The U.S. and UNESCO Co-organize Teacher Training and Literacy Roundtable

Today, the United States and UNESCO hosted a roundtable discussion at UNESCO’s Paris Headquarters. The event focused on literacy and teacher training for educational practitioners who teach literacy outside of formal school settings. The roundtable, entitled "Teacher Training and Literacy" highlighted the need for a greater supply of trained teachers in regions where an acute shortage is affecting efforts to promote literacy and meet the goals of the Education for All program by 2015.

It was hosted by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, and Mrs. Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States. Mrs. Bush is the Honorary Ambassador for the UN Literacy Decade. Other participants included teachers from the developing world, representatives from UNESCO delegations and UNESCO secretariat staff.

“Teacher Training and Literacy” served as a bridge between the first ever White House Conference on Global Literacy in September 2006, and the first of five follow-up UNESCO regional literacy conferences, which will be held in Qatar in March. That meeting will be followed by the Africa regional conference in Mali in September. Three other conferences are planned for Latin America, Europe and Central Asia and Asia.

The U.S. and UNESCO Co-organize Teacher Training and Literacy Roundtable

Today, the United States and UNESCO hosted a roundtable discussion at UNESCO’s Paris Headquarters. The event focused on literacy and teacher training for educational practitioners who teach literacy outside of formal school settings. The roundtable, entitled "Teacher Training and Literacy" highlighted the need for a greater supply of trained teachers in regions where an acute shortage is affecting efforts to promote literacy and meet the goals of the Education for All program by 2015.

It was hosted by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, and Mrs. Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States. Mrs. Bush is the Honorary Ambassador for the UN Literacy Decade. Other participants included teachers from the developing world, representatives from UNESCO delegations and UNESCO secretariat staff.

“Teacher Training and Literacy” served as a bridge between the first ever White House Conference on Global Literacy in September 2006, and the first of five follow-up UNESCO regional literacy conferences, which will be held in Qatar in March. That meeting will be followed by the Africa regional conference in Mali in September. Three other conferences are planned for Latin America, Europe and Central Asia and Asia.

UNESCO Awards Czech Film Festival One World

The following is excerpted from Prague's Daily Monitor, 01/03/2007

UNESCO has given a special mention to the One World International Documentary Film Festival focused on human rights annually held in the Czech Republic. UNESCO has been presenting awards for human rights education every other year since 1978. In 1990 the award was given to then Czechoslovak and later Czech president Vaclav Havel. Havel reportedly proposed the candidacy of the Czech festival, presenting documentaries focused on human rights issues.

The One World festival has been annually held in Prague and other Czech towns since 1999. Last year, the event offered almost 120 films from 40 countries. This year´s festival will be held from February 28 to March 30. Click here for further information on One World 2007.
© Prague Daily Monitor

UNESCO Awards Czech Film Festival One World

The following is excerpted from Prague's Daily Monitor, 01/03/2007

UNESCO has given a special mention to the One World International Documentary Film Festival focused on human rights annually held in the Czech Republic. UNESCO has been presenting awards for human rights education every other year since 1978. In 1990 the award was given to then Czechoslovak and later Czech president Vaclav Havel. Havel reportedly proposed the candidacy of the Czech festival, presenting documentaries focused on human rights issues.

The One World festival has been annually held in Prague and other Czech towns since 1999. Last year, the event offered almost 120 films from 40 countries. This year´s festival will be held from February 28 to March 30. Click here for further information on One World 2007.
© Prague Daily Monitor

UNESCO's Guide for Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) site is a resource for graduate students who are writing theses or dissertations, for graduate faculty who want to mentor ETD authors, for graduate deans who want to initiate ETD programs, and for IT administrators at universities.

Published by UNESCO, The Guide is an international, "living" document, written by ETD scholars throughout the world. The Editors, Web Administrators, Graphic Designers of the Guide are Professors from prestigious US Universities such as Cornell, whose goal is to identify "technologically innovative" theses and dissertations, and provide models of new media scholarship for the next generation of scholars and researchers.

Theses or dissertations that are "technologically innovative" are crafted in new ways, perhaps using streaming multimedia, interactive features (chats, listservs, response questionnaires, three-dimensional models, animation.

The Guide will be updated regularly based on submissions by ETD authors and NDLTD members. You may access the ETDs collection, or submit your innovative dissertation on the ETD website.
© Picture: Mahidol University

UNESCO's Guide for Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) site is a resource for graduate students who are writing theses or dissertations, for graduate faculty who want to mentor ETD authors, for graduate deans who want to initiate ETD programs, and for IT administrators at universities.

Published by UNESCO, The Guide is an international, "living" document, written by ETD scholars throughout the world. The Editors, Web Administrators, Graphic Designers of the Guide are Professors from prestigious US Universities such as Cornell, whose goal is to identify "technologically innovative" theses and dissertations, and provide models of new media scholarship for the next generation of scholars and researchers.

Theses or dissertations that are "technologically innovative" are crafted in new ways, perhaps using streaming multimedia, interactive features (chats, listservs, response questionnaires, three-dimensional models, animation.

The Guide will be updated regularly based on submissions by ETD authors and NDLTD members. You may access the ETDs collection, or submit your innovative dissertation on the ETD website.
© Picture: Mahidol University

UNESCO and the Management of Social Transformations

The Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Program, which is part of the Social and Human Sciences Sector (SHS) of UNESCO, is the first intergovernmental initiative launched within the United Nations System, and was created to “manage social transformation”.From 1994 to 2003, the program focused on international research. The most recent initiative (2004-2013) focuses primarily on the need to link international public action networks to those of researchers and experts. The goal is to make social science research relevant to concrete political issues. The program works in close relationship with National Committees established in 63 countries.
MOST promotes a culture of evidence-based policy-making – nationally, regionally and internationally. The initiative seeks new ways to widely distribute information pertinent to target groups including social affairs ministers, regional and local authorities, the media, grass-roots organizations, civil society and the academic community. A series of services and resources was developed to meet their needs.

Launched at the end of spring 2005, the MOST-2 Digital Library, is a clearing house for the program’s publications. A multilingual search engine makes it easy to access documents.

More about MOST, Phase II: Bridging research and policy-making

About Growing Up In Cities, a UNESCO/MOST project

Events:
MOST-UNESCO Summer School for Latin America and the Caribbean , Salvador de Bahía, Brazil, 26 February to 2 March 2007
This Summer School aims to bring together young researchers, scholars and students following a Masters degree or a PhD from the region. The program will concentrate on the following themes: poverty, social management and local development.