(Ce discours est en anglais; il n'existe pas de version française de ce discours)
Statement of His Excellency Mr Isao Kiso Representative of Japan to the Executive Board on the occasion of the 187th session of the Executive Board 27 September 2011
Thank you, Madam Chair,
Director-General,
Distinguished Delegates,
(36C/5)
On behalf of Japan , first, I would like to thank the Director-General for her effort to prepare another draft C/5 on the Zero-Nominal Growth basis. I appreciate this effort as manifestation of her strong will to respond to the severe reality that Member States face. At this Board meeting, my delegation will join the deliberation on the draft C/5 to find an optimum balance with cost-effective administration and focused programmes.
(UNESCO reform, IEE)
I also appreciate DG's report on the follow-up concerning the Independent External Evaluation. The importance of this IEE process seems to lie in the fact that the IEE stimulated active interaction between the Director-General and the Board members. I hope that such interaction will enrich the current reform process.
(Education)
Education for All plays an essential role in nation-building and human security. Japan will continue to be supporting UNESCO's EFA activities both locally and globally Locally, for instance in Afghanistan , Japan has been helping UNESCO's training programme for literacy-course graduates. By replacing arms with education, this programme increases the significance of UNESCO in reconstruction in the post-conflict countries. Japan will keep supporting such EFA activities in PCPD areas, which is in line with the Japanese educational cooperation policy.
In the global context, EFA is an important component of the Millennium Development Goals. Japan hosted the MDGs Follow-up Meeting in Tokyo last June. In the meeting, with valuable participation of Mr. Tang, ADG for Education, major actors of EFA in the world compiled good practices into a list to share and confirmed the importance of reinforcing cooperation among stakeholders. Japan hopes that UNESCO will be taking a leading role in this area.
As for Education for Sustainable Development, we recognize the progress on the roadmap to the end of the Decade for ESD. A steering group was just established this month to prepare the End-of-the-Decade-Conference in 2014 to be hosted by Japan . DESD needs to result in tangible achievements by focusing on key areas such as climate change , biodiversity and disaster risk reduction. The result of DESD should be succeeded after the decade.
(Science)
Science is a key driver to realize sustainable development in the world, and thus is an area of great opportunity and potential for UNESCO . UNESCO has long contributed, through IOC, IHP and MAB, to global exchange and dissemination of knowledge, and international research. I hope that UNESCO will be able to act more in the field of water-related disasters such as flood and tsunami, by helping countries build early warning systems and develop capacity to use them.
( Heritages/ Culture)
The World Heritage Convention now faces old and new challenges. First, we still need to tackle the long-lasting regional imbalance in the World Heritage List, although having realized almost universal membership. Japan has supported the assistance in the Upstream process, and furthermore, this year, launched a capacity-building programme for the Small Island Developing States, to assist those most vulnerable and least represented countries.
We also need to consider how to protect Heritage sites in a sustainable manner, while taking into account various aspects such as communities, tourism and development. By hosting the Closing Event of the Fortieth Anniversary of the Convention in November next year, Japan wishes to set a stage to gather knowledge and wisdom to overcome those challenges for the next decade of the World Heritage.
The Intangible Cultural Heritage is also at a turning point. Upon the success in the first years from 2003, we must build another success in implementing the convention in the coming decade, so as to achieve more effectively the goal of safeguarding of intangible heritage. Japan assisted UNESCO in organizing an open-ended working group meeting this month to find suitable working methods to handle nominations to the Representative list. Besides these framework matters, Japan will be supporting the capacity-building programmes in Africa and other regions.
(Closing)
Lastly, I hope that this Board meeting will make a good preparation for the upcoming General Conference. Japan will work with all our colleagues and the Secretariat for the better future of UNESCO.
Thank you.
Links - Liens
Website of UNESCO's Executive Board
Site Internet du Conseil exécutif de l'UNESCO
Legal Matters | About Accessibility | Privacy Policy
Copyright : 2013 Permanent Delegation of Japan to UNESCO