The Mexican Gabriela Ramos, one of the three candidates to direct UNESCO, said the UN “can serve to build bridges” in a polarized world, although it needs internal reform and demonstrate its impact.
Ramos explained that the United Nations Educational, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) does not have as a mission to resolve political conflicts, but can take advantage of its “wonderful infrastructure of cultural conventions” to promote equality, diversity and progress.
“I think we must continue building that infrastructure. Culture has to serve us more to build bridges, to support the communities that are at a disadvantage, to promote creativity, to support creative industries,” he said, after pronouncing a conference in London.
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Ramos said that the organism with headquarters in Paris has there “a very important tool”, which allows “to counteract all this polarization that exists in our societies and that it is also created precisely with the help of social networks.”
“We are the organization that can create the bases for a peaceful coexistence and build the bridges,” said the current general deputy director of Unesco’s social and human sciences.
Innovation, Inclusion and Impact
The Mexican economist, who previously had a long career in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), explained that her candidacy is based on three pillars.
It is about innovation, due to the need to adapt to changes and new technologies; Inclusion, because education, science and culture must enable equitable development; and impact, due to the need for approved initiatives to have real effects.
“For me there is no institution that is valid if it cannot demonstrate what the quality of life of the people improved,” he said.
The diplomat argued that her work in the G20 and the OECD prove that she is able to “align institutions to give concrete solutions to member countries.”
On the possible withdrawal of the United States, which left and returned to UNESCO on two previous occasions, Ramos confided that it will not occur, because “it is and has always been a very important actor in international organizations.”
“I think it is our duty to demonstrate the impact and value that UNESCO has”, with projects like the one she led to promote the regulation of artificial intelligence, he said.
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The Mexican candidate acknowledged that you have to look for new forms of financing for development – it shows the issuance of ‘cultural bonds’- and undertake an internal reform of the organization, to make it “much more agile in its processes and decision making.”
In addition to Ramos, they have postulated to the position for the 2025-29 period, which will be chosen next October, Egyptologist Egyptologist Khaled el Enany and the Congolese Firmin Edouard Matoko, current deputy director general of the Africa priority and foreign relations sector of UNESCO.
With EFE information
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