Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to my teachers for guiding me and my friends who have
given me support for my project. I am really lucky to have the support and motivation in
presenting this project.
 Index

S.No Topic Pg.no

1) Introduction 1

2) Aims and Objectives of UNESCO 2

3) Organizational structure 3- 4

4) Activities 5-6

5) Publications 7

6) Cultural organization of UNESCO 7-8

7) UNESCO world heritage sites 7-8

6) India and UNESCO 8-10

7) Some intresting facts of UNESCO 11

8) Conclusion 12

9) Bibliography 13
A report on the contributions of UNESCO an agency of the United Nations
Introduction

The United Nations Organization has several specialised agencies through which it operates.
These agencies work for the social and economic development of the developing countries.
Each agency has a particular agenda that it follows worldwide.

A conference was held at London in November 1945 for the establishment of an educational,
scientific and cultural organization. This led to the establishment of the UNESCO United
Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization on 4th November 1946. This is a
specialized agency of the UN. Its purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting
international collaboration through education, science and culture in order to further universal
respect for justice, the rule of law and human rights along with fundamental freedom.

UNESCO has 195 member countries and it pursues its objectives through five major
programs: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture and communication
and information. Projects sponsored by UNESCO include literacy, technical and teacher
training programs. international science programs, the promotion of independent media and
freedom of the press, regional and cultural history projects, the promotion of cultural
diversity, translations of world literature, international corporation agreements to secure the
world cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human rights and attempts to bridge the
world-wide digital divide. It is also a member of the United Nations Development Group.
Aim and Objectives of UNESCO

UNESCO aim is to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable
development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture
communication and information. Other priorities of the organization include attaining quality
education for all and lifelong learning, addressing the emerging social and ethical challenges,
fostering cultural diversity, a culture of peace and building inclusive knowledge societies
through information and communication.

UNESCO constitution defines its responsibilities and states out its objectives. A key phrase,
‘‘since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace
must be constructed’’ is based on the words of a man of state and a poet stand at a forefront of
UNESCO constitution and contain the key to all its objectives.

 To collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of

people.
 To give fresh impulse to popular education and the spread of culture.
 To help to advance the ideal of equality of educational opportunity.
 To assure the conservation and protection of the world’s inheritance of books.
 To give the people of all countries access to the printed and published material
produced by any one of them and to realise these purposes, the organization will
 Collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding.
 Of people, through all means of mass communication and to that end
 Recommend such international
 Give fresh impulse to popular education and to the spread of culture by collaborating
with members.
 With a view, to preserving the independence, integrity and fruitful diversity of the
cultures and educational systems of the member states of this organizations.
 Maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge by assuring the conservation and protection
of the world’s inheritance of books, or works or art.
Organizational structure
UNESCO’s constitution provides for three structural organs:
1. Assembly
2. Executive board
3. Secretariat
General Conference/ Assembly

The general conference is the supreme body of UNESCO’s. In the association of states
making up UNESCO, its serves as a general assembly of member states. The other two
structural components being the executive boards and the secretariate which are headed by
the Director General.

The General conference is made up of representatives of all the member states of UNESCO.
It meets ordinary session every two years for a period of approximately five weeks. Either at
its headquarters in Paris or in another capital city of its choice. They may meet in
extraordinary session if decided to do so itself, if summoned by the executive board, or at the
request at least one – third of the member states.

Executive board
The executive board is the pivot between the general conference which is the sovereign
legislative body and the Secretariat, which executes the programs, deriving its authority from
the general conference which chooses board members from amoung its delegates. The
executive board supervises all the operations of UNESCO, either by following instructions
received from the general conference or by acting on its own initiative in which case it is
accountable to the higher body. The meetings of the board are held at least twice a year. The
tenure of the office is four years but generally half of the members retire every two years and
new ones are elected in their place.

The Secretariat
The secretariat consists of the Director General and the staff appointed by him. There are
about 2300 civil servants from some 170 countries, who are divided into the professional and
general service categories. Under the recent Decentralization policy, more than 680 staff
members now work in UNESCO’s 58 field offices around the world.
UNESCO secretariat is divided into five main sectors, each headed by an Assistant Director
General. He is responsible for all the activities and functions of the divisions under his sector.
Almost all of them are concerned with libraries information etc, however, the following deal
specifically with these subjects with which we are concerned in this study. They are eight
sectors of UNESCO. The are
1) Education Sector
2) Natural science sector
3) Social and human sciences sector
4) Culture sector
5) Communication sector
6) External relation and information sector
7) General program and program support sector.
8) General administrative sector

Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris

ACTIVITIES

Archives

Archives are important components that help at improving information access both for the
public at large and for specialized groups. Since its creation, UNESCO has contributed to the
reinforcement of these type of services. The development of information technologies and in
particular the internet, networking, cooperation and digitization modify substantially the
functions of acquiring, storing and disseminating information and knowledge. UNESCO pays
special attention to the under developed countries so that they could not lag behind
technological advances in the area of archives. UNESCO through its Records and Archives
Management Program- RAMP (established in 1979) aims at:

Memory of the World

UNESCO established the Memory of the World program in 1992. It provides access to the
documentary heritage of the world. The program was envisioned to protect and preserve
documents that are endangered due to natural or man made disasters.

Community Multimedia Centres

UNESCO international initiative for Community Multimedia centres (CMCs) promotes

community empowerment and address the digital divide by combining community
broadcasting with the internet and related technologies.

Multimedia Databases for development

The CMC can gradually build up its own database of materials that meet the community’s
information needs.

E – governance

E- governance is the use of ICT by different actors of the society with the aim to improve
their access to information and to build their capacities. The principle ongoing UNESCO
activity in the field of E – governance is a cross cutting project on E – governance Capacity
building.

Information Processing tools

UNESCO develops, maintains and disseminates, free of charge, two inter – related software
packages for database management and datamining/ statistical analysis.

Public Domain Information

UNESCO strongly promotes access to public Domain information also known as the
‘information commons’. International organizations should recognize and promulgate the
right for each state to have access to essential data relating to its social or economic situation.

General information Program

The General information Program was created bringing together two series of activities so far
separately conducted by UNESCO; The UNISIST inter – governmental program dealing with
scientific and technical information, on the one hand and NATIS, UNESCO concept of
integrated National information concerned with documentations, libraries and archives, on
the other hand. The work of the general information program is guided by the Inter –
governmental Council for the general information program whose members are elected by
UNESCOs general conference. The General Information Program has been replaced by
Information for All Program (IFAP) since 2001. IFAP strives to overcome the digital divide
in the society. It advocates for all people on the wrong side of the information divide. The
program takes special concern of the needs of women, youth and the elderly and the
differently abled.
Publications

 UNESCO bulletin
 Copyright bulletin
 Public library Manifesto
 Index translationiam
 Informatics
 Handbook of international exchange
 UNESCO journal of information sciences, librarianship and achieve
administration
 World guide to library school and training course in documentation.
 Directory of Education, Documentation and information service.

Cultural conventions of UNESCO

These convections have helped in the protection and preservation of the

natural and cultural heritage of the world.

 Convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit traffic of

cultural property (1970).
 Convention for the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage,
(1972).
 Convention on the protection of the underground cultural heritage (2001).
  Universal declaration on cultural diversity (2001).
 Convection for the safe guarding of the intangible cultural heritage (2003).
 Convection on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural
expressions (2005).
 UNESCO is the only UN agency to have a global network of national
cooperating bodies known as National commissions for UNESCO.

UNESCO world heritage sites

UNESCO world heritage site is a site recognized by UNESCO as having a

distinctive cultural or physical significance and which is considered of
outstanding value to humanity. There are more than 1000 heritage sites across
167 nations. There are 40 UNISCO world heritage sites in India. Dholavira
and Ramappa temple are the latest addition to the list under the cultural
category. There are 2 more categories- Natural and mixed.

UNESCO natural world heritage sites are those sites with distinctive cultural
facets such as Geological formations, physical, biological and cultural
landscapes. Examples are Kaziranga national park in Assam, Sundarbans
National park in West Bengal, Great Himalaya national park in Himachal
Pradesh.

UNESCO cultural world heritage sites are those sites with unique cultural
facets such as paintings, monuments, architecture. Examples are historic city
of Ahmedabad in Gujrat, Jaipur city in Rajasthan, the Jantar Mantar in
Rajasthan, Red for complex in Delhi.

UNECO mixed world heritage sites comprises of components belonging to

both Natural and Cultural importance. Examples are Natural park in Sikkim.

India and UNESCO

India has been a member of UESCO science its inception in 1946. In 1949 the government of
India set up a national commission for cooperation with UNESCO consisting of five
subsummations, namely Education, Natural sciences, social sciences, culture and
communication. These commissions promote UNESCO programs and send personnel to
participate in international conferences seminars and workshops organized by UNESCO. The
UNESCO provides funds and Expertise for the protection of many historical monuments and
sites like the Taj Mahal.

