Towards the effective participation of National Commissions in the “Delivering as One” process (CL 3870)

24 April 2009

The Director-General addressed a letter to all governments calling them to strengthen the status and capacities of their National Commissions

The Director-General addressed a circular letter to Ministers responsible for relations with UNESCO, recalling the growing responsibilities of National Commissions, especially in the context of the on-going One UN reform process and urging them to take rapid measures to strengthen the status and capacities of their Commissions.

The Director-General emphasized that governments should provide their Commissions with the following basic fundamentals to enable them to act proactively:

• enhanced status and structure, with solid outreach capacity to all line ministries and government agencies, as well as to local intellectual communities and civil society partners;

• stability in the leadership, so that the Secretaries-General of National Commissions stay in office full-time for a minimum of four years;

• sufficient human resources, so that the secretariats of National Commissions have at least one full-time programme specialist for each area of UNESCO’s competence.

• Source:UNESCO/hq
• 24-07-2009