Future role of UNESCO

• © UNESCO/Levinthal, Nina

In the light of emerging global trends and new challenges, adjustments and/or reinforcements will be inevitable for UNESCO’s future role, its orientations and action within the larger United
Nations context. The recommendations of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level
Panel on System-Wide Coherence which are due by September 2006 are expected to chart the way for future reform measures affecting the entire United Nations system.

Hence, this section will discuss in extenso UNESCO’s views and approaches to the various dimensions of the system-wide reform effort.

With respect to core competencies, UNESCO has several clear advantages on which it can build its future strategic location and interventions:

• its role as undisputed global specialized agency for education, natural sciences, human sciences, culture and communication, providing an indispensable link between normative
  and technical/operational functions;
  
  
• its designation and ecognition as lead agency for complex, multi-stakeholder and longterm tasks (e.g. related to EFA through its Global ction Plan and the World Water Assessment Programme, the various decades for which UNESCO has been designated by
  the United Nations General Assembly as lead agency, and the promotion of freedom of expression and media and information development);
  
  
• its ability to develop evidence-based policies drawing on the statistical and analytical work
  of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and several flagship ublications, such as the EFA Global Monitoring Report or the World Water Report;
  
  
• its role as leader, manager and guardian of global lists of sites, inscribed upon request of Member States, such as for World Heritage, Biosphere Reserves or Intangible Cultural Heritage.