Annual Report for 2011

Bernard LOING, President, Liaison Committee

Introduction

The Liaison Committee organizes and coordinates the collective activities of NGOs in official relations with UNESCO in an institutional cooperation framework. In this respect, it ensures the participation of NGO representatives in the major events of UNESCO life (General Conference, Executive Board, programme consultations, and various colloquia, seminars, and other events).

In liaison with the Sector for External Relations and Public Information (ERC/RPO/NGO) and with the focal points in programme sectors, it organizes its activities within its specific working mechanisms. There are ten working mechanisms called Joint Programmatic Commissions and Working Groups: Human Rights, Dialogue between Cultures, Struggle against Poverty; Science and Ethics, Youth, Education for Sustainable Development, Communication; Education for All, Micro-Finance, Culture of Peace.

These working mechanisms have their own regular programming and meet on average 5 to 6 times a year. They are the organs for intellectual cooperation with UNESCO. Their programme is regularly shared with the focal points in Sectors who are invited to participate in the meetings. In addition to their regular meetings these JPC and Working Groups occasionally organize larger events (colloquia, half-day meetings, day long meetings) on specific themes corresponding to their particular mission.

Finally, the Liaison Committee itself organizes major transversal events mobilizing all the NGOs: the International Conference of NGOs which punctuates the mandates of the Liaison Committee every two years; the International NGO Day in the intermediate years; study days, colloquia or high level lecture-debates.

Activities for 2011

Meetings of the Executive Board NGO Committee

The Liaison Committee has organized the participation of NGOs in two meetings of the Executive Board NGO Committee with, this year, in addition, participation in the theme addressed by the NGO Committee at its 186^th session, the examination of the reform of the Directives regulating relations between the NGOs and UNESCO advanced by UNESCO at the request of Member States and following up on the conclusions of an evaluation of the Organization as a whole.

• 186^th session, 5-6 May 2011: “International Migrations, their Social and Human Impact”. The NGOs consulted by the Liaison Committee had proposed five speakers, three were retained (International Association of Universities, Association of Women Jurists; Academia Europea). Also, the accreditation of 15 NGOs was renewed.
• 187^th Session, 23 September 2011: “Directives concerning the partnership of UNESCO with NGOs”, Many NGOs participated in the general debate with the Member States and explained their action on the ground.

Bernard Loing, President of the Liaison Committee intervened in both meetings as well as during the General Conference.

Working meetings of the Liaison Committee

The Committee held the following meetings:

• Regular management and organizational meetings: 14 January; 11 March; 4 May 19 May: Additional meeting concerning the Directives; 17 June; 15 September; 13 October: additional preparatory meeting for the International day in December; 28 October; 9 December 2011.
• Meeting with the focal points: At the invitation of the President of the Liaison Committee, the focal points participated in the Liaison committee meeting of 11 March in order to share their priorities and better harmonize with Mixed Programmatic Commissions, 11 March 2011.

Meetings:

• Meeting with Mr. Qian Tang, Assistant Director General for Education of UNESCO of a delegation from the Liaison Committee composed of Bernard Loing, Monique Fouilhoux (EI) and Isabelle Turmaine (IAU) to be informed of the Sector’s priorities and to improve cooperation and communication with it, 14 January 2011.
• Meeting with Mr. Eric Falt, Assistant Director-General for External Relations and Public Information, 8 July 2011.

Information exchange:

The committee co-organized a session with the Secretariat of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Cultural Expressions of 2005 on 15 December 2011. It brought together the NGOs and States Party to the Convention on the theme of participation of civil society in preparation of periodic reports on implementation of the Convention.

Meetings of Joint Programmatic Commissions and Working Groups:

40 meetings took place during the year, regrouping NGOs by their specialties (see above for the names of these JPC and Groups). Outside experts regularly participated as invited guests. Larger events were organized at the initiatives of the JPC and Groups.

• The JPC “Human rights” held a Day entitled “Women, Africa, Human Development” on 2 February 2011.
• The “Science and Ethics” JPC organized a Water Day in June 2011 (see under International Days).
• “Dialogue between Cultures” on 11 September 2011.
• The EFA Working Group worked on the organization of an “Early Childhood, Major Challenges” Day foreseen to be held on 5 December and finally postponed to 23 April 2012 because of the adoption of the new Directives concerning UNESCO’s partnerships with NGOs. The Liaison Committee considered a better understanding of the implications of the new Directives to be more pressing and used the International Day of 5 December for this purpose.
• The “Youth” JPC participated in the organization of the Youth Forum, 17-20 October 2011.

International NGO Day

Two international days were organized in 2011:

• The first one which brought together many participants was held on 27 June 2011. It was entitled “Water, Source of Life and Universal Human Resource: Cliché and Realities”, with a lecture (Grande Voix) concerning the obstacles to access to drinking water followed by a round table on “Fresh water: scarcity or improper use?” and a conference-debate on “Water and Conflicts”.
• The second one was held on 5 December 2011. It was originally foreseen to address the theme of early childhood, but because of the modification of UNESCO directives concerning partnerships with international NGOs and in order to associate the Early Childhood Day with the Global Campaign for Education theme for 2012. The Day addressed the “New Directives: Which perspectives for strengthened UNESCO-NGO Cooperation”? The Day, opened by Mme Bokova, brought together some 117 participants to be better informed about the new Directives and their impact on each NGO as well as their collective action.

Furthermore, in 2011, a report was published in both French and English of the International Conference of 2010 which had the theme of “Growth and De-Growth” held on 9 December 2010.

Communication:

A booklet presenting the Liaison Committee, its members and activities has been drafted. The website of the Liaison Committee is regularly updated. A reformatting is foreseen for 2012.