Donors and Partners

Government Donors

• ©Marje Cannon
• Corinthian Columns

In addition to their contribution to UNESCO’s regular budget, several governments provide substantial donations to UNESCO, on a voluntary basis.

Contribution
Bilateral Government donors are UNESCO’s most important source of extrabudgetary funds, in 2007 accounting for 77 % of all received contributions, corresponding to some US$ 284 million.

Funds-in-Trust
Bilateral Government donors mainly provide extrabudgetary support to UNESCO in the form of funds-in-trust, tied to specific projects chosen by the donor upon UNESCO’s proposals.

Types of Funds-in-Trust
Funds-in-trust contributions may be donated or self-benefiting, meaning that the funds are provided for activities in the donor’s own country. Almost half of the funds-in-trust contributions pertains to very large self-benefiting arrangements with Brazil.

Special Accounts
Government donors also make contributions to UNESCO’s various multi-donor special accounts in favour of larger programmes; and several provide personnel support in the form of young associate experts.




Our website:
This website provides an overview of the following:

Profiles of some of UNESCO's major donors in terms of voluntary contribution (Donor Profiles);

A short description of UNESCO’s strategies and frameworks applied for cooperation with governemental donors (Cooperation Strategies);

A small sample of completed or on-going projects (Examples of Cooperation).