Workshop on UNESCO at IRNA

• UNESCO/A.G. Usis
• Mr. Qunli Han, Director and Representative of UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office delivers his presentation at IRNA.

UNESCO Tehran and IRNA start-off a series of presentation on UNESCO’s works

UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office (UTCO) in cooperation with Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) organise a series of presentations for some 25 staff members of IRNA, highlighting the mandates and works of UNESCO at global level as well in Iran. It is expected that through this initiative IRNA will get a better understanding on UNESCO’s programmes and activities, with possibility to explore further cooperation between IRNA and UTCO.

The series kicked-off on Thursday, 13 January 2011, at IRNA’s meeting room, with presentation from Director and Representative of UTCO, Mr Qunli Han, during which he explained a brief history of the foundation of UNESCO for peace building. He then elaborated on what UNESCO does globally within the major mandates that it holds, namely in the field of Education, Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture, and Communication-Information. Some of important points mentioned by Mr. Han in his presentation included the role of UNESCO as a laboratory of ideas and not as a funding agency, as well as on the approach UNESCO uses that is the promotion of dialogue as the way in achieving international understanding, trust and peace.

When explaining about UTCO’s programmes and activities in Iran – one of the early Member States of UNESCO, joined in the organisation on 6 September 1948 - Mr. Han highlighted some of the achievements that have been made to date, including improvement of teacher quality, programmes related to water management and sustainable developments, registration of a number of world cultural heritage properties, as well as registration of audio, visual and manuscript materials under Memory of the World programme, and capacity building of media professionals.

Second presentation on the day was on Communication and Information (CI) Programmes of UTCO. Delivered by Mr. Arya Gunawan Usis as UTCO’s Advisor for CI, the presentation provided information on the three main mandates of CI Sector of UNESCO, namely promoting free-flow of information and freedom of expression, improvement of people’s access to information and knowledge, and promoting communication development including through the use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Various programmes and activities in the field of CI have been implemented by CI Unit of UTCO in its five years of existence, such as various training workshops targeted to print journalists as well as broadcasters, promotion of Memory of the World, and promotion of the use of ICTs.

Just before the start of the first presentation, Director of UTCO Mr. Qunli Han had a brief meeting with Mr. Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Managing Director of IRNA. During the meeting, both of them welcome the idea to organized the workshop which will be useful for the two organizations. Mr. Javanfekr expressed his concerns on the current world order, for which, in his opinion, the need to build mutual understanding and promote peace through dialogue among civilizations is a very important thing to do than ever before. He believes UNESCO has a crucial role in addressing this issue. Welcoming Mr. Javanfekr remarks, Director of UTCO Mr. Han gave his assurance that UNESCO has always been taking a lead role in promoting peace through intellectual dialogue, now in the context of A New Humanism for the 21st Century – a notion by the Director-General of UNESCO, Ms. Irina Bokova. Mr. Han is confident that there is a wide window of opportunities for the two organizations to strengthen its partnerships through various future collaborative activities.

At the end of the meeting, Director of UTCO received a book about Iran published by IRNA, handed over to him by Managing Director of IRNA, as pictured above.

Next presentations are scheduled for Thursday, 20 January for programmes in the field of Culture, followed by presentations on Natural Sciences programmes and on Education programmes, both will take place on Thursday, 27 January.

Contact: Arya Gunawan Usis, a.gunawan@unesco.org

• Source:UNESCO Tehran
• 17-01-2011

• UNESCO/A.G. Usis -