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The results of the election were announced at the International Conference of NGOs, held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, 30 November to 2 December 2009, and attended by some 200 delegates from member organizations in official relations with UNESCO.
NGOs and UNESCO
A new Liaison Committee was also elected for an exceptional period of three years, so as to move forward the next NGO International Conference, which will be held in December 2012, one year before the General Conference. This will thus allow NGOs to contribute to the definition of UNESCO’s programmes well in advance.
In his opening speech, Mr Marcio Barbosa, Deputy Director General, evoked the vision of a new humanism to be reached with the growing implication of NGOs at all levels of cooperation. He greeted the harmonization of the NGO-UNESCO working cycles that will be reached through the provisional extension of the next mandate of the Liaison Committee.
The global financial crisis
Mr Hani Helal, Egyptian Minister and new Chair of the UNESCO Executive Board NGO Committee, recalled the complexity of the multiple crisis the world is currently undergoing. The fight against this crisis implies a reinforced partnership with Civil Society organizations (CSOs), especially by means of a fruitful dialogue within the Executive Board NGO Committee, on major issues such as Peace, Africa, and Youth.
The central theme of the Conference, What Ethics for a World in Crisis? – which was to be further developed over the following day in a Round Table and two Workshops – was brilliantly introduced by Mr Michel Rocard, former French Prime Minister. He developed an in depth analysis of the global crisis, which is for him a real mutation at global level, still in its early stage, and which will require a stabilization and new regulation of capitalism. Coming as discussants, Mr Hans D’Orville, Assistant Director General for Strategic Planning, and Mr Gudmund Hernes, President of the International Council for Social Sciences, respectively delivered the points of view of UNESCO, on the one hand, and of a great long-standing NGO, on the other.
The Resolution adopted at the end of the Conference provides the road-map for the future work of the Liaison Committee of NGOs, the Joint Programme Commissions and the Working Groups.
4 January 2010
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