Simataa at 160th UNESCO session

The Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Stanley Simaata is the substantive representative of Namibia on the UNESCO Executive Board. The 160th session of the UNESCO Executive Board is currently under way in Paris and is expected to end on 18 October.
The salient points to be emphasised by the Namibian delegation includes amongst others the need for UNESCO to prioritise and focus on its core mandate and on programmes and activities where the organisation has comparative advantage in the United Nations System in order to make impact in the UNESCO Member States.
They will also emphasise that UNESCO should focus in the next programme and Budget for 2014 to 2017 on the achievement of the Education for All (EFA) and relevant Millennium Development Goals on UNESCO’s post-2015 EFA positioning and on advising Member States on matters pertaining to quality education.
The Delegation will also stress the need for UNESCO to support Member States in areas of policy development and capacity building in the science, disaster preparedness and resilience, promotion of the culture of peace and social inclusion and equality and the promotion and use of cultural heritage for social economic development.
The session of the UNESCO Executive Board is critical as it will examine important agenda items  dealing with the future strategic and programmatic direction of the Organisation for the next eight years and four years respectively.
The main function of the UNESCO Executive Board which consist of 58 UNESCO Member States elected by the UNESCO General Conference is to oversee the execution of the programme adopted by the General Conference by the Secretariat.
Namibia will serve on the Board for a period of four years, from 2012 to 2014.