UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

nous souhaitons jouer un rôle actif dans la vie de l'Organisation afin d'assurer la réalisation, conjointement avec les
autres Etats membres, des objectifs qui en sont la raison d'être. Ce défi est immense, mais comme le disait si bien le
poète argentin Menapache : "Nous n'avons pas entre nos mains la solution de tous les problèmes du monde, mais
face à tous les problèmes du monde, nous avons nos mains". Je vous remercie.
15. The PRESIDENT:
Thank you, Madam. May all your projects succeed. I now call on His Excellency, the Honourable
George Foulkes, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Culture of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland. Sir, you have the floor.
16.1 Mr FOULKES (United Kingdom):
Madam President, delegates, let me first say that it is a great pleasure and a privilege to be addressing
this UNESCO conference on behalf of the Government of Great Britain as we face up to the challenge of the
twenty-first century. We in Britain look forward to the new leadership of Mr Matsuura and we offer him our
sincere congratulations on his nomination as the next Director-General. But equally it is now right, it is now
appropriate, as indeed all the candidates for the position of Director-General agreed, that we should take this
opportunity to take a really radical look at the role and at the work of UNESCO, and we welcome the decision of
the Executive Board to establish a task force that will take this forward.
16.2 Can I say Madam President, that the British Government’s key objective is a clear one. It is to massively
enhance the contribution of the whole United Nations system, including all its specialized agencies, funds and
programmes so that we can achieve the international development targets, and particularly the target for the
eradication of poverty. My colleague, the Secretary of State, Clare Short, spoke in general on this theme in New
York on Tuesday and I want to focus today on what it means for UNESCO. I have just three messages. First, the
need for a much sharper focus in UNESCO’s activities; second, within this, the need to increase significantly the
share of resources devoted to education; third, the need to improve the effectiveness of the Organization.
16.3 Let me first start with focus. Mr Matsuura has rightly said that UNESCO must concentrate both its
human and its financial resources, and be careful not to dissipate its efforts with an excessive broadening of its
range of activities. It needs to focus on those objectives, Madam President, where UNESCO has a unique role,
and, if I may say so, equally to relinquish those which are no longer valid, or, indeed, which other organizations
can perform better. Its comparative advantage is not as a funding agency, but it is in the sort of functions which
can only be undertaken by an organization with a global mandate, establishing international standards and global
indicators, sharing ideas, sharing and analysing comparative experience, and measuring results. In order to
achieve this focus, it will need – both certainly and deliberately – to move out of some areas of work currently
being undertaken. And we, the Member States, will need to give clear and unequivocal messages about priorities.
16.4 So let me give a clear message about what Britain sees as UNESCO’s key priority, which is its role in
education. As the delegate from Peru rightly said, UNESCO has a key part to play in helping to secure the
implementation of the targets agreed at the global conferences over the last decade – the elimination of gender
disparity in primary and secondary education by the year 2005, and universal primary education by 2015. Now to
play this role, UNESCO must significantly increase the share of its resources devoted to education, particularly to
basic education, to literacy, to access to information, and to life skills – especially and above all for those who so
far have been deprived of these educational opportunities.
16.5 Thirdly, improving effectiveness. Improving effectiveness can only be achieved through a determined
commitment to implement in UNESCO the sort of reform agenda which we can now at last see starting to work
in other United Nations specialized agencies, particularly the World Health Organization. And in doing so I see
also three broad priorities.
16.6 First, UNESCO needs to change the way in which programmes are managed. We want to see clearer
setting of priorities, the systematic use of “sunset clauses” to counter institutional inertia, more focus on outputs –
and independent evaluation – so that we can measure the impact of the Organization’s work and learn from
experience. We want to see managers held accountable for the delivery of the Organization’s objectives – that’s
good in other organizations; it’s equally so in UNESCO. And we see result-based budgeting as an important step
in the right direction.
16.7 Secondly, as the delegate from Saint Lucia rightly said, like other organizations which are embarking on
reforms, UNESCO will need to restructure and to re-skill the Secretariat. It needs a more transparent and a more
flexible approach to personnel policy. It must respond positively to the recent criticisms by the External Auditor.
Appointments and promotions must be made on merit and be seen to be so, and more use should be made of
fixed-term contracts, particularly for Professional staff at the cutting edge of the programme.
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