The British Council is UK’s international cultural body. It is funded by government grants, most of which from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
The main task of the British Council is to build engagement and trust for the UK trough the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide. Although funded by the government, the British Council is operationally independent, and is classified as a charity organization, which enables it build a trust and long term sustainable relations with the foreign public.
According to 2009-2010 Annual Report, the British Council has managed to reach 652 million people worldwide, trough the web, radio and television and have directly interacted with 18.4 million people from all over the world. The British Council invests in the UK’s most attractive assets, namely education, sport, and culture, which are the most appealing to foreign citizens and leaders. Many initiatives in promoting this assets have been undertaken by the organization.
In Afghanistan, for example, the British Council has helped 10 000 English teachers to develop their classroom skills, by providing them with up-to-date teaching from the UK. Active Citizens programme across Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have been launched, which is assisting more than 17 000 volunteers in developing their leadership skills, so that they can contribute towards the sustainable development of their countries
UK is also using its world – class expertise in education to provide countries like Iraq, Rwanda, Sudan, Burma with opportunity to develop their education system in a manner that would enhance their ability towards sustainable development.
The promotion of sport have also been in the agenda of the British Council. Well known sports figures such as David Beckham, Dame Tanny Grey- Tompson, Sir Chris Hoy and Colin Jackson have been employed as an International Inspiration Ambassadors to maximise the impact of the official international sport legacy program of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Game.
There are many more initiatives and programmes continuously orchestrated by the British Council. Inevitably, such cultural relations provide very effective alternative to other forms of international relations. This represents the increasing importance of public and cultural diplomacy, where government to government or government to people methods of distributing a message to global audience is shifting towards people to people two way engagement and dialogue. Mutual understanding can lead to cross cultural collaboration in resolving and preventing global security issues, such as human right, climate change, ethnic conflict, etc. The new direction can not only serve as a promoter of state values and interests, but it can also contribute in the building cultural relations as a force for global good. In this sense, it could be argued that The British Council plays a key role in enhancing UK’s image abroad, and at the same time helps fulfil UK's superpower obligation of providing guidance and assistance to states in need of development support.
http://www.britishcouncil.org
http://www.britishcouncil.org/new/PageFiles/13001/2009-10%20Annual%20Report.pdf
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ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with the fact that the British Council plays significant role in enhancing the UK's reputation. Creating strategies of public and cultural diplomacy abroad is not easy, and therefore I just wanted to point out that politicians should be well trained how to speak to public, because even one single sentence at the press conference can undermine the image and reputation of relations with any country.
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