SECTION D UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANISATION (UNESCO)

NCUACS 54.3.95/D.1-D.39 EARLY HISTORY OF UNESCO

NCUACS 54.3.95/D.40-D.200 UNESCO GENERAL

NCUACS 54.3.95/D.201-D.316 NATURAL SCIENCES SECTION

NCUACS 54.3.95/D.317-D.339 UNITED NATIONS RESEARCH LABORATORIES

NCUACS 54.3.95/D.340-D.358 BRITISH COMMITTEE FOR CO-OPERATION WITH UNESCO IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES

NCUACS 54.3.95/D.359-D.365 FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS

<p>See NCUACS 54.3.95/G.70, NCUACS 54.3.95/G.71.</p>

In October 1942 the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education (CAME) was formed to discuss the post-war educational needs of Allied countries, focusing in particular on those under Axis occupation. Various committees were created under the auspices of CAME and by 1944 the Conference had developed into a far-reaching organisation whose remit covered almost all aspects of the cultural reconstruction of occupied Europe. It was felt that after the war the example of this body, which was showing the possibilities of international cooperation in cultural and educational matters, should not be forgotten but brought under the auspices of the United Nations. Accordingly in March 1944 plans were advanced for the establishment of a United Nations Organisation for Educational and Cultural Reconstruction. In April 1944 the US State Department accepted the desirability of a 'United Nations Educational and Cultural Organisation' and later that year the UK government also gave its support to the creation of such a body. CAME began drafting plans for its transformation into UNECO and published its draft proposals.

Needham was in China during this period with the Sino-British Science Cooperation Office (see section C). He believed that scientific cooperation should come within the remit of the post-war United Nations and in July 1944 he prepared a 'Memorandum on an international science co-operation service' (D.2). This was circulated by the British Council. In December 1944 Needham sent out a second memorandum to the UK parliamentary and scientific committee on 'Measures for the organisation of international co-operation in science in the post-war period' (D.6). Needham may have been the first to use the abbreviation 'UNESCO', in a manuscript note of February 1945, and his third memorandum (D.12-D.14) on 'The place of science and international scientific co-operation in post-war world organisation', April 1945, publicly advocated the inclusion of the word 'Scientific' in the title of the organisation being planned. In the same month the drafting organisation for the United Nations Organisation for Educational and Cultural Cooperation rejected the inclusion of the word 'Scientific' but renewed pressure, in part through the wide distribution of Needham's third memorandum, and support, particularly from J.G. Crowther and US colleagues, succeeded in keeping the issue open.

In November 1945 the United Nations Educational and Cultural Conference held in London to draft the constitution of the new body agreed to include the word 'Scientific' in its title and to give it responsibilities in international scientific cooperation. A Preparatory Committee was formed and the first session of the UNESCO General Conference met in Paris in November 1946 to establish the Organisation formally. J.S. Huxley was elected its first Director General and Needham was appointed Director of the Natural Sciences Section. He served until April 1948.

Needham gave an account of the work of UNESCO in his Robert Boyle lecture on Science and International Relations, 1 June 1948