Do you know about the Peace Program"

The Peace Program was created to support capacity development in the universities serving the Palestinian people. It is implemented by an international Network, The Network counts at present (March 2011) of 66 members: 53 European and 13 Palestinian universities. It cooperates closely with the major NGOs of higher education: the International Association of Universities (IAU) the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), the European Association of Universities (EAU), the Association of Arab Universities (AARU), the Community of Mediterranean Universities (CUM), etc.

As an interuniversity network which seeks to promote international academic cooperation with the Palestinian universities, PEACE focuses its action on those areas in which international cooperation has made full proof of its efficiency, notably by contributing to raising the quality, efficiency and relevance of teaching and research at Palestinian universities and enhancing their institutional and staff development.

The support of UNESCO was instrumental in setting up the PEACE Network and developing its activities. When UNESCO launched its UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme in 1992, PEACE was recognized as a UNITWIN Network and has been functioning within that framework ever since. An office of the Programme was established at UNESCO, in Paris, in 1995.

An international conference on research development in Palestinian universities was held by UNESCO in Paris in 2007 in conjunction with the Research Network.