Dear Sir/Madam
Dear colleagues and friends,

Pursuant to the evaluation of the MOST National Liaison Committees (NLCs) undertaken during the May-November 2005 period and in keeping with the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Council (IGC), the MOST Secretariat is launching an Interactive Electronic Forum with a view to engage in an active debate on the affiliation, structure and operations of NLCs or equivalent structures set up at the national level to support the Programme. The Interactive Forum is also meant to develop institutional procedures and communicative competencies for a continuous dialogue and link among the NLCs and other MOST protagonists on the one hand, and between MOST NLCs and the MOST Secretariat on the other hand. The ultimate objective is to help implement the new vision of MOST based on the science policy interlink.

The Forum is open to:
- the NLC focal points/contact persons identified during the evaluation exercise and to the National Commissions which handle MOST issues in the absence of a MOST NLC;
- representatives of Social Science Associations and NGOs, as well as to social science researchers and experts in general, who have been involved in MOST activities in the past or have expressed interest in MOST.

Members of the Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO, at Headquarters and in the field, are also invited to contribute to the Forum debates.

The starting point of the debate is the Draft Evaluation Report of the MOST NLCs which was discussed by the MOST IGC at its regular meeting (25-27 July 2005) and at its extraordinary session on 19 October 2005. The Draft Evaluation Report and the Reports of the two IGC meetings can be found on the MOST website : www.unesco.org/shs/most/nlcs_evaluation

The Forum will be moderated by the MOST Secretariat. Topics for discussion - ranging from the composition and structure of NLCs, their primary roles and functions, and the types of activities they undertake to perform these roles and functions - will be set for each month, to be debated by the participants. The emphasis is placed on the exchange of experience and views, so
as to allow for best practices to emerge. Particular attention will be paid to securing material and human resources from various sources for MOST activities at the national, regional and international level.

A meeting devoted to the role of MOST NLCs will be organized during the International Forum on the Social Science Research-Policy Nexus (IFSP). It will take place at Buenos Aires on Saturday 25 February 2006, in a hotel still to be announced. The Electronic Forum is intended also to assess how best to prepare discussions at this NLC meeting and to encourage your participation. It will offer also the possibility for those of you who could not attend the IFSP to follow its debates – and even to take part in them- via the Internet.
The MOST Secretariat has taken the liberty to send this invitation message to a large number of potential participants in the Forum from the categories mentioned above. The decision to take part in its debates however rests entirely with you. You may contribute to the FORUM by sending your reactions, proposals, comments or communications to the following e-mail address: mostnlcs-shs@lists.unesco.org.

I am looking forward to your active participation in the debates of the Forum and seizing this opportunity to extend to you my very best wishes for 2006.

Christina von Furstenberg
Chief, section of Policy and International Cooperation in the Social sciences
MOST Secretariat.