The Power of Peace Network

The Power of Peace Network (PPN) is a UNESCO-led initiative seeking to harness the power of the 2.0 web and the energy of young innovators and activists.

• The Second Global Forum on the Power of Peace wiil be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 21 to 23 May 2009.
• University students and faculty from some 80 countries convened in Waterloo, Canada from 7 to 9 August 2008 for the Power of Peace Network Global Forum of Universities. (There is a Facebook site related to that meeting.)
  
• The First Global Forum was held in Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia, on 21-23 January 2007.

Another Candidate for UNESCO Director General

I understand that Mounir Bouchenaki, currently Director-General of the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Pestoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) has been nominated for the post of Director General of UNESCO. He served as a UNESCO staff member for many years before being appointed to ICCROM.

Read more about his background.

The Literacy Project

Google hosts this resource for teachers, literacy organizations and anyone interested in reading and education, created in collaboration with LitCam, Google, and UNESCO’s Institute for Lifelong Learning. The site provides materials in five languages.

Check out this great set of innovative projects on the Literacy Project website!

UNESCO at the Anti-Racism Conference

Source: "UN anti-racism conference winds down amid NGO expulsions for bad behaviour," UN News Center, 23 April 2009.

I quote:

A number of the UN agencies spoke at the five-day Durban Review Conference, which comes to a close tomorrow, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), which warned that saying no to racism in the work is key to promoting respect, tolerance and inclusiveness.

For its part, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) highlighted its own role in countering pseudo-scientific theories of racial superiority.

"Sharp drop in aid to basic education jeopardizes school chances for millions"

A sharp decline in aid to basic education to developing countries threatens to reverse progress towards the international goal of universal primary schooling. This is the stark conclusion drawn by UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report Team.

According to the latest figures from the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) for 2007, total aid commitments to basic education declined from US $5.5 billion in 2006 to US $4.3 billion in 2007, representing a decrease of nearly 22%.

UNESCO’s Global Monitoring Report 2009 warned that the world will fall short of goals agreed by the international community at Dakar in 2000. There are currently 75 million children out of school; many millions more drop out before completing primary education. Projections indicate that the target of universal primary education by 2015 will be missed by at least 30 million children.

Read more of this report from UNESCO!