Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO About the Institution
Une institution de développement multidimensionnelle et multisectorielle
Established in 2009 within the provisions of UNESCO, as authorised by the 13th Session of the General Conference, Paris, 1964, and constituted through the National Commission for UNESCO, Nigeria, UNESCO REF advances the United Nations Global Goals across education, science, culture and human resource development, from the community to the continent.
BriefFor the first-time visitor
L’UNESCO REF en une minute
An autonomous development institution constituted within the provisions of UNESCO, seated in Abuja and working across the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
We turn the frameworks of the United Nations and UNESCO into national programmes in education, science, culture, enterprise and human resource development, led by our flagship, SIP-ALPHA.
We hold that reading and learning are not merely acts of study but foundations on which a life and a livelihood are built: knowledge that earns, and citizens who contribute.
Through NEPAD_EY, our continental platform, the VOICE Initiative and The August Project open to the nations of Africa from 2027, funded through the Educational Financial Facility Scheme.
Before you read further
L’avis institutionnel
The framework within which UNESCO REF operates, and the standing of its publications, set out plainly.
Read the disclaimerThe MuseumCulture, tradition et patrimoine
Our open scholarly museum of Nigeria: six regional studies, the Refclopedia and a music archive of 179 musicians.
Enter the museumThe Culinary ArchiveSaveurs et voix
A food museum for the diplomatic world: one hundred documented recipes and the heritage of the African table.
Explore the archiveArticle IInstitutional identity
Une institution constituée dans le cadre des dispositions de l’UNESCO
The Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO (UNESCO REF) is a multidimensional and multisectoral development institution, established in 2009 within the provisions of UNESCO, as authorised by the 13th Session of the UNESCO General Conference, Paris, 1964, and constituted through the National Commission for UNESCO, Nigeria, and its institutional standing derives from the international normative framework of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Its mandate spans education, science, culture and human resource development. It is carried at national scale through eleven technical departments, each led by a Director reporting to the Presidency, and through a structured federation of schools, community networks and State representatives across the Federation.
UNESCO REF exercises full legal and financial autonomy. This independence is constitutive rather than incidental: it secures integrity of purpose, consistency of strategy and the long-term continuity required to act credibly where international mandate meets national delivery. From its establishment the institution advanced the Millennium Development Goals; since 2015 it has advanced the Sustainable Development Goals, without interruption of purpose.
UNESCO REF operates within the framework of UNESCO, constituted through the National Commission for UNESCO, Nigeria. Its publications represent the position of UNESCO REF alone, and not that of any sister agency or parental body. The full statement is set out in the Institutional Disclaimer.
UNESCO REF is
UNESCO REF is not
Article IIVision, mission and goals
Vision, mission et objectifs
01Vision
A world in which reading is not merely an academic exercise but a recognised and rewarding career pathway, one that generates knowledge, drives economic participation, and positions every citizen as an active contributor to the United Nations Global Goals.
02Mission
To advance the mandate of the United Nations and UNESCO through rigorous, inclusive, globally relevant programmes, including our flagship programme, SIP-ALPHA, cultivating the competencies of citizens across education, science, culture and human resource development, in full alignment with the United Nations Global Goals.
03Short-term goal
To make reading a career, giving people everywhere the real opportunity to earn a living through reading, writing, knowledge sharing and learning, where picking up a book is not merely an act of education but the beginning of a livelihood and a contribution to national development.
04Long-term goal
A future where any person, regardless of origin, income or language, can build a life through reading and knowledge. Learning is not merely something one does in school. It is something one does for a living, contributing in the process to a better world for everyone.
Not just an act of studying, but something you build a life with.
Principles of the Presidency
Article IIIChronology
Deux agendas de développement, un même dessein
An institution that carries its mandate intact across two generations of United Nations development agendas shows something no single programme evaluation can show: that it exists for a purpose rather than for a project. The record below sets out that continuity.
