How to Develop the UNESCO the World Needs : The Challenges of Reform

The world needs more public goods in education, especially statistics, research and shared experience. UNESCO should be the place to turn for these public goods but its politicization and its limited technical and human resources mean that it cannot at present fulfill that role, a role now partially filled by others, all of whom wish that UNESCO were a stronger institution. Reform is possible, however, as two achievements of the past decade demonstrate (the establishment of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report) but will require tackling several issues simultaneously, many of them more about UNESCO's overall budget and human resources policies and practices than specific to its education sector. Leadership and some transitional finance will be essential for effective reform.