Friday, November 14, 2008 was an important day for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Republic of Cameroon.

The date entered into the annals of history as the erstwhile Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koichiro Matsuura, designated Mrs Chantal Biya, First Lady of Cameroon, as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education and Social Inclusion, in a ceremony that took place at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.

UNESCO recognised and thanked Mrs Biya for her long-standing engagement in the struggle against social exclusion, her leadership and work with African First Ladies, her association with the Families First Africa Project and the foundation that bears her name, Chantal Biya’s Foundation, in Yaounde.

As Koichiro Matsuura pointed out, through Mrs Biya’s designation, UNESCO wishes “to underline the fact that (inclusive education) is primarily directed at disadvantaged groups, and that its main objective is to end all types of discrimination and favour social cohesion”. Efforts to accomplish the wish of UNESCO have not been relented at any time.

UNESCO has closely worked with Cameroon’s First Lady to promote, strengthen and expand her works most particularly at the “Chantal Biya” International Reference Centre for Research on Prevention and Management of HIV/AIDS dubbed CIRCB in the French Language.

The center which serves as a training and capacity-building hub in the Sub-Africa region to increase services for those who are marginalised and vulnerable is greatly involved on HIV research with UNESCO as one of its main funding partners.

Besides research works, UNESCO and CIRCB are currently working on the social vaccine campaign which is the introduction of school manual to help edify teachers on the teaching of HIV/AIDS in the basic education sector.

The current visit of the Director–General of UNESCO to Cameroon, Irina Bokova is another occasion for her to revisit some of the works of her Goodwill Ambassador, Mrs Biya.

Irina Bokova and Chantal Biya discussed at length on June 24, 2010 in Paris during the tenth annual meeting of UNESCO’s Goodwill Ambassadors.