Meeting of the International Scientific Committee of the Slave Route Project

This 9th meeting of the Committee took place on 17 and 18 February at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Committee members reviewed the many activities which had taken place in 2007 and 2008 and devoted most of their time to the discussion of a new strategy for the Slave Route Project, to be presented at the Executive Board in April. Professor Michael Gomez was elected to the chairmanship of the Committee. He is on the History faculty of New York University where he specializes in the African diaspora and Islam in West Africa.

The Slave Route Project, launched in 1994, has three objectives, namely to:

• contribute to a better understanding of the causes, forms of operation, issues and consequences of slavery in the world (Africa, Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, Middle East and Asia);
• highlight the global transformations and cultural interactions that have resulted from this history; and
• contribute to a culture of peace by promoting reflection on cultural pluralism, intercultural dialogue and the construction of new identities and citizenships.

The UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity

The UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity is to be published in early September, just in time to inform the General Conference of UNESCO which is to be held in October. This is the second major World Report from the Organization.

The authors aim for the Report "to take stock of all that is being said, thought and done in the name of cultural diversity, and tease out the necessary conditions for diversity to become an asset and not a threat, a source of renewal for public policies in service to development, social cohesion and peace."

An Advisory Committee has been formed to help in the preparation of the Report. It includes one member from the United States: Tyler Cowen, a Professor of economics at George Mason University and at the Center for the Study of Public Choice.

Greg Mortenson: the man who builds schools

The current issue of UNESCO's EduInfo online magazine has an interview with Greg Morenson. Mortenson is an American who has devoted his life since 1993 to building schools in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Starting by selling his car and personal possessions to raise $2,500 dollars, he has created the Central Asia Institute which has built more than 50 schools. Mr Mortenson will receive the Star of Pakistan civilian award from the government of Pakistan in honor of his contribution to the country.

Read the inspiring interview!

UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development

The UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development – Moving into the Second Half of the UN Decade will be held in Bonn, Germany, from 31 March to 2 April 2009.

Organizers of the conference are UNESCO and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, in cooperation with the German Commission for UNESCO.

Five years into the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, for which UNESCO is the lead agency, the conference aims to highlight the relevance of ESD to all of education; promote international exchange on ESD.

Go to the Conference website.

Memory of the World Program Survey

UNESCO's Memory of the World Program was created to encourage the preservation of the valuable archival holdings and library collections all over the world and to help ensure wide access to their contents. These U.S. contributions have been registered:

• Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque Lustrationes (This is the first map to have the name America included. The only known copy is in the Library of Congress.)
• The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming 1939), produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

The program is currently conducting a survey and is seeking information from library, archives and museum specialists on awareness of the program and how that awareness could be increased.

Go to the survey!

2009 World Conference: “The New Dynamics of Higher Education”

The 2009 World Conference to be held from 5 to 8 July 2009 at UNESCO, Paris. The last World Conference on Higher Education was held in 1998 and this year's Conference will provide a forum for review of the changes in higher education that have occurred since that time. The participants will also consider the strategic agenda for the development of higher education policies and institutions in the foreseeable future.

To what extent is higher education today a driver for sustainable development in the national and international context? Does the sector live up to the expectations placed in it to induce change and progress in society and to act as one of the key factors for building knowledge-based societies? How does higher education contribute to the development of the education system as a whole? What are the most significant trends that will shape the new higher education and research spaces? How are learners and learning changing? What are the new challenges for “quality” and “equity”?

Last June a preparatory conference was held on Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Conference participants included 25 ministers, deputy ministers and state secretaries; rectors and directors of higher education institutions; in total, there were 3,500 participants from 33 countries. Thus the Paris Conference in July should be very well attended.

The 2009 Conference should be of great interest to universities, community colleges and other institutions of higher education in the United States. Moreover, given the strength and prestige of the U.S. higher education system, the Conference should provide an important opportunity for the Obama administration to make an initiative in public diplomacy.

I am told that in the distant past, the U.S. delegation to such an event might include the presidents of 50 American universities. I also understand that given the change in administration little has been done to date to select the U.S. delegation for July. Given the busy schedules of the key leaders of our higher education system, one hopes that nominations will be made soon.

Read more about the
2009 World Conference on Higher Education!

The UNESCO Office in Santiago, Chile
also has a useful website on the Conference.

Here is an interesting interview on
the future of higher education with
Marco Antonio Rodrigues Dias,
one of the organizers of the 1998 Conference.

Student Groups Call for UNESCO Ombudsman

Source: University World News, February 15, 2009.

At a meeting in Paris last month 17 organizations representing students across the globe took part in an official preparatory meeting for the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education to be held in July. Recognizing that student rights are being violated in institutions around the world, the students' groups at the meeting called on UNESCO to establish a global ombudsman's office to tackle breaches of their rights.

Comment: This would seem to be a role for which there is no obvious alternative to UNESCO, but such a role would engage the Organization in controversial confrontations with governments of member states, and would presumably require a substantial commitment of the Organization's resources. Perhaps the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO should consider the costs and benefits of such a role for UNESCO in order to advise the State Department. JAD

Ethiopian policemen look at students demonstrating at a campus of the Addis Ababa university, Ethiopia AFP photo, 6/7/05) via Fettan Archives