UNESCO photo contest on The Changing Face of the Earth

UNESCO’s International Geoscience Program (IGCP) is running a photo contest on the theme of The Changing Face of the Earth, to raise awareness among youth of the state of the planet. There are several cameras and 40 book prizes to be won. Entries close on 30 June 2008.

Go to the contest website.

Happy One-hundred Years, Unesco!

LIEN / LINK, the journal of the former employees of UNESCO, has just published its 100th issue. Jacques Richardson has written an interesting article for the issue titled "Happy One-hundred Yeats, UNESCO." His abstract:

Just as the world’s educational, scientific and cultural atmosphere helped shape Unesco’s programs during the 20th century, so would certain emergent factors help lend new form and dynamism to the Unesco of the first half of the 21st century and its future.

Here is the story of how this happened.

Read the full article (pages 24-27)

UNESCO: 2008: The Year Ahead in Education

Quality, inclusion, financing and governance in education are some of the major themes UNESCO will address in 2008.

Among key UNESCO events to advance Education for All (EFA) are two regional literacy conferences, the International Conference on Education, the EFA Working Group and High Level Group meetings and the launch of the 2009 EFA Global Monitoring Report. More

UNESCO Clubs distribute relief among cyclone victims

The National Association of UNESCO Clubs in Bangladesh has been carrying out a relief operation in the cyclone-hit Jhalakathi district in cooperation with Korean National Federation of UNESCO Clubs and Associations recently.

The clubs distributed food, baby food, utensils and old clothes to the affected people of Kathalia and sadar upazila of the district. Members of UNESCO Club of Bagerhat also distributed rice, water purifying tablet, oral saline, old clothes and utensils among the affected people of Morelganj upazilla.

UNESCO has a network of thousands of clubs that spans the globe, although there are relatively few UNESCO clubs in the United States. Americans for UNESCO participates for the United States in the World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Associations (WFUCA).

What do you think about Americans for UNESCO taking a strong role in helping to create UNESCO clubs in the United States? American UNESCO clubs could take part in UNESCO's efforts, and could help their counterparts in developing nations as the Korean clubs have recently done in Bangladesh.

Leave us a comment with your answer!

MUSEUM International N°236

Gender Perspectives on
Cultural Heritage and Museums

Editorial

CHAP 1: Women’s cultural participation and rights

• Cultures, Conventions, and the Human Rights of Women: Examining the Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the Declaration on Cultural Diversity Valentine Moghadam and Manilee Bagheritari
• 
  
The International Museum of Women Karen Offen and Elizabeth L. Colton
• The Role of Moroccan Women in Preserving Amazigh Languages and Culture Fatima Sadiqi

CHAP 2: Women’s approaches to cultural heritage and museums

• ‘Thanks, But We’ll Take It From Here’: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women Influencing the Collection of Tangible and Intangible Heritage Olivia Robinson and Trish Barnard
• My journey on the path of tangible and intangible heritage preservation Hongnam Kim
• Museums, Women and Empowerment in the MENA Countries Carol Malt

CHAP 3: Museums for and about women

• Why Create a Museum on Women? Graciela Tejero Coni
• The Vietnam Women’s Museum: the Promotion of Women’s Rights to Gender Equality and Gender Issues Nguyen Thi Tuyet
• ‘Imagining Ourselves’: Cultural Activism for Women through Technology and New Media Paula Goldman

Reinventing Higher Education

"Reinventing Higher Education: Toward Participatory and Sustainable Development" was the theme of the 11th UNESCO-APEID International Conference held from 12 to14 December in Bangkok, Thailand

Convened by UNESCO and the Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID), the Conference explored the linkages among higher education, participatory development and sustainable development.

Go to the Conference website.

"Imagine a world in which all individuals are recognized as productive, educated citizens and as potential agents of change. Imagine a world in which universities embody democratic values, make strong connections between head, heart and hands, and recognize that their institutional goals go beyond the generation of wealth and the advancement of self-recognition."

UNESCO supports development and free distribution of world class educational materials

Signing of the agreement.
© UNESCO

Utilizing open source technology to make learning material development a less timely and costly process is the objective of a cooperation agreement established between UNESCO and the U.S. based Global Educational Learning Community (CURRIKI).

The MOU was signed on 8 October 2007 at UNESCO Headquarets in Paris. UNESCO and CURRIKI will cooperate in the field of ICT and education and undertake a variety of activities in support of the common objectives of the UNESCO’s Communication and Information, Education and Science sectors and CURRIKI’s education, science and community programmes. Areas covered by the cooperation include:

• Identify and assist countries that already face limited access to textbooks and other learning materials,
• Work in collaboration with the country’s Ministry of Education (MOE) to develop standards for open source curricula content and design,
• Train appointed staff on the use of open source technology (including MOE representatives, NGO educators and local publishers),
• Use open source communities and trained educators to help develop curricula and textbook design using open source technology and philosophy, and
• Maintain an open source learning resources’ portal that will serve as a clearinghouse for open source curricula and can be shared with other school districts and countries.

Read more about the program.