UNESCO Programming and Budgeting Need Greater U.S. Attention

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is one of the fastest growing United Nations (U.N.) agencies. Although the budget resources allocated to individual program objectives are in line with specific plan targets projecting an overall 6-percent biennial growth rate, additional offsets for inflation, currency depreciation, increased administrative costs and other nonprogram expenditures have combined to produce a much higher rate of budget growth. The approved budget for 1979-80 represents a 35 percent increase over the prior biennium and more than a threefold rise since 1971-72. As with other U.N. agencies, one consequence of the rise in the budget has been the proportionate increase in the cost of U.S. participation in these international organizations.