Executive Board 200 EX/5 Two hundredth session Part I PARIS, 29 August 2016 Original: English Item 5 of the provisional agenda FOLLOW-UP TO DECISIONS AND RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE EXECUTIVE BOARD AND THE GENERAL CONFERENCE AT THEIR PREVIOUS SESSIONS PART I PROGRAMME ISSUES SUMMARY This report is intended to inform the Members of the Executive Board of the progress achieved in the follow-up to the decisions and resolutions adopted by the Executive Board and the General Conference at their previous sessions. Part I contains information on the following Programme issues: A. Report on preliminary progress by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics on disaggregated level of data for development indicators related to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) B. Progress report on the implementation of the MAB Strategy for 2015-2025 and the associated Lima Action Plan for UNESCO’S Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme and its World Network of Biosphere Reserves 2016-2025 C. Proposal for an updated UNESCO Strategy for Action on Climate Change D. Progress report on the promotion of the Revised International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport, and on the monitoring of its implementation E. Cultural and educational institutions in Iraq F. Report on the Implementation of the Strategy for the reinforcement of UNESCO’s action for the protection of culture and the promotion of cultural pluralism in the event of armed conflict G. Consolidated report and proposed strategy and action plan to protect and strengthen brand recognition of biosphere reserves, world heritage properties, and proposed UNESCO Global Geoparks H. Follow-up of the situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine) Executive Board 200 EX/5 Two hundredth session Part I (A) PARIS, 29 August 2016 Original: English Item 5 of the provisional agenda FOLLOW-UP TO DECISIONS AND RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE EXECUTIVE BOARD AND THE GENERAL CONFERENCE AT THEIR PREVIOUS SESSIONS PART I PROGRAMME ISSUES SUMMARY A. Report on preliminary progress by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics on disaggregated level of data for development indicators related to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) As per 197 EX/Decision 5 (I, D), the Director-General requested the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to apply to its field data for UNESCO development programmes a disaggregated level of data for development indicators relating to Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The aim is to facilitate better understanding of the impact of the categorization of SIDS as developed and developing, and high, middle and low income, and to more adequately reflect the specificities of SIDS, taking account of the islands’ vulnerabilities linked to limitations of size and resources, economies of scale, indebtedness, external economic shocks and natural hazard occurrences. This document is a preliminary progress report, as requested by the decision. In addition, an Information document (200 EX/5.INF) has been prepared as an Annex to this document, which presents data from the UIS database for the combined group of SIDS, and where this is not possible for SIDS individually, aims to situate the SIDS in the global picture and identifying some of the vulnerabilities, problems and needs of SIDS in relation to the rest of the world. Action expected of the Executive Board: Proposed decision in paragraph 16. 200 EX/5 Part I (A) A. Report on preliminary progress by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics on disaggregated level of data for development indicators related to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) (Follow-up to 197 EX/Decision 5 (I, D)) INTRODUCTION 1. The Executive Board, at its 197th session, examined the draft Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Action Plan and took its decision 197 EX/Decision 5 (I, D) which included the following paragraph: 2. “12. Further requests the Director-General to direct the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to apply to its field data for UNESCO development programmes a disaggregated level of data for development indicators relating to small island developing States (SIDS), in order to facilitate better understanding of the impact of the categorizations of SIDS as developed and developing, and high, middle and low income, and to more adequately reflect the specificities of SIDS, taking account of the islands’ vulnerabilities linked to limitations of size and resources, economies of scale, indebtedness, external economic shocks and natural hazard occurrences, and to submit a preliminary progress report to it at its 200th session.” 3. A preliminary proposal of this document was submitted to the SIDS Group of Permanent Representatives on 16 March 2016, by the UIS. Member States comments were taken into account and it is now proposed to create a regional total for SIDS for all data and indicators in the UIS database, i.e. in the fields of education, the sciences, culture and communication. Regional averages will be calculated when data availability will allow it. There will be no further disaggregation of SIDS into sub-groups, e.g. by income level. At the 199th session of the Executive Board in April 2016, Member States approved the finalized SIDS Action Plan and recalled that the UIS progress report should be submitted at the 200th session. This document reports on the progress achieved. Progress 4. The UNESCO list of SIDS currently contains 39 UNESCO Member States and eight Associate Members (see http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/priority-areas/sids/about- unesco-and-sids/sids-list/). The UIS is able to present indicators both at the country level and, where sufficient data are available, aggregates for SIDS as a whole. 5. The information document (200 EX/5.INF), which is an Annex to this document, presents data from the UIS database for the combined group of SIDS, and where this is not possible for SIDS individually, aims to situate the SIDS in the global picture, identifying some of the vulnerabilities, problems and needs of SIDS in relation to the rest of the world. It draws the following conclusions:1 6. Data from the UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) show that the SIDS as a group had the same score as the developing countries in the medium human development range, but ranked higher than sub-Saharan Africa and the least developed countries (LDCs) both in the low human development range. 7. In 2014, 84% of the adult population in the SIDS were literate, close to the global adult literacy rate of 85%. This compares favourably with the LDCs and land-locked developing countries (LLDCs), where far fewer adults have basic literacy skills. Among youth 15-24 years in the SIDS, 88% had basic literacy skills in 2014, close to the global youth literacy rate of 91%, and far higher than the youth literacy rates in LDCs (73%) and LLDCs (72%). The SIDS have reached 1 This is a shortened version of the conclusions. An elaborated version can be found in the information document (200 EX/5.INF). 200 EX/5 Part I (A) – page 2 gender parity in the adult and youth literacy rates, performing better than the world on average. By contrast, the LDCs and LLDCs are far from having achieved gender parity, especially in adult literacy. 8. Enrolment rates in SIDS are among the highest of the developing regions. However, universal primary education is far from being achieved, with nearly one in every six children of primary school age in the region is out-of-school and a further 390,000 adolescents of lower secondary age are also out-of-school. At the tertiary level, the gross enrolment ratio in SIDS was about 10 percentage points less than the world total. This can partly be explained by the fact that some go abroad to study because very small countries often do not have tertiary education of their own. Nevertheless, this group is performing better than sub-Saharan Africa, LDCs and LLDCs. 9. Gender disparities are relatively small in the SIDS, except in tertiary education, where there are disparities favouring women. This may, however, be an indication that relatively more men than women go abroad for their tertiary education resulting in higher participation rates among women in their home countries. 10. In 2014, the pupil-teacher ratio was about 22 pupils per teacher in primary education and about 16 pupils per teacher in secondary education. Over the last decade, the percentage of trained teachers in SIDS has been decreasing in all levels of education. The percentage of trained teachers in primary education in SIDS (73%) is lower than in the LDCs (78%) or LLDCs (84%). 11. The Education 2030 Framework for Action recommends that countries should aim to allocate at least 15-20% of public spending to education representing approximately 5-7% of GDP. In SIDS with available data, only about one-third of countries are in the range of 15-20% for expenditure on education and an equal number of countries report public spending on education relative to GDP in the range 5-7%. In most cases, these are the same countries. 12. Science, technology and innovation are going to be increasingly important for the SIDS to resolve the many problems they face. Still, these countries are investing very little in Research and Development (R&D). Singapore is the exception, investing more than the global average, but the other SIDS for which data are available invest far less in R&D than the developing country target of 1% of GDP, and are also mostly below the averages for LDCs (0.24%) and LLDCs (0.28%). The rankings of the SIDS on the Global Innovation Index confirm this picture. 13. Except for Singapore, SIDS are also playing a marginal role in international trade of cultural goods. In many instances, the SIDS are lacking the capacity and opportunities to access the international market.