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

12.13 In regard to personnel management policy, it was felt that there was a need for an appropriate and
transparent staff policy. UNESCO should establish a systematic approach to staff management policy. The Board
no longer wishes to be consulted on every appointment, promotion or contract renewal concerning staff at
D-1 level and above.
12.14 It also feels that the Special Committee should re-examine the Board’s methods of work at the beginning
of the forthcoming millennium, including the question of whether the Executive Board needs its own legal
adviser, the structure of the Board’s subsidiary organs and the reform of its working methods, which should be a
continuing process.
12.15 On the question of programme concentration, the Board felt the need to avoid duplication with existing
programmes and the fragmentation of programmes in terms of both programme content and budgeting approach.
As regards the proposed world network of geoparks, the first question to be answered is whether this new project
should come under the Man and the Biosphere programme or be run by the World Heritage Centre. The issue is
still under consideration.
12.16 In regard to the decentralization of UNESCO activities, that is to say, the concept of having certain
UNESCO activities transferred from Paris to Member States, 29 C/Resolution 89 invited the Director-General to
draft standard-setting guidelines and criteria and asked the Executive Board to submit the text of those guidelines
to the 30th session of the General Conference for approval. The Board stressed the need for a clear, solid policy
instrument with administrative and financial provisions to rationalize UNESCO decentralization and adopted a
decision (156 EX/Decision 5.1) with basic criteria for that purpose. These proposed criteria have been submitted
to this session of the General Conference for examination and approval.
12.17 A number of UNESCO intergovernmental conferences were held during the biennium, including the
Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for Development (Stockholm, March 1998), the World
Conference on Higher Education (Paris, October 1998), the International Congress on Technical and Vocational
Education (Seoul, 26-30 April 1999) and the World Conference on Science (Budapest, June 1999).
12.18 The purpose of UNESCO’s cooperation with the United Nations system is to share experiences on
reform modalities within the United Nations and operate a “division of labour” within the system. We need to
increase the visibility of UNESCO’s programmes within the United Nations system so that other United Nations
agencies are fully aware of UNESCO’s activities. But we also need to ensure the effective participation of
UNESCO in United Nations initiatives such as the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty,
the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education and the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and
Non-Violence for the Children of the World. The Board also felt that cooperation with UNICEF through the
UNESCO/UNICEF Joint Committee on Education was an important activity that should be pursued.
12.19 Among the outputs of the Programme and External Relations Commission during the biennium were the
establishment of a World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology which will foster
dialogue between scientists, decision-makers and the public at large, the International Institute for Higher
Education in Latin America and the Caribbean and the International Institute for Capacity-Building in Africa,
which is located in Addis Ababa. The Commission also considered the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery: A
Crime against Humanity, which is on the agenda for this session of the General Conference, the statutes of the
International Bioethics Committee, and the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights.
12.20 As for the Finance and Administrative Commission, I shall again summarize just a few of its activities.
The Commission made use of an earlier innovation whereby a group of experts on financial and administrative
matters assisted it by carrying out detailed analyses and producing a useful document for the Commission. The
report of the External Auditor was discussed in detail at meetings of the Commission during the 155th, 156th and
157th sessions of the Board, which made decisions on actions and on the necessary follow-up by the Secretariat.
It also held long debates on the budget in document 30 C/5 and at the same time examined the Organization’s
personnel policy.
12.21 We now come to the preparation of the Draft Programme and Budget for the 2000-2001 biennium. In
155 EX/Decision 4.1, the Board asked the Director-General to prepare document 30 C/5 on the basis of
principles relating to UNESCO’s functions and forms of action required, programme concentration,
transdisciplinarity – which involves a number of intersectoral cooperation activities – and evaluation for
efficiency. Two budgetary scenarios were to be proposed – a zero nominal growth budget and a zero real growth
budget. The process should take into account all expenditure that is essential for the smooth running of
UNESCO. At its 156th session, the Board noted the clarity, readability and transparency of document 30 C/5,
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