Participation Programme

UNESCO’s Participation Programme is designed to provide direct assistance to initiatives undertaken by Member States in the Organization’s fields of competence, in line with priorities determined by the countries themselves, with proposals submitted via UNESCO National Commissions. The funds are modest (up to a maximum of US$26,000 granted for national project requests, with about six projects per country in each biennium, and up to US$46,000 for regional submissions). But UNESCO is not a funding agency. And support at these sorts of level may often be easier to assimilate than higher orders of financial contribution.

As an ensemble, Participation Programme projects touch on many of the technical fields and areas of concern addressed in the Mauritius Strategy, including Communication and Information, as reflected in this sampling of projects approved or being carried out from January 2005 onwards. *

• Bahrain. Producing radio programmes workshop.


• Barbados. Digitizing resources: ‘Protecting the Past for the Future’ project.


• Cape Verde. Creation of a tele-centre for young people. Numerization of national transmission network for radio programmes. Reinforcement of the independent newspaper ‘A Semana’


• Comoros. Reinforcement of capacities of documentation centre of UNESCO National Commission.


• Cook Islands. Outer islands information technology training.


• Cuba. Support to computerization at the national school of technical libraries. Creation of multi-media unit for applying new information technologies.


• Cyprus. Web-site design for National Commission for UNESCO.


• Dominica. ICTs in Dominican schools.


• Fiji. Experimental mathematical and information technology skills workshop (Capacity building project for science teachers). Media education for Fiji.


• Grenada. Introduction to keyboarding.


• Haiti. Creation of a national press centre. Reinforcement of studio production capacities of educative radio unit. Jamaica. Facilitating access by the visually-impaired to cultural heritage material.


• Malta. Science online. Setting up community knowledge centres.


• Mauritius. Setting-up of a documentation centre, library and video-tech for young people.


• Niue. Enhancing public service broadcasting. Enhancing disaster preparedness.


• Palau. Librarian certification programme.


• Papua New Guinea. South Simbu community radio station.


• Solomon Islands. Strengthening capacity of communication and information professionals and institutions.


• St Kitts & Nevis. Community outreach project.


• St Lucia. Upgrading and enhancing the technical capabilities of the communications unit of Ministry of Education. Training workshop for documentalists of Caribbean National Commissions. ‘Save the Libraries’ project.


• St Vincent &the; Grenadines. Improving the quality of education by empowering teachers to integrate ICTs into curricula. ICTs in the development of sustainable livelihoods. Support to Education and Resource Centre Project of House of Hope Society, specifically the use of communication in efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS.


• Tokelau. Feasibility study on internet connectivity and distance education.

For further information on recent projects, click here


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* Information culled from a list of approved 2004-2005 Participation Programme projects in a document prepared for the 171st session of the UNESCO Executive Board in September 2005 (171 EX/34).