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DE RUEHFR #0165/01 0421447
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R 111447Z FEB 10
FM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS FR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0000
INFO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK

UNCLAS UNESCO PARIS FR 000165 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL UNESCO SCUL SENV AORC HA
SUBJECT:  UNESCO DIRECTOR-GENERAL'S INFORMATION SESSION 
 
¶1.  Summary:  At UNESCO Director-General Bokova's first information 
session for member states on February 4, the Director-General 
reiterated her intention to protect cultural property in Haiti and 
help rebuild that country's educational system.  Bokova also 
reaffirmed her intention to work on girls' education, promising to 
present an initiative on the topic at the April Executive Board 
meeting.  In the same vein, she announced that the Board will be 
asked to approve a proposed Category 2 regional research center on 
Women, Gender, and the Construction of Peace in the Great Lakes 
Region that would established in Kinshasa.  The Haitian 
representative was given the floor at the conclusion of the day-long 
meeting to thank to donor countries for their help in relief and 
reconstruction work in Haiti.  His gratitude was very selective, 
however, as he managed to heap praise on Haiti's Latin American 
brothers (notably including President Chavez of Venezuela) but 
forgot to mention assistance from the U.S. and European countries. 
End Summary. 
 
¶2.  UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova held an all day briefing 
session for Executive Board members on February 4.  This was the 
first time since taking office in mid-November 2009 that Bokova has 
held such a lengthy briefing.  In doing so, she was following the 
tradition set by her predecessor, Koichiro Matsuura who made a habit 
of holding similar sessions in January and July every year.  Bokova 
used the occasion to provide member states with an update on the 
evolution of her thinking on UNESCO's program and management. 
Following were the high points: 
 
-- GIRLS' EDUCATION:  UNESCO will be more vocal on women and girls 
who are still not enjoying equal education opportunities.  "I am 
most encouraged that in discussion with leading personalities, 
including the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, First Ladies of 
Qatar and Egypt, among others, there is a commitment to launch an 
initiative on girls' and women's education.  I will share my 
intentions with you at the Executive Board in April." 
 
-- HAITI:  The Haitian Education Minister and members of his staff 
are working out UNESCO's largely undamaged headquarter.  UNESCO's 
Regional Bureau for Education in Santiago, Chile, has made up to US 
DOLS 50,000 in regular program funds available to finance the 
mission of an education expert to Haiti.  Contacts are on-going with 
nations of the Latin American group to see whether up to US DOLS 
340,000 of funds earmarked for the Latin American activities of 
UNESCO's Participation Program can be used to finance educational 
projects in Haiti. 
 
-- HAITI FLASH APPEAL:  Brazil, Bulgaria, Japan, Norway, and Israel, 
have responded so the flash appeal.  Brazil has agreed to fund the 
project on psycho-social support through teacher training (about 
U.S. DOLS. 400,000).  Norway has seconded two specialists, and 
Israel has offered to provide an expert. 
 
-- HAITI CULTURAL PROPERTY:  The Director-General has written the 
Haitian Culture Minister proposing the creation of an international 
coordinating committee (ICC) to provide advice to Haiti on the 
safeguard of its cultural patrimony.  (N.B. Creation of an ICC would 
require approval by UNESCO's Executive Board which next meets in 
April 2010.) 
 
-- INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF RAPPROCHEMENT OF CULTURES:  UNESCO will aim 
to promote mutual understanding, elaborate a framework of common 
values, reinforce quality education and cross-cultural abilities, 
and encourage dialogue on sustainable development.  An 18-member 
High-Panel for Peace and Dialogue among Cultures will be launched on 
February 18.  Membership of this panel will not be closed.  Others 
may be added later as the need arises.  The panel will meet twice a 
year.  The second meeting in 2010 will be held in New York toward 
the end of the year. 
 
