Irina Bokova

Mr. President,
Mr. Director General,
Your Excellencies,

Allow me first of all to express my great joy on the occasion of Bulgaria’s return to the Executive Board after a 10-year absence and my belief that this session will be constructive and fruitful.

Being a new member of the Board we will make efforts as we have done so far to provide a responsible approach and assist the genuine development of our Organization. We will be happy if our participation in the Executive Board would be successful but it would be more important to leave our footprint on the activities of UNESCO because as the great Einstein said, « Try not to become a man of success but a man of value ».

Allow me to express my country’s positive stance on the priorities at the basis of the programme and budget for the next two years and UNESCO’s Mid-term Strategy that were adopted at the most recent General Conference.

The main goal of UNESCO, Education for All by 2015, is quite broad and is indicative of the Organization’s adequate position on this issue.

«Why is it important? Because I believe that we are all aware of the fact that a country cannot be expected to prosper if its citizens are illiterate, if its children have no access to education, if its daughters cannot go to school as boys do». Those were the words of the Bulgarian President in his capacity as special guest at the opening of the 34th General Conference session.

Bulgaria which has rich traditions in education is glad to have received UNESCO’s mandate to be the international coordinator of the Education for All Program and is proud with the progress made in this area. In our opinion the challenges for the EFA Program are national. Therefore, UNESCO should focus its efforts more locally because this is the key arena. In our opinion UNESCO has also managed to meet the requirements for broadening access to secondary education, vocational training and higher education.

In parallel, there is a need to focus more on finding new partnerships and extrabudgetary funds, strengthening capacity (including the capacity of UNESCO University Chairs and associated schools), developing interregional cooperation to exchange good practices and increase the level of expertise.

I would like to underscore Bulgaria’s position that if there are no tangible results in education, it would not be possible to attain Millennium Goals for knowledge-driven society and sustainable development. Here I would like to quote from yesterday’s address of the Director General who emphasized the fact that «UNESCO must become Agency of choice for countries as they seek support to respond to these challenges».

When it comes to culture, we need to give UNESCO credit for its exceptional role in defining international rules and standards. We should acclaim the consistent efforts of the Secretariat to encourage the design of a universal vision on culture in the context of development, innovation, dialogue, and social unity «based on a single regulatory foundation». Thanks to these efforts and the work of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage whose second special session was held in Sofia, we finalized the Convention’s operational directives while taking into consideration the positions from Algeria, Chengdu and Tokyo. Those directives will be adopted at the Conference of States Parties to the Convention this June. The Sofia session was opened by the highest authority of Bulgaria, the President of the country. And I would like to thank the President of the Executive Board for his appreciation because this session was indeed proof of our government’s support conferred upon the protection of intangible heritage.

This was the reason why we took concrete steps to establish a regional intangible heritage protection centre in Bulgaria under UNESCO’s auspices with the purpose of combining the efforts of countries in the region of South East Europe, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus. In the future, this centre may collaborate on an interregional basis with Africa that remains one of our priorities.

Speaking of regional cooperation I would like to give an example with the regional expert meeting on developing national inventories held in 2007 in Bulgaria with the exclusive aid of the Culture Sector under UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe (BRESCE). This meeting was an efficient tool to promote the concepts of the 2003 Convention which interested both professionals and the general public.

As you know Bulgaria pays special attention to cooperation with South Eastern European countries and participates in all summits organized by the Director General and heads of state from the region dedicated to dialogue among civilizations and cultures. One specific result from all those meetings are the strategies and the action plan adopted by Ministers of Culture from the Region pointing out that a key element of cultural diversity and rapprochement is education about and through cultural and historical heritage.

While commending the achievements of UNESCO in its regulatory action, I believe it is necessary to draw your attention to the need of an even more equitable approach that would pay equal attention to all Conventions adopted by our Organization.

We need to point out UNESCO’s adequate approach and consistent efforts to intensify intergovernmental and international research programs. Bulgaria believes that a very important goal is tapping the opportunities for developing intergovernmental cooperation on coastal ecosystems, biosphere and natural reserves. We believe that quality of life can be improved by pooling together the capacity of national research centres and programs resolving regional issues related to the economy, migration and environment.

This is why we believe that the recommendations of the General Review Committee on Large Programs ІІ and ІІІ should become the basis and food for thought on this issue.

In the era of global climate change and in the light of the very efficient UN Programme Delivering as One whose objective is to promote closer environmental cooperation, UNESCO should position its programmes better in order to avoid overlap with the activities of the future UN Environmental Agency.

In closing, I would like to say that Bulgaria supports the propositions made by the Director General with respect to intersectoral platforms and believes that they are well defined. They represent mostly a new way towards a more harmonized and coordinated approach to the complex issues and challenges on the global, regional and national levels. Their goal is to fulfil the regular programme and to achieve expected results approved by the General Conference, with the hope that they will improve the quality, the coherence and the cost-effectiveness of our programme.

In the precise words of Horatio, «Нe has the deed half done, who has made a beginning!»