UNESCO opens 37th General Conference in Paris
Baku, November 6 (AZERTAC). Several Heads of State and some 150 ministers and delegates from 195 UNESCO member states gathered in Paris for the 37th session of the General Conference of UNESCO to design its development strategy for the next eight years.
The Conference is expected to confirm another four-year term for Irina Bokova as director-general who was nominated for a second term by the Executive Board, and in the meanwhile, to elect a new president of the General Conference.
The session came at a particularly critical time for UNESCO as the organization is in the midst of a major reform aimed at making UNESCO more relevant, more effective and more performing in response to global challenges to peace and development.
Participants will use the 15-day meeting to approve a program that reinforces the reform of the organization and gives shape to the policies needed to achieve the sustainable development goals that will guide the international community in the coming years. It will also be asked to approve an expenditure plan of 507 million U.S. dollars for UNESCO for the next two years.
The highlights of this session include a leader's forum to be attended by Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica, Moncef Marzuki, President of Tunisia, and some high-level government representatives to discuss the post-2015 international development agenda in the areas of education, science, culture and communication, and the first BRICS-UNESCO Ministerial Consultation Meeting on Education which will group five education ministers from the BRICS countries to step up their efforts to strengthen cooperation in educational domain.
As part of the session, a meeting of general secretaries of National Commissions for UNESCO took place. Azerbaijan was represented by the first secretary of the National Commission for UNESCO Gunay Efendieva. She highlighted prospects of cooperation between Azerbaijan and UNESCO. She praised the contribution of President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO Mehriban Aliyeva to development of relationships. Mrs. Efendieva noted that Azerbaijan held a forum of world intercultural dialogue and the Baku International Humanitarian Forum, and said the country's leadership attaches great importance to ensuring peace, tolerance and equality.
The General Conference of UNESCO will continue until November 20.
Azerbaijan has been a member of UNESCO since 1992.
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