Mr Chairman of the General Conference,
Mrs Chairperson of the Executive Board,
Mrs Director-General,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thirteen years ago the mankind set the ambitious Millennium development goals and all these years we were consistently working on their achievement under the UN leadership. The results of this work are visible but I wouldn’t hurry to call them impressive.
Unfortunately another matter is impressive: 57 million children on the planet stay without basic education with half of them living in Africa; 123 million young people don’t have basic reading and writing skills and 61% of them are girls and women. I don’t even mention millions of hungry and homeless people, high mortality rate from curable diseases, conflicts taking many lives and breaking out on the basis of ethnic, religious or cultural intolerance.
That is why the world community is developing the global agenda for the period after 2015 which will include efficient solutions of the above-mentioned problems and which will ensure the sustainable development of the mankind.
It is evident that the agenda for the period after 2015 should still contain the goals of the “Education for All” Program. We fully support the initiative of the UN Secretary General “Education First” and the central role of UNESCO in its implementation. The quality of education and life-long education remain the major condition of the development of human potential. The success in this field is closely tied to the employment and economic growth rate. We find that it is important to fully integrate the UNESCO network partners into implementation of the educational programs of the Organization.
Naturally, the sustainable development can’t be achieved without the economic growth which in its turn depends on the development of industry and innovative technologies. In our view the rapprochement of industrial and scientific communities to ensure sustainable development should be one of the most important areas of the UNESCO activity after 2015. And such kind of work can be organized within the framework of the Basic Sciences Program which is being successfully developed in our Organization.
At the same time a balanced approach to the technical and industrial development of mankind along with the preservation of natural resources of the planet for future generations is one of the priorities of science today. In this context the International hydrological program and the Man and Biosphere program play a unique role. In this connection let me remind you that the VII All-Russian hydrological congress on the main problems in this field will take place in Saint-Petersburg on 19-21 November in the framework of the International year of water cooperation declared by the UN.
The activities of the UNESCO World network of biosphere reserves are equally important to the Russian Federation. Currently the issue of holding the International congress of biosphere reserves in Russia in 2014 is under examination. The enhancement of national environmental legislation and the exchange of the best practices in this field will be one of the key subjects of the congress.
We should also pay attention to the necessary strengthening of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic commission since IOC is one of a few UNESCO programs which have direct economic effect.
Culture should play an important role in the achievement of sustainable development. We all have no doubts that we need to give culture a special status in the agenda after 2015. Culture means not only the creativity. We perceive culture as an important instrument of dialogue and search for mutual understanding, as a sphere of social reconciliation and development. In this connection I do not hesitate to say that the year 2014 is declared the Year of culture in Russia.
I’m convinced that the conservation of the world cultural and natural heritage should remain the fundamental task for foreseeable future. We in Russia attach to these efforts of UNESCO a particular importance. This year Russia held two significant events – the Conference for conservation of religious heritage and the First international restorers’ congress. In addition we plan to open the UNESCO category 2 center for conservation of the World Heritage of the CIS and Eastern Europe countries.
UNESCO has a special mission inside the UN system – it has to contribute through education, science, culture, communication and information to education of responsible people, to shaping of the ideas of peace and good neighborliness in minds of the young generation. Mass media and Internet play an important role in this area. We find it necessary to strengthen the “Information for All” Program and the International Program for the Development of Communication and to continue a substantial dialogue within the framework of UNESCO on the issues of media and information literacy, access to the information and knowledge, freedom of expression, respect of ethic norms in cyberspace.
The current situation is not a simple one which is true for our Organization as well. It is time for reflection and restructuring of the whole mechanism of work of the Organization. We welcome the efforts made by the Director General to stabilize the financial position of the Organization and we look forward to the effective implementation of projects and programs with which UNESCO will face the year 2015 and go further.
Thank you for your attention.
