16th Meeting of Senior Fellowships Officers of the ... - Development

Operational Issues 27
data available on the quality of the fellowships programmes both in the North and in
the South? Thirdly, while it was encouraging to see the numbers of fellows being sent
to study in the South, one must not lose sight of the fact that those former fellows who
established centres of excellence in the South had been trained in the North.
96. The bulk of the discussions on this topic concentrated on in-country training. Not all
agencies used that kind of training. IAEA, for example, did not. Others like WHO
and DESA organized many in-country training activities. The majority of the speakers
acknowledged that in-country training had become part and parcel of their training
activities. The decision on adding an in-country institution was either based on a
proposal by the country or on the acceptance of the candidate by a certain institution.
The participants of the Meeting agreed that if in-country training offered the same
quality as the training abroad, the former should be enhanced. The cost efficiency was
not and should not be, as several representatives stated, the main deciding factor. It
was also acknowledged that some fellows should still be sent to the North in order to
keep in touch with the latest discoveries of science and technology. Another advantage
of in-country training, highlighted by several participants, was the fact that in-country
training was very efficient since it made the organization of trainings and short-term
trainings considerably easier. A further consideration that promoted the idea of incountry
training, according to WHO was the fact that usually only urban people,
often government employees able to speak English, qualified for training outside the
country. WHO, which had been concentrating on training in primary health for staff
in rural communities, had expanded its in-country training programmes. For many
rural people, going to an urban area in the same country to study was much more appropriate
than traveling abroad.
H. Presentation on UNESCO Experience in Fellowships,
by Mr. Ali Zaid, Chief of Fellowships Section, UNESCO
97. Mr. Zaid pointed out that the ontological concept of training and fellowships in
UNESCO had its roots in the Organization’s Constitution which stipulated in its preamble
that “the wide diffusion of culture and the education of humanity for justice and
liberty and peace are indispensable to the dignity of man and constitute a sacred duty which
all the nations must fulfill in a spirit of mutual assistance and concern”. It focused on “the
intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind” to give “full and equal opportunities for
education for all” and on the “free exchange of ideas and knowledge[…] as means of communication
between the peoples and to employ these means for the purpose of mutual understanding”
13 . It considered that peace based exclusively upon the political and economic
arrangements of governments would not secure the unanimous, lasting and sincere
support of the people of the world, and that peace must therefore be found upon the
intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. Education and intellectual solidarity had
13 To get a copy of UNESCO’s constitution visit: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en//