Challenges for UNESCO and international community

In the years to come, a major challenge for the international community will be to ensure the free flow of, and equitable access to, knowledge, information, data and best practices across all sectors and disciplines. For the free flow to be meaningful, access to knowledge will not be enough. Other needs must also be addressed, such as building human capacities and technical skills and developing effective ways to translate knowledge and information into assets of empowerment and production. UNESCO will be called upon to contribute to all these challenges. In particular, the organization must seek to reinforce the right to education, to strengthen international scientific and intellectual cooperation, to protect cultural heritage (including the increasingly important intangible heritage), to promote media development and to broaden public domain access to information and knowledge.

Above all, UNESCO’s mission to promote improvements in all types and levels of education, but especially quality basic education for all, is essential to the full range of our tasks.

The right to education is a human right and unless it can be secured, all other goals are bound to suffer. It is vital and urgent that the right to education is transformed from ideal to reality: today, even after decades of effort, over 100 million children still do not attend school and 150 million drop out without learning to read, write and use numbers. Gender inequalities constrain access and achievement. The illiteracy of 900 million adults limits their individual growth and the social development of their communities. While in relative terms progress has been registered, in absolute terms the numbers have grown dramatically on a global scale and for many regions. Again, this situation is unacceptable and must be addressed.

Education will also be a key feature in the global campaign to fight HIV/AIDS. The impact of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases in many countries is as devastating as any war. The HIV/AIDS pandemic not only hampers development, it also reverses it by destroying capacity in all areas of social endeavour. In the period ahead, UNESCO’s strategy to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS will place particular emphasis on effective preventive education.

Recently, much international attention has been paid to the so called “digital divide”. It accentuates disparities in development, excluding entire groups and countries from the potential benefits of digital opportunities in networked knowledge societies. Bridging the digital divide between developing and developed countries and within individual countries will thus become a prime strategic challenge pervading UNESCO’s activities. This will entail activities to strengthen capacities and skills, to generate new knowledge, to enlarge access, to foster scientific research and to share knowledge and information through networking and the communication media and information systems.

Given the enormous speed of scientific discoveries and advances, there is an increasing need for international scientific and intellectual cooperation. The 1999 World Conference on Science has charted the way for UNESCO to support and promote scientific co-operation at all levels, drawing on its unique comparative advantage of combining natural and human sciences under one roof.

UNESCO will also be challenged to play a central role in bridging the divide between traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge in ways that respect the contributions that both can make. Developments in biogenetics, new medical discoveries and other scientific and technological advances increasingly require the attention of careful ethical reflection and, possibly, normative action through the elaboration of pertinent policies and standard-setting instruments. UNESCO has an obligation to live up to its ethical mission in these areas, which are largely unattended by other multilateral organizations.

In light of these on-going and new global challenges, UNESCO’s future mission is based on three main strategic thrusts. These three distinct, yet interrelated, axes are:

- developing universal principles and norms, based on shared values, in order to meet emerging challenges in education, science, culture and communication and to protect and strengthen the “common public good”.

- promoting pluralism, through recognition and enhancement of diversity together with the observance of human rights.

- promoting empowerment and participation in the emerging “knowledge societies” through capacity-building and sharing of knowledge.

This, in brief, is what we aim to accomplish within the next few years. You will agree, I am sure, that this is an ambitious agenda and one that no agency can hope to fulfill solely by its own efforts. Partnership and collaboration are essential.

UNESCO recognizes that the speed of change today not only requires flexibility but also rapid communication with partners and supporters. This flexibility may well be needed during the period of the medium-term strategy, parts of which may be overtaken by events of which we have no advance knowledge or warning. As we have noted earlier, globalization is generating new ethical challenges and dilemmas for which existing international norms and principles may be quite inadequate.

2. Read the text and answer the following questions:

a	What is the function of science in the society?
b	Can we say that today the benefits of science are equally distributed between the countries of the world?
c	What benefits has science brought to the society?
d	Why is it so vital today to debate the way of scientific knowledge production, its use and distribution?

Science for Society

Today, more than ever, science is a vital source of educational, intellectual and cultural enrichment. When we talk of knowledge societies and knowledge economies, we are in practice pointing out that they are, in a fundamental way, science-based.

Science leads to technological advances and economic benefits that offer unique opportunities to meet basic human needs, reduce poverty, protect the environment and improve the quality of life.

The promotion of science and the use of its fruits require sustained political commitment and long-term action.

