Catalogue description Ministry of Education: External Relations Branch and UNESCO Branch: Registered Files (UN Series)

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is composed of the General Conference, consisting of representatives of member states, the Executive Board of fifty five members to supervise the execution of approved programmes and the Secretariat, responsible for the day to day business and implementation of programmes. It has one hundred and fifty five member states and one Associate Member (the British Eastern Caribbean Group) and has its headquarters in Paris.

An Inter-departmental Committee was set up in 1946 to organise a United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO with an original membership drawn from the Ministry of Education and other departments with overseas, educational and scientific interests.

The National Commission for the United Kingdom had powers to appoint delegates to conferences and committees, to advise home government on policy and to publicise the work of UNESCO. It comprised the National Committee known as the UK Committee and the National Co-operating Bodies jointly. They shared a Joint Secretariat and were officially equal partners, but the Committee had oversight of the individual bodies because it was concerned primarily with policy and administration.

There were originally nine National Co-operating Bodies (NCBs). They were for education, mass communications, natural sciences, social sciences, libraries, museums, arts and letters, philosophy and humanities, and architecture and planning. A further three were later created for youth, rehabilitation and comparative law. They had direct access to the minister and UNESCO headquarters and were also involved in the selection of delegates to conferences and committees.

The UK Committee was set up in 1947 as "a working body intended to keep the activities of the NCBs under review and to maintain and develop UNESCO policy in the U.K. between Conferences". It provided advice to the Minister of Education on general policy and funding of UNESCO, administration and staffing, but not in the specialist fields dealt with by the NCBs.