Visiting UNESCO’s Director General Irina Bokova, met with cabinet ministers and representatives of UN agencies in two separate meetings on September 16, 2014 in Yaounde.

“Who says thank you asks for more,” summarised the expression of the Cameroonian people to visiting Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Mrs. Irina Bokova yesterday morning in Yaounde.

During a meeting with members of government whose ministries are concerned with UNESCO’s domains of activity in Cameroon, Basic Education Minister and President of the National Commission for UNESCO, Youssouf Hadidja Alim, named several areas in which Cameroon has been benefitting from the UN agency’s support, especially since Irina Bokova took over the helm in 2009.

Key amongst such benefits featured UNESCO’s technical and financial support in the implementation of projects in basic and secondary education like the fight against illiteracy, sensitisation of school-goers on HIV/AIDS as well as pedagogic training courses for teachers. In other areas, UNESCO has offered support for university governance, training of actors in the culture sector, preservation of the biodiversity and cultural diversity as well as the setting up of community radios. “Cameroonians appreciate this multifarious support which contributes to our country’s strive for emergence by 2035,” Youssouf Hadidja Alim reiterated.

Earlier in the morning, Mrs. Irina Bokova held a working session with country representatives of UN agencies in Cameroon. The UNESCO boss used the opportunity to name several priorities in education, health, communication as well as social and natural sciences. Irina Bokova emphasised that more attention needed to be focused on the quality of education which remains a major challenge.