UNESCO is effective
UNESCO only does programs that achieve demonstrable results, verified by independent monitoring and oversight. All its programs are reviewed every two years and continued only if they are effective. This includes results-based appraisal of staff, skills updating, and complete accountability through a new online programming and evaluation system.
UNESCO is the agency for education
UNESCO is improving national education systems to achieve universal basic education worldwide by 2015. Its mandate includes preventive education against AIDS and science education. Education is clearly the foundation of economic development, trade, stable societies and the construction of democratic institutions.
UNESCO is the agency for human rights education
UNESCO looks to the US for participation and leadership in its human rights forums, and in the construction of human rights and democratic citizenship curricula in developing countries and countries in transition. UNESCO’s mandate is “to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world”.
UNESCO is the agency for press freedom
UNESCO’s Constitutional mandate includes “the free flow of ideas by word and image.” UNESCO has funded uncensored newspapers in Serbia since 1993 and throughout the war; is building the free press infrastructure in Kosovo, East Timor and post-conflict African states; rewrote the press law in Indonesia; gives awards to imprisoned journalists in China, Syria and Nigeria. The State Department and World Press Freedom Committee regularly praise UNESCO’s achievements in this field.
UNESCO is the agency for preservation of ancient cultural monuments
UNESCO’s World Heritage program, which helps poor countries to protect their ancient treasures, was established by the US in 1972, and in no way effects US sovereignty or public or private property rights. It simply recognizes and supports sites and monuments of world-class beauty.
UNESCO is the agency for scientific cooperation
UNESCO facilitates international cooperation and capacity building in the sciences, and American scientists do not wish to be left out of this network. For years the American scientific community has been unanimous in formally supporting UNESCO, including The National Academies, American Academy for the Advancement of Science, National Science Foundation, Council of Scientific Society Presidents, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, National Science Teachers Association, 37 American Nobel-Prizewinning Scientists.
UNESCO is a valued partner of US federal agencies
Including USAID, Department of Education, NOAA, Interior, US Geological Survey, Army Corps of Engineers, Defense Threat Reduction Agency of the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, National Park Service, National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, etc.