UNESCO's 21st Century Talks

The 21st-Century Talks are forums for prospective reflection and future oriented debate that gather together leading figures from different regions of the world. Together with the UNESCO's World Reports they form UNESCO’s Foresight and Anticipation Program.

The Talks are used as the basis for books, articles in leading newspapers and academic journals of different regions of the world, and production of radio and television programs.

Over the period 1999-2005, 27 “21st Century Talks and Dialogs” were organised. There were 118 speeches by 95 different speakers in the series. The three “Dialogues” gathered more speakers (particularly in Seoul with 23 speakers) than the “Talks” with only three or four. “Talks” were organised at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, Barcelona, Durban and Seoul.

As a result of the program, three books – and a total of 21 translated versions - were published.

• Keys to the 21st Century (2001)
• The Future of Values (2004)
• Making Peace with the Earth (2007)

There is specific information on many of the talks available from the UNESCO website.

An evaluation of UNESCO's Foresight program was published in 2006.
The evaluation report notes:

The activities of the Foresight and Anticipation Program had major support from UNESCO Member States. The “21st Century Talks and Dialogs” are viewed as having dealt with crucial issues for the future which were debated by a highly competent and diverse set of specialists who contributed highly relevant analyses. Member State representatives appreciated the foresight effort made by UNESCO. There is general agreement that Foresight and Anticipation are major missions of UNESCO.

"Midway to the 2015 target date: meeting of the High Level Group on Education for All in Dakar"

Read the full article on the African Press Organization website.

'Three Heads of State, Ministers of Education from 15 countries, representatives of the main donor countries, multilateral organizations, representatives of civil society and the private sector will meet from 11 to 13 December in Dakar (Senegal) to examine the different means of accelerating progress towards the six goals of Education for All (EFA) set by 164 countries in Dakar in 2000.

"The president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, and the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, will open the meeting chaired by Senegal’s Minister of Education, Moustafa Sourang. During the opening ceremony, the president of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, will also give a keynote speech.

"The seventh annual meeting of the High Level Group on Education for All is taking place at the halfway point to 2015, which is the target date 164 countries have set to achieve the six EFA goals. According to the 2008 edition of the Global Monitoring Report on Education for All, which has just been released, the number of children, especially girls, starting primary school has increased sharply, but the poor quality of education, the high cost of schooling and the high level of adult illiteracy are
undermining chances of achieving education for all by 2015."

Eleanor Roosevelt on UNESCO

In 1961, in her newspaper column "My Day" wrote:

We should work very closely with the United Nations body called UNESCO in our efforts to gain not only the maximum understanding of our own educational needs but also the understanding of what the world needs. UNESCO has the duty to promote education about the U.N. and a mutual international understanding between peoples. Our own educational objectives must be formed with the idea of making us better able to understand other areas of the world and more able to help in their struggles for development.

For 10 years now UNESCO has published a magazine called "The UNESCO Courier." This magazine is devoted entirely to portraying the customs, the arts, the cultures and the peoples of the earth. It has some 300,000 subscribers throughout the world, but in the U.S. the magazine is hardly known. Circulation here is only 10,000, whereas even in Russia it has 25,000 subscribers.

No college or school in their country can really afford to be without "The UNESCO Courier," and I feel sure that once we have succeeded in having it in our libraries, schools and colleges that families all over the nation will feel the need to have it in their homes.

Comment: Today, through technological advances, you can read The UNESCO Courier online or subscribe via email for free. JAD

Click here to go to The UNESCO Courier website.

Eleanor Roosevelt hosting UNESCO visit
to Val-Kill in Hyde Park, NY, 1948
FDR Library 09-2447

UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood

The results from the OECD Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care Policy from 1998 to 2006 can be consulted in Issue No. 41 of the UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood series.


Other recent publications on Early Childhood Care and Education include the Policy Review Report: Early Childhood Care and Education in Brazil” (2007) and the Summary Report of the UNESCO/OECD Early Childhood Policy Review Project for Brazil, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Kenya (2007).

Related links

• Issue No. 41 of the UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood
  
  
• Previous publications of the Policy Brief series
  
  
• “Policy Review Report: Early Childhood Care and Education in Brazil” (2007)
  
  
• “Summary Report of the UNESCO/OECD Early Childhood Policy Review Project for Brazil, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Kenya” (2007)

60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

© UNESCO/Ivaldo Alves
Brasilia

Celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be launched at UNESCO on 10 December, Human Rights Day. Events commemorating the anniversary will take place over the next year, until 10 December 2008.

