cultural diversity and protects
its heritage.
UNESCO
Full Form – Additional Information:
After
two bloody wars and the almost breakdown of tensions between the United States
and the then Soviet Union, leaders across the globe came to an unequivocal
consensus that it was imperative to come up with an international watchdog,
which shall act as an organization bringing together nations and working
towards the establishment of international peace and security.
It
was with this purpose the United Nations was established in 1945 and since its
inception, it gave way to several other organizations that were tasked with
some of the major roles in the International scenario. These specialized
agencies have contributed in abundance towards securing the objectives of the
United Nations charter by means of settled, authentic procedures.
For
the purpose of this article, UNESCO, The United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization, is the subject matter. As evident from
its lengthy name, the organization furthers the objectives of bringing together
nations in the field of science, education and culture.
These
three are important in strengthening international cooperation and mutual
acknowledgment. The organization is considered to be a parallel organization to
the now defunct International Committee of Intellectual Cooperation of the
League of Nations. To fully understand the objective, functions and internal
machinery of the organization, it is important to know ten things about.
Origin
of UNESCO:
Every
organization has a big, lengthy history and many a times in order to fully
appreciate the importance of anything, history is a great source of help.
United
Nations was established with the purpose of furthering cultural, scientific and
educational exchanges internationally and it was necessary to come up with a
working body that shall look after this object. An international conference was
convened on the suggestions of the United Nations Conference on International
Organization for giving shape to a body, which shall promote cultural and
educational interactions among its member nations. The conference was held in
London in 1945.
The
purpose was to come up with a draft of the constitution of an Educational and
Cultural Organization (ECO). Eventually, on 4th November of 1946,
the draft constitution came into force. However, there were amendments made to
the Constitution in the first general Conference from 19 November to 10
December 1946 that brought major changes in the governance of the organization.
Objectives
of UNESCO:
It
was an urgent call to the world leaders to do away with the menace of wars,
which have killed millions and displaced another million. The after effects of
wars have been extreme and many countries, till date, have been unable to
recover from the scathing consequences of the wars. Wars have distanced people
and created a big gap between inter cultural, social and educational exchanges.
UNESCO
attempts to promote exchanges in the field of education, communication, culture,
natural sciences, social sciences. It takes up programs in these fields and
bats for some of the most hotly debated issues like human rights, protection of
culture, independence of media, etc. It attempts to promote protection and
preservation of cultural heritages and bring together nations in providing
support in these efforts.
Apart
from these, it discusses allied problems like the deterioration of culture,
lack of cultural awareness, poverty, dissemination of education to marginalized
areas, etc. In fact, many of the Millennium Development Goals underline some of
the important objects of the UNESCO.
UNESCO
funding projects:
UNESCO
is not just a promotional center; it contributes financial assistance so that
its objectives are achieved more easily and of course, with international
support. With its funding, the projects are given much-needed impetus and value
and this proves that UNESCO is not just an observer. It is an active
participant.
Some
of its funding projects are following:
- FRESH: It expands to “Focusing Resources on Effective School
Health” and aims at giving financial assistance towards the betterment of
the health of children attending schools.
- UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors: This is probably the most popular program founded and
funded by UNESCO. This programme makes popular personalities ambassadors
of UNESCO objectives.
- Botany 2000: It is another programme, which deals with medicinal
science.
Agencies
and other allied institutions of UNESCO
UNESCO
needs strength and therefore, it has collaborated with many NGOs and
established many centers, which are official UNESCO agencies and help in
discharging functions. Currently, there are about 322 international NGOs that
work with and have even occupied official positions and offices at UNESCO.
Some
of those NGOs are Education International, International Council for Science,
International federation of Journalists, International Theatre Institute, World
Association of Newspapers, etc. There are institutes and centers established by
UNESCO, which act as specialized agencies to the organization. There is
International Bureau of Education, UNESCO International Institute for
Educational Planning, UNESCO Institute of Statistics, etc.
Promotional
Events of UNESCO:
UNESCO
understands that pursuance of its objectives require much promotional efforts
and therefore, it does not fall back in organizing events that help in
motivating people to participate in the UNESCO objectives more actively. For
example, it denominates certain days in a year to some special purpose. 3 May,
for example, celebrated as World Press Freedom day is a UNESCO effort to
promote independent, liberated media as an important role player in a
civilized, democratic society.
