UNESCO Bangkok promotes international co-operation, sets standards and disseminates information in the fields of education, the natural sciences, the social and human sciences, culture and communication in the Asia and Pacific region.

The mandate of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is the promotion of peace and human development through its operational strategies in education, science, culture and communication and information.

UNESCO programmes focus on promoting education for all; supporting the expression of cultural identities; protecting and enhancing the world's natural heritage; engaging in a new social contract between science and society at all levels; developing and promoting social policies; promoting the free flow of information, press freedom and the development of a pluralistic media; and strengthening communication capacities in developing countries.

UN Decades

UNESCO also promotes literacy as a basic human right and as a necessity for development. It is the co-ordinating agency for the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012), Education for All (EFA) and the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).

UNESCO's activities globally concentrate on three priority groups: women, African countries and the least developed countries. The Organization is, above all, committed to ensuring that the people of the world are able to live together in peace and with respect for cultural diversity.

UNESCO therefore insists that education for good citizenship and for values which promote peace and the fulfillment of human rights is at the core of UNESCO's work.

Reform and Decentralization

The appointment of Koïchiro Matsuura as Director-General of the organisation in 2000 led to a policy of reform and decentralisation. This in turn created a new network of field operations with strengthened multi-sectoral sub-regional cluster offices and mono-sectoral regional bureaux. In the Asia and Pacific region there is the Regional Bureau for Education (Bangkok), science (Jakarta) and communication (New Delhi).

As a cluster office, the UNESCO office in Bangkok is also the principal coordinator of UNESCO activities, across sectors, in the Mekong region - directly in Thailand, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Singapore and indirectly in support of UNESCO country offices in Viet Nam and Cambodia.

UNESCO Bangkok also houses regional advisory units in Culture and Social and Human Sciences and staff from the Communication and Information Sector and the Science Sector.

Mission Statement

The basic mission of UNESCO is to contribute to sustainable human development in a culture of peace, underpinned by tolerance, democracy and human rights, through programmes and projects in UNESCO's fields of competence - education, the natural and social sciences, culture and communication and information.

In carrying out this mission to serve the 46 Member States in Asia and the Pacific, UNESCO Bangkok takes into account the immense size of the region, including almost two thirds of the world's population, and its diversity and cultural pluralism, with its great potential and its persistent problems.

Together with its sister agencies in the United Nations system, UNESCO is committed to consolidating the dynamism and long-term economic growth the region has experienced and to carrying out its ethical mission to complement this growth by addressing threats to the peace, security, and equitable development of the region.

UNESCO Bangkok seeks to give coherence and synergy to its overall programme by specifying a set of challenges around its projects and activities are organized. Six broad areas, each having both global and regional dimensions, have been identified:

1. Poverty Reduction
2. Globalisation
3. Information and Communication Technology
4. Sustainable Development
5. Control of HIV/AIDS
6. Establishment of a Culture of Peace

UNESCO Constitution

The Preamble to the Constitution of UNESCO declares that ‘since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed’.

In order that a unanimous, lasting and genuine peace may be secured, the Preamble declares that the States Party to the Constitution believed ‘in full and equal opportunities for education for all, in the unrestricted pursuit of objective truth and in the free exchange of ideas and knowledge".

As defined by the Constitution, the purpose of the Organization is: "to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations’.

History

The UNESCO office in Bangkok was established in 1961 as the Asian Regional Office for Primary and Compulsory Education. The Office was later extended to cover all divisions of the education sector and the countries of the Pacific region.

Further growth included the incorporation of activities relating to the culture, communication, and social and human science sectors, which led to the eventual renaming of the office as the Principal Regional Office for Asia and Pacific (PROAP) in 1987.

At the beginning of 2002, the UNESCO office in Bangkok assumed two roles. As the Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, it is the technical advisory body to all field offices and Member States of the region and the site of regional programmes in most areas covered by the Education Sector.

As the cluster office, the UNESCO office in Bangkok is also the principal coordinator of UNESCO activities, across sectors, in the Mekong region - directly in Thailand, Myanmar and Lao PDR and indirectly in support of UNESCO country offices in Viet Nam and Cambodia.

UNESCO Bangkok also houses regional advisory units in Culture and Social and Human Sciences and staff from the Communication and Information Sector and the Science Sector.

In 2007, Singapore joined UNESCO as the 193rd Member State and become a member of UNESCO Bangkok cluster office.