UNESCO celebrated its 37th General Conference with the attendance of 190 member states, 4 State Presidents and Prime Ministers, 140 Government Ministers, NGOs and more than 3.000 general delegates.
During this these past days we have witnessed the re-election of Ms. Irina Bukova as Director General (seen in the photo with IFMSA Liaison Officer Pablo Acuña Espinoza) of the Organization for the next four years, the adoption of the Medium Term Strategy (2014-2021) which will play a leadership role in defining the development objectives that will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the areas of education, science, culture, communication and information. “In many areas, progress towards these goals is achievable. This is a development issue, but it is also a credibility issue. We must keep the promises we made in 2000 to be credible in setting the new ones that follow”, stated the Director General.
UNESCO reaffirmed Africa and Gender Equality as its top global priorities for the next eight years and defined peace and sustainable development as the overarching objectives that will guide all of the Organization’s activities, as well as confirmed that Youth will keep on the top of the agenda.
As representative of the federation, I participated at the Space for Non-governmental Organizations, place dedicated to introduce some of the more than 300 NGOs to the delegates attending to the conference, in which I presented what is IFMSA, our mission, vision and the work we do. There were also updates about the activities arranged by the Liaison Committee of NGOs and the requirements to apply to the Participation Programme 2014-2015.
At the end of the conference, I had the chance to talk to the re-elected Director General that as IFMSA sees health as a human right, UNESCO does the same with education, both working to ensure universal access with quality and equity for all and we, as medical students, feel a great commitment to accomplish this goal.
Pablo Acuña Espinoza
Liaison Officer to UNESCO
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