Unesco: Italy is the top volunteering contributor

Rome - Since 1999 Italy has been a member of UNESCO's Executive Board, which counts 58 member States, who are elected every four years at the General Conference. In 2015 Italy was re-elected for a further four-year term until 2019.Italy's annual contribution to UNESCO (around 12 million Dollars) is calculated on the basis of the coefficient set by the United Nations based on income and population, and it comes to 3.7% of the Organization's overall budget.

Italy is the eighth ordinary contributor but the top financier for voluntary extra budgetary contributions (around 30 million Dollars per annum). Following USA's stoppage of ordinary financing in November 2011, Italy is now, after Japan, the second overall contributor to UNESCO (counting ordinary and extra budgetary contributions). Italy also comes first for the number of sites included in UNESCO's World Heritage list, with a generous 53 assets, and it boasts 7 items in the Intangible Cultural Heritage List. A dedicated section of this site is dedicated to Italy in tangible and intangible World Heritage.The "Cultural Blue Helmets" are the Italian task force deployed by UNESCO, thanks to an agreement between the Organization and the Italian Government signed in February 2016, and not with the Peace corps contemplated in the United Nations Charter which require the use of specific Resolutions by the UN Security Council.