Non-governmental organizations and foundations

Non-governmental organizations maintaining official relations

• © UNESCO/G. Malempré
• Belgique

Since its foundation, UNESCO has given great importance to partnership with civil society organizations, in particular NGOs.

The role of civil society representatives is increasingly important in every sector of daily life, and partnership with civil society organizations is becoming indispensable for governmental organizations in pursuing their strategic objectives.

In front of the impressive vitality of the non-governmental organizations, the steady growth in their number and their increasing role, UNESCO was led to review its relations with them with the aim of finding new synergies and cooperative arrangements that would be more suited to the challenges of the XXIst century. This reflexion led to the definition of an appropriate statutory framework : the new Directives concerning UNESCO’s relations with non-governmental organizations.

What form can relations take?
◐ Operational relations - Established in response to the need to extend cooperation between UNESCO and NGOs and to back up the Organization's efforts to achieve a more active presence in the field, operational relations are aimed at achieving a flexible and dynamic partnership in the implementation of UNESCO's programmes. NGOs maintaining operational relations with UNESCO are valued partners owing to their active presence and concrete action in the field, the expertise they represent, and their ability to channel the concerns of the people. Requests for admission to operational relations can be made to the Director-General of UNESCO at any time and will be processed as quickly as possible.
◐ Formal relations are aimed at sustained cooperation with UNESCO in its fields of competence both upstream and downstream from the Organization's programming and priorities. Admission is granted to international NGOs that are widely representative and expert in their field of activity, and are recognized as having a genuinely international structure and membership. Formal relations are themselves sub-divided into two types, consultative or associate, depending on the role and structure of the NGO itself. The Executive Board which is one of UNESCO's governing bodies, and more precisely its Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, annually decides on requests for admission to one or the other type of relations, as well as on the development of such relations, on the basis of recommendations made by the Director-General. Relations shall be established for renewable periods of six years.


Relations between UNESCO and NGOs are essentially intellectual and moral. However, although UNESCO is not a financing agency, cooperation with UNESCO can also have financial aspects in the form of activity-financing contracts.

The management of programmes undertaken by UNESCO is the responsibility of programme Sectors within the Secretariat. Questions relating to such programmes can be addressed to the Section for non-governmental organizations (ERC/RPO/NGO) which will forward them to the relevant departments. Additional information may also be obtained from NGO focal points in UNESCO programme sectors.