New UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova

On 15 October, the General Conference of UNESCO elected Bulgarian Irina Bokova as the new Director General of the organisation. Bokova, the first woman and the first representative of Eastern Europe to hold the post, was sworn in on 23 October. In her inaugural speech, she spoke of the ‘new humanism’ she intends to promote and said that ‘Cultural diversity and inter-cultural dialogue contribute to the emergence of a new humanism that reconciles the global and the local, and teaches us anew how to build the world’. Irina Bokova replaces Koïchiro Matsuura, who had been UNESCO’s Director General since 1999.

In response to questions at the conference, held directly after her election, she reaffirmed UNESCO’s commitment to Africa and gender as priorities with education as key in both areas. “During my campaign I visited 12 African countries. I have seen the situation in the field. I have seen a lot of poverty, I have seen a lot of political will to move forward, I have seen a lot of very sincere efforts to work with UNESCO and to transform societies and countries. I am especially talking about education.”  Gender equality was the other priority and was intrinsically linked to the education of women. “I think UNESCO can do a lot more in practical terms and I am talking about the education of women and girls. I am talking about the access to knowledge and information which is extremely important for women in different parts of the world.”

In her vision for UNESCO going forward, Bokova says that “I regret that culture is not included in the MDGs and I intend to relaunch the debate on culture and development because culture should accompany every development effort.”

For further information, visit: www.unesco.org
Press conference report

Image attribution: http://www.bokova.eu/