189 Member States adopt the Declaration in New York; eight Millennium Development Goals follow.
Constituted in Abuja through the National Commission for UNESCO to advance the MDGs at national scale.
Resolution 70/1 adopts 17 Goals and 169 targets; the African Union adopts Agenda 2063.
UNESCO REF carries its purpose from the MDGs to the SDGs without structural disruption.
The memorandum of understanding for the programme is concluded in Abuja.
The flagship is established: fifteen integrated pillars aligned with all seventeen Goals and Agenda 2063.
Launch of the national initiative to engage 12 million young women in agriculture.
The first UNESCO REF Nigeria Police Youths Summit, Abuja, 12 August 2024, International Youth Day.
Flag-off of the YWA mobilisation campaign on 4 March 2025, and the hydroponics training pilot.
The Educational Financial Facility Scheme is commissioned on 18 February 2026; the Institutional Papers are published.
Through NEPAD_EY, the VOICE Initiative and The August Project open to the nations of Africa.
The end date of the 2030 Agenda, and the threshold of the agenda that will follow it.
UNESCO REF United Nations and African Union Forthcoming
Article IVThe global mandate
Du Millénaire au Durable
On 8 September 2000, 189 Member States of the United Nations adopted the Millennium Declaration, from which eight time-bound Goals were derived for reducing extreme poverty, advancing education, promoting gender equality and improving health by 2015. Every UNESCO REF programme between 2009 and 2015 was designed and evaluated against that framework.
On 25 September 2015, all 193 Member States adopted Resolution 70/1, “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, establishing 17 Goals and 169 targets. The new agenda is universal, integrated and indivisible, and it places the burden of integration on national institutions. UNESCO REF answered with SIP-ALPHA: fifteen interconnected pillars designed to address all seventeen Goals across the States of the Federation.
Sources: United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 55/2 (2000) and 70/1 (2015); The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015.
What the Millennium agenda achieved Selected outcomes, United Nations, 2015
| MDGs 2000 to 2015 | SDGs 2015 to 2030 | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | 8 goals, 21 targets | 17 goals, 169 targets |
| Reach | Developing countries | Universal |
| Logic | Sectoral targets | Integrated and indivisible |
| Education | Primary enrolment | Quality and lifelong learning |
| Principle | Average progress | Leave no one behind |
Les dix-sept objectifs de développement durable
Highlighted Goals are those on which UNESCO REF programmes are principally concentrated. SIP-ALPHA addresses all seventeen.
African Union · Agenda 2063
L’Afrique que nous voulons
Adopted by the African Union in 2015, Agenda 2063 sets out the continent’s long-range vision through seven aspirations. Its emphasis on human capital, on women and on youth aligns closely with the first transformation of the 2030 Agenda, and with the concentration of UNESCO REF’s programmes.
Article VThe case in figures
Pourquoi une telle institution est nécessaire aujourd’hui
People in Nigeria, 2024
UN World Population Prospects 2024Africans in 2024, about 2.5 billion by 2050
UN World Population Prospects 2024Median age in Africa, in years, against about 31 worldwide
UN World Population Prospects 2024Of the world’s under-25s who live in Africa, 2026
UN World Population Prospects 2024Learning poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa
World Bank and partners, 2022Young people in Sub-Saharan Africa without secure work
ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024Income gain from each additional year of schooling, 14.5% for women
World Bank, Africa’s Pulse, October 2024Of assessed SDG targets on track worldwide
UN, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024L’arithmétique du marché du travail des jeunes
Each year between ten and twelve million young Africans enter the labour market, while about three million formal jobs are created. The difference is not a shortage of talent. It is a shortage of pathways from learning to livelihood, which is precisely the gap UNESCO REF was founded to close.
Sources: African Development Bank; World Bank.
