Furthering Discussion: Higher Education Preparatory Conference Tackles Challenges

In an encouraging continuation of regional higher education conferences, India is currently hosting the Sub-Regional Conference for South, Southeast, and Central Asia February 25-26 at the Vigyan Bhawan Conference Centre in New Delhi. The meeting brings together officials from 14 countries throughout the region. It is also seen as another important regional step in preparing for the World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) that will be held in July 2009 in Paris.

This Sub-Regional Conference is sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, and the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) in coordination with UNESCO. Entitled"Facing Global and Local Challenges: The New Dynamics of Higher Education," the meeting seeks to promote greater understanding of trends and issues in higher education on regional, national, and global levels. Conference participants will also create a set of recommendations for WCHE.

Source: UNESCO website

The conference will have three main plenaries outlined on the agenda. The first plenary's theme is higher education goals in national development and centers on understanding higher education in the changing context of globalization. The second plenary regarding evolving new agendas in higher education focuses on reforms and new challenges in knowledge management. The last plenary, a panel discussion on higher education in global contexts--approaches and strategies, will touch on many topics related to expansion, reform, and inclusion in furthering the development of higher education. Reports on participating countries will also be given.

More notes on the conference can be found here.

Iraq to reopen museum

Source: "Iraq to reopen museum looted in US invasion chaos," SAMEER N. YACOUB, The Associated Press, February 23, 2009.

Iraq's restored National Museum is reopening today.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have said about 15,000 artifacts were stolen from the museum and about 8,500 of those items had been recovered. A number of countries in the region, including Jordan, Syria and Egypt, have returned stolen objects to Iraq......

Up to 7,000 pieces are still missing, including about 40 to 50 considered to be of great historical importance, according to the U.N. cultural body UNESCO.

UNESCO has been of great help to Iraq in ascertaining the damage done during the invasion and its aftermath and helping to mobilize the international community to support the restoration of the museum and its collection. The recuperation of the stolen articles was made possible in large part due to the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

Broken Classical sculpture from Roman gallery, 2003
Source: The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

UNESCO and Ecomigration

Source: "Climate Fears Are Driving 'Ecomigration' Across Globe," Shankar Vedantam, The Washington Post, February 23, 2009.

There were about 25 million ecomigrants in the world a little more than a decade ago, said Norman Myers, a respected British environmental researcher at Oxford University. That number is now "a good deal higher," he added. "It's plain that sea-level rise in the wake of climate change will inundate the homelands of huge numbers of people."

In Bangladesh, about 12 million to 17 million people have fled their homes in recent decades because of environmental disasters -- and the low-lying country is likely to experience more intense flooding in the future. In several countries in Africa's Sahel region, bordering the Sahara, about 10 million people have been driven to move by droughts and famines.

In the Philippines, upwards of 4 million people have moved from lowlands to highlands as a result of deforestation. And in an earlier era, about 2.5 million Americans became ecomigrants after droughts and land degradation during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s.

Editorial comment: UNESCO has a program utilizing its expertise in education, science, culture and communications to help small island developing states meet their development problems. Climate change will be especially devastating for those states, and UNESCO can help them to deal with the challenge. Perhaps especially relevant will be efforts by UNESCO to help ecomigrants from these states to deal with the cultural impact of their forced migration.

That is not to say that the need for UNESCO services to assist other ecomigrants will be less acute or extensive. An ecomigrant fleeing from desertification in the Sahel will not face lesser challenges than one fleeting from inundation of his island home.

History suggests that when a people are forced into wholesale migration, violence often follows. UNESCO's primary mission is to build the defenses of peace in the minds of men, and doing so in the minds of ecomigrants may be especially important in the prevention of war.

John Daly
(The opinions expressed are mine alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.)

"U.S. picks 2 potential World Heritage sites"

Source: Rob Lovitt Columns, MSNBC, January 13, 2009.

The two sites nominated are Mount Vernon and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

It’s been 15 years since the U.S. last nominated any sites to be inscribed on the global list maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The last two — Carlsbad Caverns and Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (in conjunction with Canada) — were added in 1995.

Three years ago, though, the Office of International Affairs (OIA) of the National Park Service began developing a new list of candidates for future nomination. Thirty-five applications were submitted, 14 of which were eventually selected for the nation’s new World Heritage Tentative List. That roster will guide U.S. submissions (up to two per year) to the UNESCO list for the next 10 years.

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!