UNESCO. Office of the Director-General

Identity area

Type of entity

Corporate body

Authorized form of name

UNESCO. Office of the Director-General

Parallel form(s) of name

  • UNESCO. Cabinet du Directeur général

Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

Other form(s) of name

  • ODG
  • CAB

Identifiers for corporate bodies

Description area

Dates of existence

History

As an organizational unit of UNESCO, the Office of the Director-General has in certain periods been considered to include the Director-General, the Deputy-Director General, the Executive Office and any services that report directly to the Director-General as opposed to an Assistant-Director General in charge of a sector. However, based on the status described in the Constitution, the Director-General is not a staff member of UNESCO, and so cannot be considered a part of any organizational unit. The Deputy Director-General, while periodically considered to be included in the Office of the Director-General, has also existed structurally within a separate Office of the Deputy Director-General. The idea of a Directorate has existed since 1959 when it was the unit within ODG which included the Executive Officer, Executive Secretary and other staff supporting the activities of the Director-General. This incarnation of the Directorate was renamed the Executive Office of the Director-General in 1962. The term Directorate, or ‘la Direction Générale,’ was then reintroduced in 1975 to describe the grouping of the Director-General, Deputy-Director General, as well as any special advisers and personal support staff. In 1982, the concept of the Directorate was expanded to include the Assistant Director-Generals and supporting staff were grouped into a unit called the Secretariat of the Director-General. By 1985, the term Directorate was used to refer to the Director-General, Deputy Director-General, their support staff, and the Executive Office of the Director-General and the units attached to the Executive Office. The Directorate (DRG) was most distinctly separate from the ODG in the period 1990-1999. During this period, the ODG referred to a smaller office supporting the Director-General. The Directorate was the larger body encompassing the units attached to two Deputy Director-Generals (for Programme and Management) from 1990 to 1993. The Directorate was overseen by an Assistant Director-General (ADG) beginning in 1994 and some of the services that formerly reported directly to the Director-General, then reported to the ADG/DRG. In 1999, the post of ADG/DRG was eliminated and the services attached to the Director-General were moved to appropriate programme sectors or central services.

The Executive Office of the Director-General (ODG), or ‘le Cabinet’ (CAB) in French, continues now to support the Director-General and the Deputy Director-General in the execution of their duties and to coordinate the central services of the Organization which report directly to the Director-General. ODG is led by an Executive Director.

ODG has had the following heads: Director René Maheu 1949-1953; Director Mahdi Elmandjra 1963-1965; Director Manuel Jimenez 1966-1969; Director Gérard Bolla 1969-1971; Director Pierre Henri Coeytaux 1972-1974; Director José Blat Gimeno 1975-1976?; Acting Director Chikh Bekri 1976; Director Chikh Bekri 1976-1986; Assistant Director-General Ernesto Melo Antunes 1986-1987; Director Luis Marques 1989- 1991; Director Georges Malempré 1992-1994, Assistant Director-General for Directorate and Director CAB Daniel Janicot 1994; Director Solomon Hailu 1995-1996; Director Georges Malempré 1997-1999; Executive Director/Assistant Director-General Françoise Rivière 2000-2006; Executive Director Elizabeth Longworth 2006-2009; and, Executive Director Ryuhei Hosoya 2010-.

Places

Legal status

Functions, occupations and activities

-support of the Director-General and the Deputy Director-General

Mandates/sources of authority

Internal structures/genealogy

General context

Relationships area

Related entity

UNESCO. Office of Public Information (1948 -)

Identifier of related entity

Category of relationship

hierarchical

Dates of relationship

1990 - ?

Description of relationship

Related entity

Elmandjra, Mahdi (1933-03-13 - 2014-06-13)

Identifier of related entity

Category of relationship

associative

Dates of relationship

1963-1966

Description of relationship

Elmandjra was Director of the Executive Office of the Office of the Director-General.

Related entity

Maheu, René (1905-1975)

Identifier of related entity

Category of relationship

associative

Dates of relationship

1949-1953

Description of relationship

Director of ODG

Related entity

Department of Mass Communication (1945-1974)

Identifier of related entity

Category of relationship

hierarchical

Type of relationship

Department of Mass Communication

is the subordinate of

UNESCO. Office of the Director-General

Dates of relationship

1945 - 1967

Description of relationship

Related entity

General History of Africa (1964-)

Identifier of related entity

Category of relationship

hierarchical

Type of relationship

General History of Africa

is controlled by

UNESCO. Office of the Director-General

Dates of relationship

1964-

Description of relationship

Related entity

UNESCO. Division of Relations with International Organizations (1953-01-01 - 1967)

Identifier of related entity

Category of relationship

hierarchical

Type of relationship

UNESCO. Division of Relations with International Organizations

is controlled by

UNESCO. Office of the Director-General

Dates of relationship

1957-02-04 - 1964-09-30

Description of relationship

Related entity

UNESCO. Bureau of Official and External Relations (1953-01-01 - 1957-02-03)

Identifier of related entity

Category of relationship

hierarchical

Type of relationship

UNESCO. Bureau of Official and External Relations

is controlled by

UNESCO. Office of the Director-General

Dates of relationship

1954 - 1957-02-03

Description of relationship

Access points area

Subject access points

Place access points

Occupations

Control area

Authority record identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Created by AWT 13/09/2011. Revised to include further information on Directorate (DRG) for period 1990 to 1993, AWT, 11-8-2015.

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

-Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (1945). London. Accessed online 06/09/2011: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=15244&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
-UNESCO. (1946-2007). Staff Lists. UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 6: Secretariat Documents.
-UNESCO. (1949-1951). Chapter 1000. Issue No. 53. 10.ii.50. Organization and Line of Responsibility. In: UNESCO Manual. UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 6: Secretariat Documents.
-UNESCO. General Conference, 34th Session. (2007). Approved programme and budget, 2008-2009. 34 C/5. (Paris). UNESDOC database, accessed 06/09/2011: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001586/158606e.pdf
-UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 14: Publications, documents and records on UNESCO, Biographical Files. Georges Malempré.
-UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 14: Publications, documents and records on UNESCO, Biographical Files. Gérard Bolla.
-Valderrama Martínez, Fernando. (1995). A History of UNESCO. UNESCO, Paris. UNESDOC database, accessed 06/09/2011: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001017/101722e.pdf#xml=http://www.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?database=&set=4DF0D54D_3_117&hits_rec=23&hits_lng=eng
-Zyss, Witold (ed). (2000). René Maheu, Director-General of UNESCO, 1961-1974: recollections by his staff; tribute for the 25th anniversary of his death. AFUS, Paris.

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