Article VIInstitutional architecture
Une présidence, onze départements, une fédération nationale
Eleven technical departments, each led by a Director reporting to the Presidency
Each department carries its own programme architecture, implementation partnerships and accountability framework, structured to deliver against specific SDG targets and Agenda 2063 milestones. Oversight rests with Non-Executive Directors; direction rests with the Presidency.
The eleven networks in fullArticle VIIProgramme portfolio
Les instruments du mandat
Flagship · Est. 2022
Le programme phare
Fifteen integrated pillars designed to advance all seventeen Goals across the Federation, with outcomes reportable against national and United Nations frameworks. Where every UNESCO REF programme originates.
Continental platform
New Partnership Development for Education and Youths: the platform of synchronisation through which UNESCO REF programmes open to the nations of Africa from 2027.
Special initiative · SDG 10
AI innovation and digital enterprise, structured for reduced inequalities and the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the digital economy.
Special initiative · SDG 4, 8
A dual-country youth capacity programme operating in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, advancing quality education and decent work through structured competency development.
Special initiative · SDG 2, 5, 8
The national initiative to engage twelve million young women in agriculture, joining food security to gender equality and enterprise.
Financing instrument · SDG 4
The mechanism through which UNESCO REF mobilises sponsors and negotiates scholarships, including an 86 per cent tuition scholarship for online study, in complement to the Federal Government’s NELFUND.
The portfolio above is presented among other programmes of UNESCO REF.
Article VIIICulture and heritage
Le patrimoine vivant du Nigeria, documenté et partagé
Culture is one of the pillars of UNESCO’s mandate and of ours. UNESCO REF keeps two open scholarly collections that hold the knowledge of elders, custodians and ancestors in living conversation with the young people who must carry it forward.
The Museum
Culture, tradition et patrimoine
A free scholarly museum of Nigerian culture: royal institutions, festivals, music and policy papers.
Enter the museumThe Culinary Archive
Saveurs et voix
A food museum for the diplomatic world: Nigerian and African recipes, a heritage pantry, and food as heritage, diplomacy and economy.
Explore the archiveArticle IXCooperation
Travailler ensemble pour un objectif commun
Goal 17Partnerships for the Goals: the means of implementation for the other sixteen.
International development is an ecosystem of complementary mandates, layered resources and coordinated capacities, in which the effectiveness of any one actor depends on the coherence of the whole. UNESCO REF was constituted to work within that ecosystem: aligning interests, mobilising complementary capacities and coordinating action across sectors, levels of government and national boundaries, toward objectives no single institution could reach alone.
Constituencies of cooperation
Strategic Advisory and Global Diplomatic Implementation Partner
Chartered by UNESCO REF as the Strategic Advisory and Global Diplomatic Implementation Partner of SIP-ALPHA, The Lichfield leads the programme’s implementation through strategic advice and international diplomacy, engaging government bodies, multilateral organisations and development partners in the shared service of the United Nations Global Goals.
Article XThe institutional framework
Le cadre institutionnel
UNESCO REF acts within an institutional framework that runs from the General Conference of UNESCO in Paris, through Nigeria’s Permanent Delegation and its National Commission for UNESCO, to Abuja. The holders of these offices are presented in their official capacities; the direction of UNESCO REF rests with its President.
Director-General, UNESCO
Elected November 2025
An Egyptologist and Professor of Egyptology at Helwan University, Prof. El-Enany served as Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities and then Minister of Tourism and Antiquities from 2016 to 2022. Elected by the 43rd General Conference with 172 of 174 votes, he is the first Director-General from an Arab country and the second from Africa.
Full biography
Ambassador and Permanent Delegate
Permanent Delegate of Nigeria to UNESCO, Paris
A former school principal, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Women Affairs, Dr. Sani was appointed Nigeria’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO in 2021. In April 2026 she presided, for Nigeria as Chair, over the Programme and External Relations Commission of the UNESCO Executive Board.
