UNESCO as a Network

Abstract

This study attempts to draw attention to the hitherto neglected, but important, subject of how the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as a network and promoter of other networks, has sought to foster the spirit of cooperation, understanding and partnership among its various Member States through conferences, workshops and seminars. In the process, the organization gradually constituted itself into a communication network and further facilitated the establishment of professional networks. The formal organization thus began to make an impact in the promotion of knowledge, shared experiences and the exchange of ideas on common themes and issues, across cultural, language and geographical borders in the entire world. UNESCO’s meetings added a new dimension to earlier meetings organized by other organizations in that they brought together policy‐makers at the highest level of ministers collectively to join in the deliberations on and the consideration of proposals, reports and draft decisions of professionals and experts, and agree on resolutions, decisions and activities. A hallmark of UNESCO was also the inclusiveness of its meetings and conferences to embrace the entire universe and profit from the world’s rich diversity. UNESCO’s intervention thus touched the rich as well as the poor nations, and peoples, the small and large states and brought together a rich diversity of views, ideas, programmes and activities. A few examples are given to demonstrate the importance of UNESCO in bringing together professionals, top policy‐makers and experts in the world’s educational politics, in the process providing a platform for influencing the development of education and building levels of networks.

Notes

¹ I wish to thank Mr. Jens Boel and his staff at the Archives Division of UNESCO, the Research Assistant to this Project, Abigail Omolewa, and Dr Mercy Ette, formerly of Newswatch magazine, Lagos, the participants at the ISCHE XXVI in Geneva, 2004, and the reviewers of the early drafts of this text, for their constructive contribution to this study. Materials abound in the archives of National Commissions for UNESCO, Permanent Delegations of member states of UNESCO, private collections of former staff and at the secretariat of the organization on its history. There are also some authoritative and useful published accounts, a few of which are biographical, personal accounts and exploratory narratives. Among the best known of these are: Ascher, Charles S. “The Development of UNESCO’s Programme.” International Organisation 14, no. 1 (February 1950); Chronology of UNESCO 1945–1987. Paris: UNESCO, 1987; Krill de Capello, H. H. “The Creation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.” International Organisation 24 (1970): 1–30; Laves, Walter H. C., and Charles A. Thomson. UNESCO: Purpose, Progress, Prospects. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1957; Maheu, René. UNESCO in Perspective. Paris: UNESCO, 1974; M’Bow, Amadou‐Mahtar. Building the Future: UNESCO and the Solidarity of Nations. Paris: UNESC, 1981; Where the Future Begins. Paris: UNESCO, 1982; Valderrama, Fernando. A History of UNESCO. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1995.

³ UNESCO Archives, Records of the General Conference, 1st session, Paris, Second Plenary Meeting, 20 November 1946: Report and General Discussion on the Work of the Preparatory Commission.

² See Hofstetter, Rita, and Bernard Schneuwly’s Introduction to the special issue on “The Role of Congresses and Institutes in the Emergence of the Educational Sciences.” Paedagogica Historica XL, nos 5–6 (2004): 575.

⁴ For some useful discussion of this subject, see Krill de Capello, “The Creation”.

⁵ UNESCO. 50 Years For Education, 1946–1996. Preface by Professor Colin N. Power, Assistant Director‐General for Education. Paris: UNESCO, 1997.

⁶ UNESCO. “Summary Report of the International Conference on Adult education.” Elsinore, Denmark, 19–25 June 1949.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ UNESCO. “Summary Report of the Third International Conference on Adult education,” 1972.

⁹ UNESCO. “Summary Report of the Fourth International Conference on Adult education,” Final Report, 1985.

¹⁰ UNESCO. The Hamburg Declaration and the agenda for the future, UNESCO Institute for Education.

¹¹ For some discussion on this subject, see Hazoume, Marc‐Laurent. “Conference on Adult education.” In Unshackling Literacy: A Plea for a Political Vision of its Rehabilitation. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education, 2004: 71–90.

¹² Ibid.

¹³ For some recent discussion of the work of the League of Nations, see Fuchs, Eckhardt. “The creation of new international networks in education: The League of Nations and educational organizations in the 1920s”, this issue.

¹⁴ UNESCO Archives, Records of the General Conference, 1st session, Paris, Second Plenary Meeting….

¹⁵ See Fuchs, Eckhardt. “Educational Sciences, Morality and Politics: International Educational Congresses in the Early Twentieth Century.” Pedagogica Historica 40, nos 5–6 (2004): 757–84.

¹⁶ International Bureau on Education, Geneva. Report of the International Conference on Education, 1994.

¹⁸ Ibid.

¹⁷ UNESCO Archives, Records of the General Conference, 1st session, Second Plenary Meeting….

¹⁹ Ibid.

²⁰ Ibid.

²² See M’Bow, Amadou‐Mahtar. “Preface” to ibid., XIX.

²¹ See Ogot, B. A. “Description of the Project.” In General History of Africa. Vol. 8. Paris: UNESCO, 1993: XXV.

²³ General History of Africa. Vol. I: Methodology and African Prehistory. Vol. II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa. Vol. III. Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century. Vol. IV. Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. Vol. V. Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. Vol. VI. Africa in the Nineteenth Century until the 1880s. Vol. VII. Africa under Colonial Domination 1880–1935. Vol. VIII. Africa since 1935.

²⁴ General History of the Caribbean. Vol. I. Autochthonous Societies. Vol. II. New Societies: The Caribbean in the Long Sixteenth Century. Vol. III. The Slave Societies of the Caribbean. Vol. IV. The Long 19th Century: 19th Century Transformations. Vol. V. The Caribbean in the Twentieth Century. Vol. VI. Methodology and Historiography of the Carribean.

²⁵ Historia General de América Latina. Vol. I. Las sociedades originarias. Vol. II. El primer contacto y la formación de nuevas sociedades. Vol. III, T. 1. Consolidación del orden colonial. Vol. III, T. 2. Consolidación del orden colonial. Vol. IV. Procesos americanos hacia la redefinición colonial. Vol. V. La crisis estructural de las sociedades implantadas. Vol. VI. La construcción de las naciones latinoamericanas, 1820–1870.

²⁶ History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vol. I. The Dawn of Civilization: Earliest Times to 700 B.C. Vol. II The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. Vol. III. The Crossroads of Civilization: A.D. 250 to 750. Vol. IV. The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century – Part Two: The Achievements. Vol. V. Development in Contrast: from the Sixteenth to the Mid‐nineteenth Century.

²⁷ History of Humanity. Vol. I. Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization. Vol. II. From the Third Millennium to the Seventh Century B.C. Vol. III. From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Seventh Century A.D. Vol. IV. From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century. Vol. V. From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century.

²⁸ UNESCO, 50 Years of Education. Preface by Professor Colin N. Power.

²⁹ Laves, Walter H. C., and Charles A. Thomson. UNESCO: Purpose, Progress, Prospects. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1957, reprint 1968: 356.