-- REORGANIZATION:  Changes in structure must be based on what is 
working and what is not.  First, UNESCO must renew its leadership 
team.  Second, we should take account of the work of four internal 
task forces that were established on January 15 and are scheduled to 
report in March.  One task force focuses on optimizing UNESCO's 
operations; two others focus on UNESCO's priority areas, gender 
equality and Africa; and the fourth will explore new ideas for 
partnerships and the mobilization of extra-budgetary funds.  Any 
proposal for change will be put to the April Executive Board. 
 
-- TEACHER TRAINING IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA:  This program was the 
object of an external audit in 2009.  We must now use our policy 
toolkit to carry out a comprehensive diagnosis of the program's 
needs.  The Director of the Dakar Regional Education Bureau wrote to 
all African Ministers in December inviting their countries to 
participate in this exercise. 
 
-- INCLUSIVE EDUCATION:  "I had discussions with his Highness the 
Emir of Kuwait to establish a new trust fund dedicated to inclusive 
education." 
 
-- HIGHER EDUCATION:  We are facilitating the participation of 
Higher Education ministers from outside Europe at a Bologna 
Ministerial Conference in Vienna this coming March. 
 
-- CLIMATE CHANGE:  "I am in the process of launching a thematic 
workshop on climate change.  Its mandate will be to sketch out 
concrete measures to implement the new initiative . . . I have also 
asked ADG Science to follow up on my discussions with the United 
Nations Environment Program and to put together a team which, on the 
basis of the agreement signed with that agency last April, will 
develop concrete initiatives in line with our climate change 
strategy." 
 
-- BIO-DIVERSITY:  "I have expressed UNESCO's interest in a project 
to create an intergovernmental platform on biodiversity and 
ecosystems services to promote exchange between scientists and 
policy-makers, similar to the International Panel on Climate Change 
(IPCC).  I will inform and consult the Executive Board when this 
proposal firms up." 

-- HIGH-LEVEL SCIENCE PANEL:  "I intend to establish a High-Level 
Panel on Science . . . to advise us on how best to focus and 
reorient our program to better respond to pressing needs and to map 
out avenues through which we can reinforce our links with 
international scientific bodies and gain our leadership in this 
important area." 

-- KINSHASA CATEGORY 2 CENTER:  A proposal to establish in Kinshasa 
a regional research center on Women, Gender, and the Construction of 
Peace in the Great Lakes Region will be put to the next Executive 
Board.  An experts meeting will be held in Tanzania February 16-18 
to finalize the legal documents establishing the center.  The 
official launch of the center will probably be in May or June 2010. 
A donors meeting, including the African Development Bank, will 
probably be held at the same time as the launch ceremony. 

-- INTERSECTORAL PLATFORMS:  We have begun to take a critical look 
at the effectiveness of these platforms and have reached the 
conclusion that, while they successfully encouraged 
cross-fertilization of ideas, they were not securing effective 
high-level buy-in and results.  We must, therefore, consider several 
options.  We might reduce the number of platforms, or we might 
reformulate their work plans to focus on a limited number of 
high-level objectives.  We must face the fact, however, that to 
achieve results, the platforms need dedicated funds. 

-- JOURNALISTS:  The Bureau of Public Information has been 
instructed to issue permanent accreditation and offer facilities to 
those journalists who cover our activities regularly. 

¶3.  As the day-long meeting concluded, Haiti's representative Claude 
Moise was given the floor to give his country's thanks for the 
assistance being given since the January 12 earthquake.  His 
gratitude, however, proved to be quite selective.  He thanked the 
Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, and several other Latin countries 
notably including Venezuela.  (He thanked President Chavez by name, 
the only head of state he mentioned.)  He made no mention, however, 
of U.S. assistance or that of the European Union and its member 
states.  Instead, he went on to speculate that Haiti will experience 
political instability in the coming months, as Haitians will 
question the legitimacy of the current president and parliament who 
are nearing the end of their term.  He ended this highly unusual 
intervention by speculating that there may be a need to reform 
Haiti's institutions of government profoundly in the year ahead. 
(Comment:  Moise is new to UNESCO.  A quick on-line search reveals 
him to be the author of a number of books on Haiti's history and 
governance.  His predecessor was reportedly a victim of the January 
12 earthquake.  End Comment.) 
KILLION