UNESCO has announced that the United States has decided to rejoin the organisation next month.

Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, informed the representatives of the 193 Member States that the US had officially notified her of its decision to rejoin UNESCO in July 2023, on the basis of a concrete financing plan.

What is UNESCO?

• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was established on November 16, 1945. 

• UNESCO has 193 Members and is governed by the General Conference and the Executive Board. 

• The Secretariat, headed by the Director-General, implements the decisions of these two bodies. 

• It has more than 50 field offices around the world and its headquarters is located in Paris.

• UNESCO’s mission is to contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.

• It contributes to peace and security by promoting international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication and information. 

• UNESCO promotes knowledge sharing and the free flow of ideas to accelerate mutual understanding and a more perfect knowledge of each other's lives. 

• UNESCO’s programmes contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals defined in the 2030 Agenda, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015.

Why the US left the UNESCO?

• The US is a founding member of UNESCO and had withdrawn once before, in 1984, then rejoined in 2003.

• In 2011, the US and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state.

• At that time, US funding made up 22 per cent of the agency’s budget.

• The Trump administration decided in 2017 to withdraw from the agency altogether the following year, citing long-running anti-Israel bias and management problems.

• The formal withdrawal from UNESCO by the US occurred on January 1, 2019, with Israel following suit. 

• As of December 2020, the US reportedly owed UNESCO around $616 million in unpaid membership dues.

• The full return of the US as a UNESCO Member State was made possible by an agreement reached by Congress in December 2022, as part of the $1.7 trillion Omnibus Appropriations Bill, authorising the resumption of financial contributions to the organisation.

• A new financing plan linked to the US returning to the fold, will now be submitted to UNESCO’s General Conference, for Member States’ approval.

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