On October 26, the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) will reach the 75th anniversary of its foundation with the satisfaction of consolidating itself as the leading entity of cooperation between Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Ibero-American countries.
In greeting to this anniversary, the OEI launched this Tuesday, May 21, a new commemorative image and is making preparations for this celebration that will take place throughout the region under the digital campaign #OEI75Anniversary.
A press release published on the official website of the OEI highlights that Mariano Jabonero Blanco, secretary general of the organization, commented that this anniversary is singularly special, since it reinforces the OEI “as a regional public good for all Ibero-Americans.” ”. Not in vain, currently 23 member states are part of the IEO.
The cable also highlights that the results of cooperation are evident in the existence of more than 650 ongoing projects and more than 400 active cooperation agreements, together with public entities, multilateral banks, universities, civil society organizations, companies. and other international organizations.
The organization has contributed to the drastic reduction of illiteracy in Latin America, with an average of more than 12 million direct beneficiaries in the last 5 years.
The OEI emerged in 1949 as the Ibero-American Education Office with the objective of creating an instrument of multilateral cooperation in the region. Currently it is the Ibero-American organization with the greatest territorial presence and has 19 national offices throughout the region and a headquarters in Madrid (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala , Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Dominican Republic and Uruguay). The last of them, the Cuba office, was inaugurated in 2022, the report highlights.
Since 2016 and in its capacity as regional representative of Latin America and the Caribbean, the OEI has been part of the Global Steering Committee of the Sustainable Development Goals 4-Education 2030 of UNESCO and, in 2023, it was recognized as an observer body of The United Nations.
The program of activities for the 75th anniversary of the OEI will include institutional celebrations and cultural events throughout the region.
Multiplied cooperation
The contribution of the OEI in the educational sector includes the delivery of more than 400 thousand educational resources, while it has trained nearly 40 thousand teachers and served more than 450 thousand students each year on average since 2019.
Likewise, with the dire consequences brought about by the pandemic, the organization has opted to design strategies that aim to protect the education of vulnerable groups such as early childhood, to improve educational quality and to promote governance, teacher development and a more innovative and inclusive education in Ibero-American classrooms.
On June 26, 2023, the OEI delivered a donation of school supplies to the Pepito Tey primary school in the Pinar del Río province, affected by Hurricane Ian.
In the field of science, it has deployed a strategy to promote a shared research space for universities in the region with its ‘Universidad Iberoamérica 2030’ program and has opted for such relevant annual publications as The State of Science. It has also promoted scientific dissemination as a driving force to encourage vocations in this subject, mainly among girls and young people.
Also in the culture sector, the OEI reaches its first three quarters of a century with a consolidated journey in the promotion of an Ibero-American culture cohesive in its diversity, as witnessed by the Ibero-American Cultural Charter, and with an eye toward the challenges that represents digitalization for the cultural and creative industries, with special interest in protecting the intellectual property rights of Ibero-American creators through a Chair created for this purpose.
(With information published on the official site of the OEI)
Related information
Beginnings that inspire: first year of the IEO Office in Cuba in retrospect
