| Name: Dr Visesio Pongi Position: Director of UNESCO Cluster Office in Apia and UNESCO Representative | | | The United Nations Eduational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations formed in 1945. It's mission is to "build peace in the minds of men". UNESCO works as a laboratory of ideas and a standard-setter to forge universal agreements on emerging ethical issues. The Organization also serves as a clearing house for the dissemination and sharing of information and knowledge while helping Member States to build their human and institutional capacities in diverse fields. Samoa joined UNESCO on April 3, 1981 and it now hosts UNESCO's Cluster Office for the Pacific. The UNESCO Office in Apia serves sixteen independent countries and one territory in the Pacific, from Papua New Guinea in the West, to the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the North, to the Cook Islands in the East and New Zealand in the South. Through its strategies and activities, UNESCO is actively pursuing the Millennium Development Goals, especially those aiming to: - Halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in developing coutries by 2015
- Achieve universal primary education in all countries by 2015
- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education
- Help countries implement a national strategy for sustainable development
- Reverse current trends in the loss of environmental resources by 2015
- UNESCO and the United Nations Millennium Goals
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