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Lucia A Keegan  11/28/2006 10:02:24 AM  From  DB/Inbox:  Lucia A Keegan

Cable 
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UNCLAS        PARIS 07448

SIPDIS
cxparis:
    ACTION: UNESCO
    INFO:   AMBU AMB AMBO POL ECON DCM SCI

DISSEMINATION: UNESCOX
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: CDA: AKOSS
DRAFTED: LEG: TMPEAY
CLEARED: ECA: MCRAVEN

VZCZCFRI716
RR RUEHC RUCNSCO
DE RUEHFR #7448/01 3240914
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 200914Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3216
INFO RUCNSCO/UNESCO COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 007448 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS 
 
FOR ECA - FARRELL AND IO/UNESCO 
DEPT. PLEASE PASS DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - ROBIN GILCHRIST 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SCUL KPAO UNESCO
SUBJECT: UNESCO HIGHER EDUCATION PORTAL MEETING 
 
¶1. Summary. U.S. delegation to the first meeting of the "Steering 
group of the UNESCO Portal on Recognized Higher Education 
Institutions - Pilot Project" (Nov. 13-14) played a key role in 
having the meeting reach consensus on an approach that is consistent 
with one of the USG's key objectives for the pilot project, i.e., 
adopting a simple portal model that links to national higher 
education quality assurance sites, where students and other users 
can directly access information maintained by national higher 
education authorities for the purposes of participating in good 
quality cross-border education.  The approach adopted will avoid 
establishment of a UNESCO-created and managed database of quality 
assurance information that would be costly, labor intensive, 
supersede U.S. national educational authorities, and would not 
reflect the constant innovation and dynamism of higher education in 
the U.S. and other countries.  There is still important work left to 
do, in terms of refining the design of the portal, agreeing upon its 
constituent components, clarifying key terminology, assessing 
country needs for upgrading of national sites, and finalizing the 
size and forms of country/other stakeholder funding and in-kind 
contributions to the pilot project. End Summary. 
 
¶2. The U.S. delegation made the first general statement of position 
on the opening day which laid out preferences, with which most other 
delegations (including, Australia, Canada, and Norway) readily 
agreed.  That intervention set a positive tone for a day and a half 
of meetings in which there was a relatively strong convergence of 
views among most participants, as consensus was gradually reached on 
(i) the need for simplicity in the portal model adopted; (ii) the 
need to ensure that UNESCO Member States represented on the Steering 
Committee would have the lead role in guiding and overseeing the 
project, with the secretariat serving only a facilitating and 
coordinating role; (iii) the need to trim down the budget initially 
proposed by the secretariat to fit a more simplified, less costly 
portal model; and (iv) the need to allow countries to retain the 
right to present their quality assurance sites on the portal site 
and to develop those sites as they see fit (although it was widely 
recommended that each country should include some pertinent 
information explaining their system and specific terminology, to 
assist foreign users). 
 
¶3. After hearing this round of comments from country participants, 
UNESCO staff revised the draft budget downward by about 50 per cent 
to USG 220,000, also based on the U.S. suggestion that 
capacity-building focus on providing on-site assistance to 
individual pilot countries, including via informal bilateral 
partnerships with developing countries, rather than expensive 
international workshops or headquarters-based staff. On this note, 
the Nigerian and Jamaican representatives were among the most 
active, well-informed, and constructive meeting participants, both 
of whom had special relationships with the U.S that they seemed to 
hold dear - one a Fulbright Scholar Alumna and other a graduate of a 
prestigious Midwestern university.  The Nigerian group also included 
a U.S. citizen consultant who is working with the Nigerian National 
Universities Commission (whose Director was the delegation leader) 
on capacity building.  U.S. delegation sees value in having the U.S. 
continue to work closely with those two countries, among others, in 
the implementation of this pilot portal project.  In its opening 
statement, U.S. delegation offered the Fulbright Senior Specialist 
program as a source of expertise that could be drawn on by countries 
in the pilot.  Jamaica has already indicated its intention to 
request a Fulbright specialist. 
 
¶4. A suggestion that each 0ECD country member of the pilot project 
committee contribute USD 20,000 was generally regarded as feasible, 
subject to consultation with capitals.  State/ECA rep noted that if 
any such funding were forthcoming from the U.S., we would require a 
clear understanding with UNESCO in advance about how our funds would 
be used.  Towards the close of the meeting, the steering committee 
decided to elect as its chair Australia committee member William 
Thorn (consistent with the U.S. suggestion that steering committee 
members rather than UNESCO be the official managers of the project). 
 The U.S. delegation was able to clarify for the record that 
UNESCO's 13 per cent administrative surcharge would not apply to 
in-kind contributions, only to cash contributions.  Since the terms 
of reference contemplated possible use of UNESCO field offices as 
conduits for providing forms of assistance, U.S. del alerted meeting 
participants (who were largely non-UNESCO outsiders) to the on-going 
issue of HQ's need for better oversight of UNESCO field office 
operations within the framework of UNESCO's "accountable 
decentralization" program. 
 
¶5. Comment: In general, the atmosphere of the meeting was congenial 
and productive, which bodes well for the evolution of this project, 
provided that the UNESCO higher education division chief, Georges 
Haddad, does not attempt to undermine the consensus approach agreed 
to and seek to turn the model design back to a UNESCO-created and 
managed database design.  At the close of the meeting, a UNESCO 
staff member congratulated the U.S. delegation for its 
"constructive" contributions to the successful outcome of the 
meeting. 
 
¶6. Action items: The U.S. has been asked to nominate its principal 
representative to the Steering Committee, and State/ECA believes 
that should be CHEA president Judith Eaton.  Eaton has already been 
serving on a small committee of education experts advising UNESCO on 
information aspects of the guidelines project, and she has 
consistently supported the approach that this pilot project should 
be a simple portal that links to national sites.  CHEA serves as us 
national authority in this area and can provide strong technical 
support to the project.  USG will continue to participate actively, 
however, as a Committee member.  Mission would need concurrence with 
this choice. 
 
¶7. Action items continued:  Also, UNESCO coordinator Uvalic-Trumbic 
asked if the U.S. could provide an American intern with strong 
general skills and reasonably good knowledge of IT (the intern does 
not have to be in computer field but should have basic comfort level 
with IT) to her office to help with the project.  Ideally this would 
be from our Fulbright alumni intern pool if mission, IIE and UNESCO 
agree, but there may be other internship programs that could be 
considered. 
 
¶8. Other action item: In anticipation of Unesco's revised project 
timeline and proposed specifications soon to be circulated to 
Committee members, ECA will need to respond to Steering Committee's 
request to countries to indicate their anticipated financial or 
in-kind contributions to the project by NLT 31 January 2007 (or by 
December 20 if possible).  ECA should also brief CHEA Judith Eaton 
and seek further information on what support CHEA might provide as 
an element of an overall us contribution.  Mission will exercise 
sustained vigilance to help ensure that Haddad does not roll back 
the will of the Steering Committee. 
KOSS