Patronage, UNESCO’s highest form of support, is granted to show the Organization’s moral endorsement of an exceptional activity for which it is neither financially nor legally responsible.
UNESCO’s patronage may be granted to a range of activities, such as producing cinematographic and audiovisual works, publishing books, organizing congresses, meetings and conferences, awarding prizes, and other national and international events.
Patronage must be limited in time. It may be granted to one-off or regularly repeated activities. In the latter case, the duration must be specified and the authorization renewed periodically.
Patronage cannot be granted to:
- personalities
- organizations
- permanent activities
- activities/projects that are evolving continuously (the terms of use of UNESCO’s name and logo for such activities/ projects should be specified by a Contractual Arrangement)
There are four options for UNESCO’s patronage:
- Patronage granted by the National Commission for UNESCO for activities of national scope;
- Patronage granted by the Assistant Director-Generals of UNESCO’s programme sectors for activities of limited thematic and international scope;
- Patronage granted by the Director-General of UNESCO for activities of significant international scope
- Patronage granted by the Director of the UNESCO’s Bureau of Public Information for external publications and cinematographic or audiovisual works.
To deal with requests for the use of UNESCO’s name and logo effectively, UNESCO has appointed a member of staff in each of its programme sectors to act as a Focal Points to coordinate the use of the name and logo and to act as your point of contact.
There are seven steps to requesting the use of UNESCO’s name and logo under patronage.
