POLITICS-UN: Japan May Head UNESCO

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 21 1999 (IPS) - Japan, one of the largest single contributors to the UN system, has emerged at the top of 10 candidates striving for the top job at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

After three rounds of closed-door voting, the 58-member UNESCO Executive Board Wednesday nominated Ambassador Koichiro Matsuura for the post of Director-General of the Paris-based UN agency.

Matsuura, whose candidacy must receive final approval at a meeting of UNESCO’s General Conference on Nov. 12 in Paris, would succeed Federico Mayor of Spain who will complete his second six- year mandate next month.

The approval is considered a formality but, in the unlikely event that the General Conference does not approve Matsuura, the Executive Board must choose another candidate within 48 hours.

Currently, Japan is the largest single contributor to UNESCO accounting for about 20 percent of its budget. UNESCO’s 1999-2000 biennium budget is about 550 million dollars.

As of last week, Japan not only had paid up all its outstanding dues but also was one of the major contributors to UNESCO’s extra budgetary activities, funded by voluntary contributions.

In recent years, Japan increasingly has sought top UN positions the grounds that it was a major donor nation. Currently, Japan is the second largest contributor to the United Nations budget, accounting for 20 percent of the annual 1.3 billion do;llar cost.

The United States, the largest single donor, accounts for 25 percent of the UN budget. Ranking behind Japan are Germany (9.8 percent), France (6.5 percent) Italy (5.4 percent) and UK (5.1 percent).

Since it is one of the world’s largest aid donors, Japan has also been exerting pressure on Third World countries during election time.

“Since most high ranking jobs in the UN system are now donor driven,” one Third World diplomat told IPS, “Japan has been resorting to cheque book diplomacy.”

Intense lobbying for the top UNESCO job also has involved contenders from Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Romania, Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, France, the Philippines, Indonesia and Hungary.

Matsuura is a former deputy minister for foreign affairs who was trained in law in Tokyo and graduated in economics from Haverford College in the US.

He has published six books on Japanese diplomacy, economics and on relations between Japan and France, and Japan and the US. Matsuura, who is currently Japan’s ambassador to UNESCO, has also held ambassadorial positions in France, Andorra and Djibouti.

According to an unwritten rule, the new UNECO chief is expected to come from an Asian country which never has held the job since the UN agency was created 53 years ago.

UNESCO was established in 1946 specifically “to build lasting world peace founded upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.” Its areas of action are education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture and communications.

Since 1946, the director-general’s job has been held by John Huxley (UK), Jaime Bodet (Mexico), John Taylor and Luther Evans (US), V. Veronese (Italy), Rene Maheu (France), Amadou M’Bow (Senegal) and current incumbent Federico Mayor (Spain) who was elected in 1987. Mayor will complete his 12-year term by the end of November.

The one-time front runner for the job was Ismail Serageldin of Egypt, a vice president of the World Bank, who received endorsements from 32 Nobel Laureates, including scientists, educationists and cultural leaders.

“My entire career has been a preparation for the UNESCO job,” Serageldin was quoted as saying, “But the politics are not in my favour although I see myself as the candidate representing the UNESCO constitutency,” he said.

But his candidature split Middle Eastern nations because of the presence of a second Arab candidate, Ghazi Algosaibi, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UK.

Algosaibi was endorsed by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council as well as education ministers of the 22-member League of Arab States.