US NGO Wins UNESCO Award

The Belgian Claroline Project (Claroline Consortium) and the US-based Global Education and Learning Community (Curriki) are the co-winners of the 2007 Unesco-King Hamad Award for best use of information and telecommunications in education.

Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation president and Royal Charity Foundation board of trustees' chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa will today present the $50,000 (BD18,745) award on behalf of His Majesty King Hamad.

Read more in the Gulf Daily News (Bahrain).

UNESCO and HP Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement

UNESCO and Hewlett-Packard (HP) signed a strategic partnership agreement on 19 December to strengthen their collaboration around existing education projects. The signing ceremony, held at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris, was attended by Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO Director-General and Gabriele Zedlmayer, vice president, Global Citizenship HP Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Through the partnership, UNESCO and HP will work together on several projects in the area of education, especially to support UNESCO’s priority of “Education for All". This includes an evaluation on the extension of the existing brain drain project to additional regions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. UNESCO and HP started to collaborate five years ago in South East Europe to help key universities connect to global research networks. In 2006 the project was extended to Africa. The project fights brain drain by providing universities with an advanced technology called grid computing, which allows top quality researchers to play a key role in international research and contribute to economic development in their home countries.

Another project is the World Heritage Map, which enables the general public to visualize the spread of World Heritage sites around the globe, and raises the awareness of the World Heritage Convention. The map is above all an educational tool, allowing UNESCO to communicate its work in this field on a large scale.

In addition HP has provided a financial contribution to UNESCO for the “Printing and distribution of the Man and the Biosphere Map”. The Man and the Biosphere Map will be fully prepared and edited by the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences of UNESCO, which will provide the full lay-out to HP for printing and distribution.

The Computer recycling training guide is also the fruit of UNESCO and HP cooperation: it aims to support local stakeholders, in developing countries in particular, to manage electronic waste. The goal is to support local actors, especially those with a background in managing used computer equipment, and to create environmentally clean and healthy business opportunities. HP is the only technology partner in the project, which also includes the French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie - ADEME), EMMAUS, the international movement of solidarity, and TIC ETHIC, Information and Communication Technologies in the service of ethics and sustainable development.

Athelstan Spilhaus: First U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO

The new highlight on the website of Americans for UNESCO begins a series on the pioneers in the creation of the organization and on the establishment of linkages between the United States and UNESCO.

The first person to be profiled is Athelstan Spilhaus, a distinguished scientist, inventor, educator, and popularizer of science who was the first U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO and who served on its Executive Board. Late in his life, when he accurately described himself as a "retired genius", he established a world class collection of more than 3,000 mechanical toys.

Read more about this fascinating man!

UNESCO BPI Memos

The Bureau of Public Information of UNESCO publishes a series of memos, called Memobpi. Here are links to a few of them:

Peacebuilding

A commitment to peace implies a way of resolving conflicts, not according to the force of might, but by respecting internationally accepted norms, the rule of law and negotiation, with the aim of achieving a fullness of life for each and every one. By its Constitution, UNESCO is called upon to “build the defenses of peace in the minds of men.”

Distance learning

Open and distance learning is one of the most rapidly growing fields of education. It is fast becoming an accepted and indispensable part of the mainstream of educational systems in both developed and developing countries, with particular emphasis for the latter.

Open content: Towards equal learning opportunities?

The number of open collaborative technologies has exploded over the last years. What impact have they had on access to and quality of education worldwide? Can developing countries afford these expensive technologies and thus avoid remaining on the sidelines of the digital revolution? What about copyright issues? What role for UNESCO?

UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs programme: Towards New Strategic Orientations and New Tools.

UNITWIN which is the abbreviation for university twinning and networking, was launched in 1991, as an international plan of action aimed at strengthening training and research through inter-university co-operation, with particular emphasis on support to higher education in developing countries, more importantly, in the least developed ones.

IITB designated as “Knowledge Heritage Centre”

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) was designated a “Knowledge Heritage Center” by UNESCO,s New Delhi Office on the occasion of IITB’s Golden Jubilee.

IITB was originally established with the cooperation and participation of UNESCO, and over the past 50 years it has grown to be an institution not only of national but of international importance. It is a leader in higher education, research and training in India, Asia, and indeed worldwide.

The historical role of UNESCO in helping to create IITB is an indication of the role that it has played in the past, and that it can play in the future.

Read more about the Presentation.

Editorial Comment: I was very impressed by Media Lab Asia, a collaboration between MIT and IITB, and was sad when it failed to find funding to continue. I also had the opportunity to visit IITB with a team from the World Bank and the Development Gateway. IITB was a member of the Development Gateway's Research and Training network. I saw demonstrations of many fine projects that were implemented by IITB in its role as an Indian member of that network.

Of course, many graduates of IITB are important contributors to India's software industry, and indeed many have immigrated to Silicon Valley and other U.S. centers helping to create the Information Revolution in this country. Indeed, it is suggested (only partially in jest) that the best high school graduates in India, concerned by the extraordinary competitiveness of entry into IITB, apply to MIT and Cal Tech as "back up schools".

Perhaps the United States Permanent Delegation to UNESCO should recommend that the organization create a global network of "Knowledge Heritage Centers" in the great institutions of higher education in the world. JAD

Review of UNESCO’s Capacity-Building Function

A review was completed last February or UNESCO’s experience in capacity building and of the international research on capacity building to answer the following questions:

1. What have UNESCO and others learned about the most effective approaches to capacity building?
2. What should UNESCO’s role in capacity building be (given UN reforms that emphasize country-led, comprehensive development strategies and collaboration among donor agencies)?
3. What needs to change within UNESCO in order to do a better job of capacity building?

The purpose of this review was to inform UNESCO's senior management about good practices in capacity-building and to enable UNESCO's Secretariat to improve their capacity-building interventions.

A key finding of the review was:

Most UNESCO staff members interviewed recognize that capacity building needs to get beyond conventional inputs, such as training and technical assistance, in order to bring about sustainable change within institutions. However, much of the Organization’s programming begins and ends there.

Read the full Review (PDF, 47 pages.)

A Human Rights-Based Approach to Education for All

A Human Rights-Based Approach to Education for All is a joint UNESCO and UNICEF publication. It provides a framework for the realization of children’s right to education and rights within education.

The report brings together the current thinking and practice on human rights-based approach in the education sector, presenting key issues and challenges in rights-based approaches and providing a framework for policy and program development from the level of the school up to the national and international levels.