UNESCO sponsors many programs such as in the fields of teacher training, science,
promotion of media and press freedom, Regional and Culture history, Cultural diversity,
Natural and cultural heritage, translating World literature, Human rights etc. UNESCO is
headed by its director general.

The National commission in India that works with UNESCO is called the Indian National
Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INCCU). The INCCU comes under the
department of secondary and higher education, Ministry of human resources development,
government of India. UNESCO has its presence in India since 1948 and currently has two
offices.

India makes huge contributions to the organization in the form of funds every year. A
UNESCO Category I Institute dedicated to Education for peace and sustainable development
was established in 2012 and is called the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for peace
and sustainable development (MGIEP) located in New Delhi, It is the first and only category
I research Institute in the Asia Pacific and focuses on achieving the SDG 4.7 towards
education to foster peaceful and sustainable societies.

UNESCOs most significant work in India relates to the cultural heritage of the country.
UNESCO works closely with the Ministry of Culture in this regard.

UNESCO world heritage site is a place that is recognized by the UNESCO as of distinctive
culture of physical importance which is considered of outstanding value to humanity.
UNESCO strives to encourage the conservation, Identification and maintenance of natural
and cultural heritage around the world. There are 40 UNESCO world heritage sites in India.
The different categories are cultural Natural mixed. Some of them are Kazi Ranga National
park in Assam, Western Ghats, historic city of Ahmedabad, Jaipur city, Qutub Minar,
Elephant a caves in Maharashtra, Sun temple of Konark. Ajanta and Elora Caves and Taj
Mahal.
 Kaziranga National Park

Western Ghats
Historic city of Ahmedabad Qutub Minar

Elephanta caves Jaipur city

 Sun temple Konark Ajanta caves

Taj Mahal, Agra Elora Caves

Some interesting facts about UNESCO World heritage sites in India

Sun temple – King Narasimhadeva I built this in the 13th century. It represents the Kalinga
architecture. According to legends, befire the temple was destroyed by the Portuguese, the
Iron statue of the Sun God used to float in mid-air due to strategic arrangement of magnets.

Taj Mahal – Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal. It stands on the River Yamuna
banks.

Hampi, Karnataka – The Vijaya Vittala temple in Hampi has 56 musical pillars that produce
musical tones when struck with a thumb.
Mattancherry palace, Kerala – The floor of the palace is made up of egg white, jaggery and
buttermilk.

Agra Fort- The Agra Fort was the centre of an investigation by Sherlock Holmes in the
famous novel, the sign of the Four, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Nalanda University, Bihar – Dharmaganja, the library at Nalanda University was so huge that
it burned for three months after invaders ransacked it and set it on fire.

Red Fort, Delhi – The Red Fort was originally white. The British painted it red after the white
plaster faded off.

Buland Darwaza – This structure has a secret tunnel to Red Fort.

Veerabhadra temple, Andhra Preadesh- The pillar of this temple is not grounded to the floor,
yet the structure is stable for years.

Conclusion
UNESCO's global priorities are Africa and Gender Equality. As such, UNESCO and
development partners are attentive to 54 African countries with a stronger and better targeted
strategy. The African Renaissance is underway, with the adoption of the African Union's
Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development paving the ground for the
African Economic Community.

UNESCO believes that all forms of gender-based discrimination are violations of human
rights, as well as a significant obstacle to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Bibliography

1) https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2013/08/unesco-united-nations-educational-
scientific-and-cultural-organization/
2) https://www.britannica.com/topic/UNESCO
3) https://www.unesco.org/en/history#:~:text=UNESCO%20is%20the%20United
%20Nations%20Educational%2C%20Scientific%20and%20Cultural
%20Organization,entered%20into%20force%20in%201946.
4) https://www.unesco.org/en/brief#:~:text=UNESCO%20is%20the%20United
%20Nations%20Educational%2C%20Scientific%20and%20Cultural
%20Organization,%2C%20culture%2C%20communication%20and
%20information.
5) https://suffolk.libguides.com/c.php?g=654031&p=4590293#:~:text=If%20the
%20group%20author%20is,UNESCO%20(2006)
6) https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/united-nations-educational-scientific-and-cultural-
organization-unesco/#:~:text=UNESCO%20sponsors%20many%20programmes
%20such,headed%20by%20its%20Director%2DGeneral.
7) https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/unesco-world-heritage-sites-india-for-upsc-
prelims-exam/#:~:text=There%20are%2040%20UNESCO%20World,under
%20the%20'Cultural'%20category.