United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Description

UNESCO is a specialized United Nations agency for education, science, culture and communication.

It sets standards, produces tools and develops knowledge to help solve major global challenges. It works to protect biodiversity, respond to artificial intelligence, advance quality education, safeguard heritage and support access to reliable information. It promotes freedom of expression, information literacy and the protection of journalists, and it awards a world press freedom prize each year.

UNESCO was founded in 1945 as the successor to the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. Its founding mission is to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights through cooperation and dialogue among nations. It pursues this through five programme areas: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information. It also helps establish and protect World Heritage Sites of cultural and natural importance.

The organization is governed by a General Conference of member states, which sets its main lines of work, a Secretariat led by a Director-General that carries out its programme, and an Executive Board that oversees implementation. It is headquartered in Paris, France, and works with 194 member states across the globe. It operates through 53 field offices, over 200 national commissions and more than a hundred institutes and centres.