Introduction

UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science in the Arab States (UNESCO Cairo Office) has regional (Arab Region), sub-regional (Egypt and Sudan), and national (Egypt) mandates. As a regional science bureau, the office oversees the implementation of UNESCO Natural Science Programmes in the Arab States (Electoral Group Vb), which includes Policy and Capacity Building (PCB), Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) including UNESCO MAB and GeoPark programmers, and the UNESCO flagship water progremme, the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP). As a National Office in Egypt, the Cairo Office is responsible for the implementation of UNESCO Programmes, Education (ED), Culture (CLT), Communication and Information (CI), Social Sciences and Humanities (SHS) as well as the National components of the aforementioned Natural Science programmes.

As a national office, UNESCO Cairo office main objective is to support Egypt in realizing the national development agendas within UNESCO’s areas of competency. The office coordinates with sister UN Agencies through the UN Country Team (UNCT), where UN Agencies jointly programme team-wide activities and coordinate individual agency interventions in Egypt in full coordination with relevant authorities in Egypt. In addition, the office coordinates its activities in Egypt with the Egyptian National Commission for UNESCO, and through the commission, with the Egyptian committees of UNESCO intergovernmental programmes (e.g., MAB, IHP).