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environment, health, availability of
water and food security. This underlines
the need for increased international
cooperation on global and longterm
projects. And if the science of
the Twenty-first Century is to confront
complex problems of a truly
global scale it will need to be interdisciplinary
in approach, drawing on
not just the natural sciences but also
the social sciences and the humanities.
We can see today how the major
successes in molecular genetics
and biotechnology owe so much to
the advances made in physics,
chemistry and biology. Environmental
problems – we now understand –
can only be thoroughly investigated
through the concerted efforts of geologists,
chemists, biologists, engineers,
economists, and so on.
The need for an
interdisciplinary approach
Big problems demand big solutions,
and the power of interdisciplinarity
coupled with innovative methods will
be needed to help the resolution of
the complex issues that span wide
temporal and spatial scales. There
must also be effective bridges be-
tween policy, management and science,
as well as closer links between
the public and private sectors.
This should not be misunderstood as
a call to abandon the basic sciences.
On the contrary, there needs to be
investment in fundamental research
as never before, in supplying the
new knowledge to meet many of the
coming environmental and social
challenges. UNESCO has recognized
this, and has launched a new programme
in the basic sciences, the
International Basic Sciences Programme
(IBSP), oriented towards
building national capacities for basic
research and promoting science education.
This means determined action
on the transfer and sharing of
scientific information, promotion of
excellence in national science, fostering
awareness of science by society
at large, and providing needful international
scientific expertise for
Member States. Within IBSP emphasis
will be placed on region approaches
and collaboration, and on
the central role to be played by existing
centres of excellence or benchmark
institutions in the basic sciences
and science education. By re-
1967
Literacy projects.
Four pilot projects
in Algeria, Ecuador,
Iran and Mali are initiated
in conjunction
with the UNDP. Later,
four further pilot projects
are started in Ethiopia,
Guinea, Madagascar and
Tanzania (1968). Three more
follow – in Venezuela (1968),
Sudan (1969) and Zambia
(1971). On the 8th September
1967, the first World Literacy
Day is declared. Since then,
UNESCO has awarded literacy
prizes annually on this day.
1968
The German Foreign
Minister, Willy
Brandt, holds a
well-received speech
as delegation chairman
at the 15th General Conference
(Paris, 15th October
to 20th November).
Nubian temple saved. On the
22nd September, the two Abu
Simbel temples – re-erected
64 metres above their original
site on the banks of the Nile –
are ceremonially opened to
the public.
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