Paris, 2 October 2025. -The 222nd session of the UNESCO Executive Board has opened at the Organization’s Headquarters in Paris, where it will be held from 1 to 16 October, in a context of particular significance for the future of UNESCO and the multilateral system.
The Cuban delegation to the Executive Board is headed by the Representative of Cuba to this body, Ms. Dulce María Buergo Rodríguez, President of the Cuban National Commission for UNESCO, and also includes the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Cuba to UNESCO, Ms. María del Carmen Herrera Caseiro, and the Third Secretary of the Delegation, Laura Alvarez Delgado.
This session is of crucial importance as it is the last of the biennium prior to the holding of UNESCO’s 43rd General Conference. Among the central items on the agenda are the Organization’s budgetary and cash flow situation for 2025, as well as the preparation of the Draft Programme and Budget for the 2026–2027 biennium (43 C/5), including the definition of the budget ceiling to be recommended to the General Conference. This discussion takes on particular relevance following the withdrawal of the United States from UNESCO, one of the Organization’s main financial contributors, which poses new challenges to ensuring the sustainability, predictability and equity of the budget without placing an excessive burden on other Member States.
In addition, during this session, the Executive Board will proceed with the designation of a candidate for the post of Director-General of UNESCO, a decision of particular importance for the future direction of the Organization.
For the Cuban delegation, the session is also of particular importance due to the examination of several substantive agenda items, including the evaluation of the programme “TRANSCULTURA: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity”; the strengthening of UNESCO’s gender equality agenda; follow-up to the implementation of the Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers; the strengthening of global dialogue with teachers; UNESCO’s leadership in coordinating SDG 4–Education 2030; the approval of the Organization’s Disability Inclusion Strategy; the revision of the Statutes of the International Scientific Committee of the Routes of Enslaved Peoples programme; and the renewal of the International UNESCO/José Martí Prize.
Cuba’s participation in this session reaffirms its commitment to an effective, transparent and people-centred UNESCO, capable of responding to current challenges through the strengthening of multilateralism, international cooperation and the preservation of the Organization’s programmatic priorities.