Sector for External Relations and Cooperation

Division of Cooperation with Extrabudgetary Funding Sources - CFS

• © UNESCO
• Restoration and conservation of living monastic heritage of the Himalayan region, example of an extrabudgetary cooperation with Norway

UNESCO is currently receiving considerably more than half of its resources from extrabudgetary funding sources.

UNESCO depends increasingly on voluntary (extrabudgetary) contributions to carry out its mission, notably with regard to operational activities for development cooperation at the country level.

During 2005, allocations of some US$ 373 million, comprising some funds carried forward from previous years’ contributions was available to UNESCO for approved programmes and projects.

Fresh contributions during the same year, from all sources amounted to some US$ 349 million and some US$ 47 million was channeled directly to UNESCO’s category I Institutes.

UNESCO’s main funding sources are:
Bilateral Government donors
The United Nations funds and programmes
The multilateral development banks
The European Commission
The private sector

Neccesity of Extrabudgetary Cooperation
As a specialized agency of the United Nations system, UNESCO is funded from assessed contributions from its Member States. However, the Regular Programme and Budget – amounting to US$ 610 million for the two year period 2006-2007 – is far from sufficient to allow UNESCO to reach all its goals and objectives, and achieve the full impact of its mission.

Furthermore, the resources from the Regular Programme and Budget are to a large extent used for staff costs, governance, standard and norm setting activities, as well as other activities in the universal interest of Member States.

The UNESCO Coupons Programme provides assistance to countries with non-convertible currency or suffering from a shortage of convertible currencies to purchase educational and scientific materials and to pay school and university fees and subscriptions to educational, scientific or cultural institutions throughout the world.