Full biography
Secretary General
National Commission for UNESCO, Nigeria
Dr. Olagunju leads the apex governmental body that coordinates Nigeria’s obligations and commitments within UNESCO. The National Commission is the primary interface between the Federal Government and the Organization, and the body through which UNESCO REF was constituted.
Full biography
President, UNESCO REF
UK-LS.FABE · Sonic Foundry Legacy Award
A scientist, statesman and Long Standing Fellow of the UK Association of Business Executives, Prince Abdulsalami Ladigbolu-Oranmiyan directs UNESCO REF and its flagship, SIP-ALPHA. A recipient of the Sonic Foundry Legacy Award of the United States, he anchors his leadership in three principles: Bravery, Loyalty and Truth.
Full biographyHow to read this line. The Director-General, the Permanent Delegate and the Secretary General are presented in their official capacities, as holders of the offices through which UNESCO REF’s mandate is constituted and within which it acts. Their inclusion describes the institutional framework of UNESCO REF; the direction of the institution itself rests with its President.
The full leadership pageArticle XIInstitutional papers
Les thèses de l’institution
Two scholarly papers set out the reasoning behind UNESCO REF: that an institution built for a purpose, rather than a project cycle, carries its mandate across generations of the United Nations agenda; and that the Sustainable Development Goals demand institutions able to work across an indivisible agenda.
Paper No. 1Conceptual and historical paper · 2026
Du Millénaire au Durable
Institutional continuity across two United Nations development agendas: the MDGs and their critique, the design of the SDGs, how institutions survive transitions through layering and conversion, and the case of UNESCO REF.
Read the paperPaper No. 2Conceptual paper · 2026
Au-delà des OMD
Integration, indivisibility and the national development institution: governance through goals, SDG interlinkages, the six transformations, localisation, national reporting, Agenda 2063, and SIP-ALPHA as an integrated response.
Read the paperInstitutional notice
L’avis institutionnel
UNESCO REF operates within the framework of UNESCO, constituted through the National Commission for UNESCO, Nigeria. Its publications, statements and programmes represent the position of UNESCO REF alone, and not that of any sister agency or parental body. Every reader, partner and delegation is respectfully invited to read the full notice before citing this institution.
Read the Institutional DisclaimerQuestionsFrequently asked
Questions fréquentes
Neither. UNESCO REF is an autonomous multidimensional and multisectoral development institution constituted within the provisions of UNESCO, through the National Commission for UNESCO, Nigeria, as authorised by the 13th Session of the UNESCO General Conference, Paris, 1964. It operates with full legal and financial autonomy.
UNESCO REF was established in 2009 in Abuja, constituted through the National Commission for UNESCO, Nigeria, within the provisions of UNESCO, under the normative authority vested in National Commissions by the 13th Session of the UNESCO General Conference, Paris, 1964.
UNESCO REF operates within the framework of UNESCO, constituted through the National Commission for UNESCO, Nigeria. Its publications represent the position of UNESCO REF alone, and not that of any sister agency or parental body. The full statement is in the Institutional Disclaimer.
The flagship is SIP-ALPHA, fifteen integrated pillars aligned with all seventeen SDGs and Agenda 2063. The portfolio also includes NEPAD_EY, the VOICE Initiative, The August Project, Young Women in Agriculture and the Educational Financial Facility Scheme, among other programmes.
UNESCO REF was constituted to advance the Millennium Development Goals (2000 to 2015) and, since 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (2015 to 2030). SIP-ALPHA is designed to address all seventeen Goals through fifteen integrated pillars, with outcomes reportable against national and United Nations frameworks.
UNESCO REF is seated in Abuja and works across the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Through NEPAD_EY its programmes open to the nations of Africa from 2027, and The August Project operates in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
Governments, multilateral and bilateral partners, academic institutions and the private sector may write to the Presidency at [email protected], or consult the Institutional Partnerships page.
UNESCO REF
Là où le mandat des Nations Unies rencontre l’action de développement sur le terrain