Through this Fund, the cooperation between Malaysia and UNESCO is strengthened through mobilization of Malaysian expertise and services of Malaysian institutions, including the existing Category 2 Centres (C2C) and South-South Cooperation (SSC).
Under the guidance of UNESCO, Malaysia also established synergistic cooperation with experts, particularly from countries of the Asia and the Pacific region as well as from Africa, with emphasis on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
The MUCP would serve the common interest of Malaysia, UNESCO and participating Member States as well as empowering the enhancement of South-South Cooperation in education, engineering, technology, human sciences, culture, communications and information.
The implementation of the projects under MUCP will contribute to the attainment of internationally agreed development goals including the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as well as Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which will build upon the MDGs and converge with the post 2015 development agenda.
Fundamentally, MUCP greatly supports the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17: Partnership for the Goals, and through its projects, supports SDG 3,4,5,6,8,9,11,12,13,14, 15 and 16.
The projects should strengthen UNESCO’s:
- Medium Term Strategy C/4; and
- Approved Programme and Budget C/5
Besides the above, the projects may also have direct contribution to the following:
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC);
- Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
Signing Ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding under the “Malaysia UNESCO Cooperation Programme”
Paris, 15 November 2011 – The Government of Malaysia and the United Nations for Education, Sciences and Culture Organization (UNESCO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today under the Malaysia UNESCO Cooperation Programme (MUCP). The MOU under MUCP was signed by H.E. Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Zainal, Ambassador of Malaysia to France, on behalf of the Government of Malaysia and Mrs. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. The signing took place at the Headquarters of UNESCO, Paris, France.
The MOU under MUCP was initiated in 2009 to establish the Malaysian Cooperative Trust Fund which will be contributed to “enhance South-South cooperation for capacity building in education and science for the benefit of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Asia and the Pacific and in support of the Priority Africa agenda of UNESCO.”
“This Memorandum of Understanding covers all our areas of competence and supports South-South cooperation in the Asia-Pacific that is so important today. It is a show of solidarity,” said Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova. She stated that Malaysia is a “vibrant country that has found ways of using its rich diversity for the benefit of development.”
Affirming that “the world needs UNESCO,” H.E. Ambassador Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Zainal expressed hope that the Memorandum “will help UNESCO to carry out its mandate and to be the conscience of mankind through promoting peace, in the spirit of the preamble of its Constitution.”
