MOST Intergovernmental Council

Transcription

1 1 Opening words, ADG/SHS MOST Intergovernmental Council March 2011 Room XI Madam President of the Intergovernmental Council, Excellencies Distinguished Members of MOST, I am very pleased to welcome you on behalf of the Director General to this important meeting of the decision-making organ of MOST in my capacity as the Assistant Director- General of the Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO. Since taking up my new functions on 1 st July of last year, I have been getting to know the various programmes and partners. This is the first opportunity we have had to meet, so I am very much looking forward to talking with you and hearing your perspectives on the MOST Programme. I am enormously pleased to greet our president, Ms Kirchner, and greet the Bureau and Scientific Advisory Committee members whom I previously met in their meeting of November We will benefit from their discussion at last year s Bureau and SAC meeting. Finally, let me say a very warm welcome to the full IGC, 35 Member State representatives.

2 2 It is a privilege to be associated with you. In fact, one of the features that attracted me to this job was the MOST programme and its potential to mobilize action in support of social science. I am strongly committed to the MOST Programme as it is vital that we can understand and respond to the challenges of social transformation. Why do we need the social sciences? The World Social Sciences Report, published in June of last year, records that there is in today s world, disparate and insufficient investment in the social sciences. And this leads to under-nourishing our public policy machinery. Policies that are informed by research or evidence that is, objective policy making remains a key principle for the whole of UNESCO, whether it be in education policies or in other domains of UNESCO s work. But social sciences capacities are missing where they are needed most to underpin government decision making. We in the Secretariat are very proud of the World Social Sciences Report, which was the result of a close collaboration with the International Social Science Council. The Report is worth close reading as it contains subtle and important information. For example, it indicates that governments do not draw sufficiently on existing social science research when they develop social policies. And there is a need to improve the quality of social science research, and to make sure it is available where most needed. UNESCO has responsibilities to accompany Member States in capacity-building in this area. I am firmly committed to UNESCO s mandate in social science I believe strongly that in order to address the complex problems facing today s world, we must draw on the social sciences for their resolution. It is not possible for governments and ministries to

3 3 tackle critical development challenges and crises unless they have access to the quality research and analysis that can inform their policy choices. Therefore Madam Kirchner, I see that under your presidency you will have a very exciting opportunity to set the direction to make MOST ever more relevant and more respected right across the globe. I see this meeting on the future direction of the IGC as a key step in the process. What is not sufficiently clear is what role the intergovernmental committee of MOST should play in achieving the programme s objectives what is the comparative advantage of MOST in terms of its intergovernmental nature; how can it best add value? This is a question being asked right across UNESCO in respect of all its Programmes that have intergovernmental bodies, prompted by the Independent External Evaluation of the Organization. How will we get from where we are to a better place? For this, we need to hear from you. You know UNESCO s ways of operating. You should give us advice. How can we involve the MOST membership? Which mechanisms should we use in a modern responsive way? What are the most effective ways to advance the MOST Programme s objectives? There will be time in the meeting to draw out and discuss your advice. I recall that the Bureau and the Scientific Advisory Committee meeting last November provided a basis for this discussion. I am referring to the outcome document tabled by President Kirchner. As the objectives in that document describe, ideally, we aim to create demand on the part of more Ministries for social science research;

4 4 to show the relevance of social sciences in addressing today s complex challenges and therefore the necessity to invest in social science; to define more effective pathways for research to reach policy. This shows the continuity of the MOST Programme. It is also important to illustrate these objectives and the Programme s relevance by working on select themes meaning issues of core importance to Member States. In the consultation of November, the following proposals were tabled as critical social challenges deserving MOST s attention, namely: the need to promote social inclusion; and secondly, the need to understand the social transformations arising from global environmental change. Let me touch briefly on their significance. We have been working on social inclusion in this biennium in respect of migrant rights and urban development. Increasingly, the whole issue of social inclusion is receiving more profile, particularly in the UN system. The Millennium Outcome document, which is a stocktaking of progress on the Millennium Development Goals, contains many references to issues of social cohesion, social integration and social inclusion. So in the next C/5 we hope to target the need to promote social inclusion, particularly in city environments. This issue is paramount in order to address urban poverty, the need for peaceful co-existence, the protection of vulnerable groups, and to create employment opportunities. As for social transformation due to global environmental change, there is huge interest in this topic among key stakeholders. For example, the global visioning exercise of the