The essential function of the basic sciences is to carry out a thorough inquiry, leading to new scientific knowledge that enhances our understanding of natural phenomena. Increasingly, however, the “disinterested” model of scientific endeavour does not correspond to a reality in which there are strong expectations that science should lead to technological advances and improve people’s lives.

However, there are tensions here.

Although the basic sciences have nowadays become an indispensable tool for development, the benefits of science are still unevenly distributed. Many developing countries in particular find themselves largely excluded not only from the benefits of the basic sciences but also from the very processes through which scientific knowledge is generated.

Of the many divides in our world, the knowledge divide is one of the most fundamental and the basic sciences are implicated in this. The deepening divide between North and South in science education, scientific research, technology, agriculture, health care and information technology is part cause, part effect of a development divide.

When talking about “challenges for science in the twenty-first century” one must recognize that, by its very nature, science is a cooperative endeavour and an activity without national borders. It has a remarkable capacity to mobilize intellectual effort on both theoretical and practical problems. By sharing scientific knowledge and joining together in making advances in science and technology, scientists are utilizing powerful means to promote international cooperation.

Scientific knowledge has led to remarkable innovations that have been of great benefit to humankind. Life expectancy has increased strikingly, and cures have been discovered for many diseases. Agricultural output has risen significantly in many parts of the world to meet growing population needs. Technological developments and the use of new energy sources have created the opportunity to free humankind from arduous labour. They have also enabled the generation of an expanding and complex range of industrial products and processes. Technologies based on new methods of communication, information handling and computation have brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges for the scientific endeavour as well as for society at large. Steadily improving scientific knowledge on the origin, functions and evolution of the universe and of life provides humankind with conceptual and practical approaches that profoundly influence its conduct and prospects.

At the same time, science itself is undergoing rapid change, with an “explosive” development of new fields, concepts, methodologies and potential applications.

It is often difficult to see the long-term consequences of scientific advance and its applications, and this heightens our sense of vulnerability. But it has also raised important moral, social, legal and cultural challenges.

The convergence of the information and life sciences has led to considerable progress in genetics and biotechnology. Human life, even the concept of life itself, is now challenged by advances in the biosciences and by the development of biomedical and genetic techniques.

Today, whilst unprecedented advances in the sciences are foreseen, there is a need for a vigorous and informed democratic debate on the production and use of scientific knowledge. Greater interdisciplinary efforts, involving both natural and social sciences, are a prerequisite for dealing with ethical, social, cultural, environmental, gender, economic and health issues.

Most of the benefits of science are unevenly distributed, as a result of structural asymmetries among countries, regions and social groups, and between the sexes. As scientific knowledge has become a crucial factor in the production of wealth, so its distribution has become more inequitable. What distinguishes the poor (be it people or countries) from the rich is not only that they have fewer assets, but also that they are largely excluded from the creation and the benefits of scientific knowledge.

One of the main challenges facing the basic sciences today is the fact that fewer and fewer talented youngsters seem to be interested in science, a global trend that seems to be leaving the faculties of mathematics, physics and chemistry empty. The general public seems ready and willing to use the latest products of scientific and technological ingenuity but is less interested in science itself. And young people are increasingly turning away from science as a career. This is a worrying trend, the reasons for which are multiple and complex. This decline of interest in science and scientific careers must be counteracted for it threatens the sustainability of the scientific enterprise itself and, by extension, the prospects for using science for development.

Another challenge, of course, is the brain drain. For developing countries to be in a position to exploit what science offers, there is a clear need to build a critical mass of people involved in science and technology. Continual, large-scale brain drain, however, is a serious challenge to efforts to nurture and maintain sufficient numbers of highly qualified and innovative scientists and engineers. Effective encouragements need to be found to induce them to remain in or return to their countries. Strategies to facilitate this need to be developed, such as the building of working connections between research groups in major educational and research institutions in the North and counterparts in the South; setting up centres and networks of excellence; and creating innovative partnerships.

Another operational issue to address as a priority is the involvement of industrialists in the common action supporting science for development. It is also essential to involve industry in their deliberations and debates, especially on development issues. The improvement of science-industry cooperation is not always easy but, if successful, it opens up important possibilities for all concerned.

The problems the human society is facing today are numerous and diverse. They can be solved with greater success and no doubt in a shorter time if we manage to unite our efforts and promote cooperation worldwide.

Comprehension check