The UNESCO Office in Apia, Samoa, serves sixteen independent countries and one territory in the Pacific from Papua New Guinea in the West, the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the North, to the Cook Islands in the East and New Zealand in the South (cluster of the Pacific States).
The UNESCO Office in Apia was opened in September 1984 and served as an Education Office to support six Pacific Member States including Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga. By 1995, Pacific membership had increased to thirteen and programme work had expanded to cover Culture, Natural Sciences and Communication and Information. The process continued and by 2005 all independent Pacific nations had joined UNESCO. Program work also increased to include Social and Human Sciences.
The UNESCO Cluster Office for the Pacific States serves as a clearinghouse for the dissemination and sharing of information in the region while actively supporting its members to build their human and institutional capacities in the fields of Education, Natural and Human Sciences, Culture and Communication and Information. This work is completed in partnership with Pacific National Commissions for UNESCO, UNESCO Regional Bureaus, other UN Agencies, regional organizations, educational institutions and civil society.
- Cluster Office to Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (the Federated States of), Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Tokelau (Associate Member).
United Nations Pacific Strategy 2018-2022
United Nations Pacific Strategy 2018-2022