The Asia/Pacific Cultural Center for UNESCO (ACCU) is a non-profit organization for Asia and the Pacific regional activities in line with the principles of UNESCO, working for the promotion of mutual understanding and cultural cooperation among peoples in the region.
ACCU was established in April 1971 in Tokyo through joint efforts of both public and private sectors in Japan. ACCU has since been implementing various regional cooperative programmers in the fields of culture, education and personnel exchange in close collaboration with UNESCO and its Member States in Asia and the Pacific.
The ASEAN-EU University Network Programme (AUNP) is a higher education co-operation programme, jointly financed and implemented by the ASEAN University Network (AUN) and the European Commission (EC). It launched in January 2000 as a six-year programme, through the signature of a Financing Agreement on 20th January 2000 by the European Community and the AUN. The AUNP aims at enhancing co-operation between higher education institutions in the two regions, to promote regional integration within ASEAN countries, and to strengthen the mutual awareness of European and Asian cultural perspectives.
The International Association of Universities (IAU), founded in 1950, is the UNESCO-based worldwide association of universities. It brings together institutions and organisations from some 150 countries for reflection and action on common concerns and collaborates with various international, regional and national bodies active in higher education. The Association aims at giving expression to the obligation of universities as social institutions to promote, through teaching and research, the principles of freedom and justice, of human dignity and solidarity, and contributes, through international cooperation, to the development of material and moral assistance for the strengthening of higher education generally.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Twenty countries originally signed the Convention on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on 14 December 1960. Since then a further ten countries have become members of the Organization.
Now it groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. With active relationships with some 70 other countries, NGOs and civil society, it has a global reach. Best known for its publications and its statistics, its work covers economic and social issues from macroeconomics, to trade, education, development and science and innovation.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded on 16 November 1945. The Preamble to the Constitution of UNESCO declares that 'since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed'. The Organization plays a leading role in the worldwide reflection on higher education reform and assist with a range of issues in higher education: academic mobility, international exchanges of excellence, research on education systems and knowledge production, curriculum innovation, leadership roles for women educators, teacher development, and the defense of quality in higher education qualifications.
