AbstractUnesco has multiple missions with action-oriented responsibilities in cultural enterprise, the development of mass communication in the less industrialized world, the spreading of literacy and education, and the encouragement of the natural, engineering and social sciences at university level and beyond.Because of disputes among its 161 member states during the 1980s concerning Unesco's role in promoting mass communication in the developing world, its management came under attack by the ‘Group of 24’—mainly the western industrial democracies. Three countries (the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore) left Unesco by 1986, “about the time that many developing nations were beginning to integrate science policy in national planning”.1The resulting diminished budget seriously affected programme operations. What has happened since then to the ‘science’ in the organization's name?