29 October 2004
Director General of Statistics Finland appointed to the Governing Board of UNESCO Institute for Statistics
Heli Jeskanen-Sundström, Director General of Statistics Finland, has been appointed Member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the statistical branch of the United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture, for the 2004 to 2007 term.
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics, which has its headquarters in Montreal, Canada, was established in 1999. Its task is to produce and develop the statistics of UNESCO and its Member States in the fields of education, science and technology, culture and communication. The UIS specialises in international, comparative statistics. The UIS is a central co-operative forum for experts and institutions dealing with statistics within the UNESCO's fields of competence, and it works in partnership with UNESCO Member States, policy makers and researchers in matters relating to statistics and their use.
The Institute's Governing Board consists of twelve international experts, representing users and producers of statistics from different regions and international organisations. The Board meets once a year to define the operational policies and strategic objectives of the UIS.
Besides Heli Jeskanen-Sundstöm, the other current Members invited to the Board by the UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura are Director Grover Whitehurst from the U.S. Department of Education, Vice-President Jean-Louis Sarbib from France, representing the World Bank, Senior Deputy Director-General Masayuki Inoue from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, President Jozef Ritzen of the Universiteit Maastricht in the Netherlands and Michail Skaliotis from Greece, representing Eurostat in Luxembourg. In addition, the Board has six Members elected by the UNESCO General Conference, who currently come from El Salvador, the Czech Republic, Vietnam, Oman, Canada and Tanzania.
Information on UNESCO at: www.unesco.org/
Information on UIS at: www.uis.unesco.org/
Information on Statistics Finland at: http://www.stat.fi
Further details from: Riitta Tolonen, Secretary to
the Director General, tel.: +358 9 1734 2565,
fax +358 9 1734 2442, riitta.tolonen@tilastokeskus.fi