The
day underlines the crucial functions that media performs and how much necessary
it is to safeguard its interests. Similarly, there is World Literacy Day
organized on 8th September every year with the purpose of advocating
the urgent need to make the world a literate society so that every individual
is aware of some of the fundamentals about himself and the world. UNESCO also
organizes the International Year for the Culture of Peace.
Awards
and Prizes from UNESCO:
It
is important to recognize efforts of people and organizations, which provide
active support in the furtherance of the objectives of the UNESCO. It is to
ensure that people and organizations are motivated to participate more UNESCO
has instituted many awards. UNESCO Prize for Peace Education is an annual
award, recognizing efforts towards peace. Some of the recipients are City
Montessori School, Lucknow; Chiara Lubich (Italy), Prof. Paulo Preire from
Brazil; Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, etc.
L’Oréal-UNESCO
Award for Women in Science is another award that UNESCO jointly presents with
L’Oreal. The awards is directed towards recognition of those women, who have
contributed immensely in the field of science. The award gives hefty prize
money to achievers. There are other awards like UNESCO Confucius Prize for
Literary, King Sejong Literacy Prize, Sharjah prize for Arab Culture, etc.
Government
of UNESCO:
The
governing bodies of the UNESCO are Director-general, the General Conference,
and the Executive Bodies. The Director-General is an important governing body
of UNESCO. The current Director-General of UNESCO is Irina Bokova from
Bulgaria. Before there have been nine people who have held the position.
Then,
there is the General Conference that discusses important issues in regularly
organized sessions. In total, there have been 38 sessions of the General
Conference. The last one is the Executive Board with member states changing
accordingly with time period frame.
Offices
of UNESCO:
The
load of the functions of the UNESCO cannot be discharged effectively from the
headquarters in Paris. Every organization, in order to tap development in
concerned fields, must establish regional offices to bring more transparency
and effectiveness. Therefore, UNESCO has established many offices, which are
split into categories.
These
offices are established according to the functions they perform like there are
liaison offices, regional offices, cluster offices, national offices. There are
national offices in Abuja, Bujumbara, Dhaka, Islamabad, Guatemala City, etc. On
the other side, there are regional offices in Havana, Cairo, Beirut, etc. Thus,
depending upon the geography and functions designated, the offices are
accordingly categorized.
Publications
from UNESCO:
In
order to promote ideals of an organization, publication is an important tool to
achieve that. Like any other systematic organization, UNESCO has many
publications to offer. There is UNESCDOC, which is a voluminous collection of
documents pertaining to UNESCO and its functions and observations.
It
provides a comprehensive, exhaustive assessment of issues taken up by UNESCO
for extensive study. For example, there is UNESCO science report, Towards 2030:
Education for All 2000-2015, etc. An online bookshop provides books that are
for sale. It also includes CD-ROMs, periodicals, maps, etc. These publications
give a deep insight on the work of UNESCO and can help readers understand the
historical and contemporary relevance of the organization.
World
heritage Site:
Of
all the functions of UNESCO, World Heritage Convention needs special mention
because a lot has been recently undertaken in advocating principles of the
convention. In this, a special contributor is UNESCO. Any country that has
ratified the convention must adhere to the principle directed towards
protection and preservation of existing heritage sites. It is however not easy
to get heritage sites listed in the list because it requires a lot of
assessment. Every year, a small proportion of countries manage to secure a
place in the list and quite of it is caused due to votes.
Also,
getting a site listed as a World heritage can be an expensive affair but once a
status is gained under the Convention, there are advantages that the Heritage
site will enjoy. For example, once a site is declared a World heritage, it
shall receive international recognition and this may result in a greater influx
of tourists to the area. This indirectly adds to the national economy.
Thus,
the Convention gives two-fold advantages. First, that it makes even an obscure
heritage site and chased-after destination and second, it brings economic
advantages to the nation to which the site belongs. As one go through the
aforementioned tens, it becomes easier to understand the real motive behind the
inception of the organization. It was to prevent further blockade of cultural
and educational information among nations and strive for global development.
When
the two world wars washed out substantial population on the earth and the cold
war obstructed effective interaction among nations, it becomes incumbent upon
the world leaders to take up the responsibility for what happened. It became
imperative to forge stronger cultural, educational and scientific ties so that
the menace of the wars can be eradicated. Although there have been
controversies linked with UNESCO for example, in the case of Palestine, but the
overall contribution of the organization cannot be overlooked.
