Director’s New Year Speech

In March this year UNESCO-IHE will complete 5-years as a UN Institute. Reflecting on that milestone, Professor Meganck highlighted the honour of working for an institution like UNESCO-IHE: “I hear it all the time, ‘there is no other equivalent institution in the world.’ Yes, there may be larger institutions; there may be academic laboratories that turn out Nobel Prize laureates. There may be colleges or universities that win more research grants. All that is true. But there are few places in the world where one can choose to study such a breadth of water related disciplines in a development context”.

The year 2007, the 50th anniversary of UNESCO-IHE, will remain in the Institute’s memories as “celebratory,” “challenging,” and “productive.” The current year will focus on pursuing and implementing the Global Partnership for Water Education and Research, a vision where the role of UNESCO-IHE as the hub of an extensive network of academic and research institutions is enhanced.

Elaborating on the tasks ahead, Meganck affirmed that “these changes represent not only the level of confidence in our abilities to deliver, but also the fact that we are very knowledgeable as to what the developing world is demanding of us. Priority will be given however to ideas that can kill two birds with one stone – address both a technical issue as well as further our integration into UNESCO, help support a specific need in a region but also achieve greater academic flexibility”.

The Institute will continue to increase efforts to respond to the ever increasing demand for the Institute’s services.