5 5 International Council for Science (ICSU) saw this as the most profound social challenge to face future societies. The next World Social Science Report of the International Social Science Council (ISSC) will address the social dimensions of global environmental change. The United Nations has picked up a key element through its Task Force on the Social Dimensions of Climate Change. As you will hear through our agenda, global environmental change is quite broad as it encompasses the social transformation wrought by changes to our water resources, food sources, and biodiversity. It also includes the social dimensions of climate change which is a key concern of UNESCO. The Director General has made a firm commitment to address climate change in line with the UNESCO Strategy for Action on Climate Change of the UNESCO governing bodies, and we have the benefit of working within the context of the UN Task Force on Social Dimensions and the Intersectoral Platform on Climate Change, giving our work the potential to be truly cross-cutting. The rest of our agenda must consider the broad strategic framework for MOST. Distinguished Members, there have been systematic evaluations of all of UNESCO s Strategic Programme Objectives or SPOs. In our Sector, we are concerned by the evaluations of SPO 4, 6, and 7. The evaluation of SPO 7 was concerned with the impact of the MOST Programme s work on the research-policy nexus. You have had access to this report through the MOST website and it is referenced in the report of the November meeting. The Bureau and SAC have severely critiqued the methodology of the SPO 7 evaluation. Nevertheless, Member States should realize that the Secretariat has an obligation to respond to the message in the underlying recommendations, which sounded a warning on the need to reconsider how the MOST Programme could achieve greater impact.

6 6 We are also very indebted to Professor Sipilä for his mid-term review of the MOST Programme. He acknowledges many achievements of the MOST Programme. He also points to areas for improvement. So it is clear to me that we cannot stand still we need to build on what has been achieved to date and adjust our work to be globally relevant and impactful. This brings me to the questions on which I would deeply appreciate your fresh thinking. As ADG, I am responsible for making sure that this meeting offers you the opportunity to reflect on how to optimize, improve, and focus MOST. What are the implications of the various evaluations? We will need to take in the presentations and feedback on MOST. I ask you please to think on the machinery itself. How should MOST evolve so it becomes stronger and more credible? Are we now moving to MOST Phase 3? We need all perspectives, so we may have to undertake broader consultation on ideas and improvements that concern our constituencies, to identify the improvements that our constituencies want. The Secretariat stands ready to undertake this task. Since I arrived, I have emphasized the need to reconcile the MOST workplan to the Results-based Management (RBM) approach which is now required of all UN organizations. Essentially, this means that we of the Secretariat and you in the governing body really have to pay attention to how the projects demonstrate impact (or their potential for impact) in each two-year cycle. With this in mind, we undertook an RBM-focused reprogramming exercise half way through the current biennium, and this led us to scrutinize all of our modalities so as to assure that we can demonstrate measurable results.

7 7 But this exercise on modalities does not deal with the broader strategic question of how we can optimize the MOST programme? As the Secretariat, we are here ready to listen and learn from you, on what role this body should play in the near or longer term future. Thank you to all those who have shown a huge commitment: those who have done peer reviews, provided expertise or guidance, who host Ministerial fora and other meetings. And, in this strategic exercise, let me thank all of you in advance for giving your valuable time and energy to this crucial meeting. I look forward to the recommendations that will emerge to chart a new course for MOST and can be taken forward to the General Conference. I wish you all the best for a very successful meeting.