Madame Chairperson of the Executive Board,
Mr. President of the General Conference,
Madame Director General,
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
Madame Chair, let me start by thanking you and paying tribute to your able leadership of the executive board during this very difficult Geopolitical period.
Madam Chair,
The G 77 and China, UNESCO Chapter, is glad to announce that the South-South Cooperation Fund for Education is going on with a new project that will be submitted soon, and we take this opportunity to thank the Education Sector, BSP, and PAX for their valuable support and to encourage Member States to further increase their support to this Fund. This initiative follows up on the Declaration of the Meeting of the Ministers of Education of the Group of 77 and China held on February 2 in Havana, Cuba, which supported the reactivation of the South-South Cooperation Fund for Education as a platform for development initiatives.
The Group welcomes the new items submitted to the 216th session of the Executive Board and would like to express its support mainly to the following items of the agenda:
The Arab Latinos initiative submitted by Brazil and Lebanon. This initiative is at the heart of the vision and objectives of the G 77 and China;
The Abuja Declaration, submitted by Nigeria and Ghana;
The International Year of Quantum Science submitted by Mexico;
The Global/Regional Coordination, Monitoring and Support of SDG 4 submitted by Brazil and Chile;
The Water Security for Peace and Development submitted by Senegal,
as well as the “Tashkent Declaration” submitted by Uzbekistan
The Group welcomes the proposal by China for the creation of a category 1 Institute for STEM education and looks forward to its consideration by the Board.
The group welcomes the discussion for the proposed increased funding for IOC, item submitted by the UK, however any increased allocation must not be used to offset any existing funding.
The Group welcomes and supports the proposed C5 budget ceiling as real zero growth.
The Group commends the efforts of UNESCO in achieving the progress done in gender equality and highlights the need to promote and increase women’s representation in high level positions as well as the geographical representation for non- and under-represented Member States.
The Group emphasizes the need to help and strengthen girls’ education in particular in zones of conflict and post-conflict with a special attention to the case of Afghanistan.
The Group appreciates UNESCO’s commitment for Global Priority Africa and requests the Secretariat to maintain the efforts to implement in particular its five flagship programmes this priority including through the strengthening of the field offices in Africa.
The group also requests the secretariat to consolidate and reinforce the field offices in conformity with the relevant decisions of the Executive Board, in consultation with the concerned member states and taking into account the specificities and the sustainability of the field network.
The Group endorses the Operational Strategy 2023-2029 for the SIDS and invites the Secretariat to allocate the necessary resources for its implementation.
Finally, allow me to express our warm appreciation to the government of Cuba for hosting the meeting of ministers of Culture of the G77 & China on Culture and Sustainable Development that took place in Havana on May 4th.
Thank you for your attention.