Finland contributes some 2.5 million Euros to UNESCO’s work in education and freedom of expression in developing countries and the Arab world
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On 23 November, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and Excellency Mr. Antti Kuosmanen, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Finland to UNESCO signed an agreement by which Finland will contribute some 2.5 million Euros to support UNESCO’s activities in the field of capacity-building of developing countries for Education for All and in the field of freedom of expression and media pluralism in the Arab World.
“Finland is a great supporter of multilateralism and a champion of UNESCO’s core priorities” said the Director-General, while emphasizing the importance of the Global Monitoring Report to strengthen efforts in promoting education and in setting the global agenda with regard to institutional capacities for education, learning outcomes, skills and employment, as well as measuring trends and looking at progress in teacher training.
She highlighted the key role of the Capacity-Development for Education for All programme (CapEFA) to sustain efforts of developing countries to achieve the EFA goals by 2015 and the imperative to pursue efforts on data elaboration, collection and analysis to inform education policies. In this respect, the Director-General underlined also her decision to allocate 2.5 million USD from the Emergency Fund to contribute to the success of activities for the 29 targeted priority countries in need, as identified in the context of CapEFA.
Ambassador Antti Kuosmanen emphasized “Finland’s continued commitment to education and to promoting freedom of expression”, emphasizing his country’s appreciation for the work conducted by UNESCO Institutes, such as the International Institute for Educational Planning, the Institute for Statistics, as well as the International Programme for the Development of Communication.
Ambassador Kuosmanen highlighted also Finland’s commitment for the first time to contribute for a two-year period, so as to enable UNESCO to plan ahead in advancing its main priorities. He expressed Finland’s full appreciation of the Director-General’s commitment to reforming UNESCO to better tackle current challenges and he assured her of his Government’s continued support.