UNESCO

We are the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, but you can call us by our acronym, UNESCO. Our story begins in a world recovering from the devastation of World War II. After years of conflict, leaders from around the globe gathered to form the United Nations, a new body dedicated to international peace. They understood that peace could not be maintained by political and economic agreements alone. A true, lasting peace had to be built in the minds of people. With this powerful idea as our foundation, we were officially created on November 4th, 1946, as a specialized agency of the UN. Our mission was clear: to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, and culture.

From our earliest days, we recognized that education was one of the most powerful tools for building understanding and respect. In the years following the war, many countries faced the enormous task of rebuilding. We immediately got to work helping them reconstruct schools and restock libraries that had been destroyed, ensuring that a new generation would have the chance to learn. We championed the principle that education is a fundamental human right, meaning it belongs to every single person, regardless of who they are or where they live. This belief continues to guide our work today. We develop programs to fight illiteracy, helping adults who never had the opportunity to learn to read and write. We also work closely with countries to improve their entire education systems, sharing knowledge and successful teaching strategies, known as best practices, so that all children can receive a quality education.

One of our most visible roles involves protecting the world’s shared treasures. This part of our mission gained worldwide attention in the 1960s because of a crisis in Egypt. The magnificent ancient temples of Abu Simbel were directly in the path of rising waters from a new dam being built on the Nile River. To lose them would have been a loss for all of humanity. We launched an unprecedented global campaign to save them. It was an incredible feat of engineering and international cooperation. The entire temple complex was carefully cut into massive blocks, moved to higher ground, and painstakingly reassembled, safe from the water. The success of this project was inspiring and showed what the world could accomplish when working together. It led directly to the creation of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, an international agreement to identify and safeguard places of extraordinary importance. Today, we protect over 1,000 World Heritage Sites, which include both natural wonders and cultural landmarks. These sites, like the vast Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the iconic Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, are considered to have outstanding universal value and are part of the common legacy of all people.

Alongside education and culture, we believe that science should be a force for good, bringing people together to solve common problems and improve lives. After World War II, there was a great need to foster peaceful scientific collaboration, especially in Europe. We played a key role in helping to establish CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in the 1950s. It became a leading center where scientists from many nations could work together on fundamental physics research for peaceful purposes. Our work in science also extends to the natural world. Through our Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, we coordinate vital research that helps us understand and protect our planet's oceans, which are critical for life on Earth. We also created the Man and the Biosphere Programme. This program establishes special protected areas called biosphere reserves, where we test and demonstrate ways for people and nature to thrive together in a sustainable balance. These sites are living laboratories for finding solutions to environmental challenges.

Our work continues to evolve, but our core mission remains the same. Carrying out this mission is not always simple. Our decisions and actions require agreement among our 194 member states. Because these countries have diverse cultures and sometimes competing political interests, reaching a consensus can be a significant challenge. Nevertheless, we continue to address some of the most pressing issues of our time. We work to defend freedom of the press, because access to reliable information is essential for free societies. We are also developing ethical guidelines for new technologies like artificial intelligence to ensure they benefit humanity as a whole. Furthermore, we use the power of education to help communities around the world understand and combat the effects of climate change. More than seventy-five years after our founding, the world still faces conflict and division. Our belief that peace must be built on a foundation of shared knowledge, cultural understanding, and scientific cooperation is as vital and relevant today as it was in 1946.