The 60th anniversary provides an opportunity to mobilize the whole of the United Nations and to evaluate progress in respecting and promoting human rights. UNESCO will take this opportunity to assess the situation of rights in its fields of competence. UNESCO is planning two international conferences on the subject in 2008: one on human rights education, the other on human rights in the Organization’s other fields of competence. In addition, the 61st International Conference of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which will be organized at UNESCO in September 2008, in partnership with the United Nations Department of Public Information, will focus on the celebration of the Universal Declaration’s 60th anniversary.

The Magic Planet

As a reminder of the importance of outreach and education in enhancing S&T goals, Ambassador Oliver invited the developers of the Magic Planet digital video globe - Global Imagination - to display a portable version of the globe and associated control panel at a reception held by the Permanent Delegation of the United States to UNESCO. The reception was held in conjunction with the General Conference. A larger version of the Magic Planet was used by NOAA and NASA presenters during the Planet Earth: Space to Place exhibit at UNESCO during the Conference. In a hands-on mode, many of the reception’s guests were able change display global datasets ranging from water temperature to population shifts. In an example of public-private-partnership, the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO worked closely with Global Imagination on the presentation.

Here is a short video of Magic Planet.

First Lady Further Supports UNESCO's Literacy Drive

First Lady Laura Bush Addressed the UNESCO Literacy Conference in New Delhi, India

A delegation of representatives from the U.S. Department of State, USAID, and the U.S. Department of Education traveled to New Delhi, India for the UNESCO Regional Literacy Conference held from November 29 to 30, 2007. The delegation joined representatives from throughout the Indian Sub Continent, South and South West Asia as well as senior representatives of UNESCO and other international and regional organizations at the conference, entitled "Addressing Literacy Challenges in South, South-West and Central Asia: Building Partnerships and Promoting Innovative Approaches". The conference was hosted by the Government of India in conjunction with UNESCO and opened by Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi.

Click here for more information, including a video of the First Lady.

10 December 2005 - Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December to mark the anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

• UNESCO at 60: Celebrating Human Rights and Education

Message from UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura

• 60 Cartoons for Human Rights – Exhibition by Plantu

Also in celebration of Human Rights Day:

International Human Rights Day

Symposium and Working Meeting

Rights and Responsibilities: Scientific Associations and International Human Rights Norms

Hosted by

AAAS Science and Human Rights Program

Monday, 10 December 2007
2:00 pm - 5:15 pm
AAAS Headquarters,
1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

"U.S. Teens Trail Peers Around World on Math-Science Test"

Read the article by Maria Glod in The Washington Post, December 5, 2007.

Glod writes:

The disappointing performance of U.S. teenagers in math and science on an international exam, in scores released yesterday, has sparked calls for improvement in public schools to help the country keep pace in the global economy.

The scores from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment showed that U.S. 15-year-olds trailed their peers from many industrialized countries. The average science score of U.S. students lagged behind those in 16 of 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that represents the world's richest countries. The U.S. students were further behind in math, trailing counterparts in 23 countries.

Read the OECD Press Release on the study.

Design of an Emblem for Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention

Design of an Emblem for Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention

UNESCO is now announcing a competition for the design of an emblem that best reflects the purposes and spirit of the Convention to give greater visibility to intangible heritage and its safeguarding.

UNESCO invites entries from professional and amateur graphic designers, artists, and practitioners of intangible cultural heritage from all its Member States. Each participant may submit a single design, including a black and white and a colour version.

The deadline for submissions to reach UNESCO is 15 February 2008.

Read more about the competition!

Index Translationum

The Index Translationum is a list of books translated in the world, i.e. an international bibliography of translations. The Index Translationum was created in 1932. It celebrates this year its 75th anniversary.

The Index' database contains cumulative bibliographical information on books translated and published in about one hundred of the UNESCO Member States since 1979 and totalling more than 1.700,000 entries in all disciplines: literature, social and human sciences, natural and exact sciences, art, history and so forth.

Among the most translated authors are found, in no particular order, Walt Disney Productions, Agatha Christie, Jules Verne, Lenin and Shakespeare. Consulting the available data, it can be noted that the most translated languages in the world are English, French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. In the other direction, Japanese is among the languages most translated into; it is listed in fifth position after German, Spanish, French and English, before Dutch and Portuguese. Finally, Germany, Spain, France and Japan are the countries that translate the most.

Annotated bibliography on education and conflict

A man removes a bloodied schoolbook at a school gate in a mostly Sunni area of western Baghdad
Source: Firas Durri: Enthusiast (blog)


Annotated bibliography on education and conflict
Background paper prepared for the
Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2008
Rüdiger Blumör, Nora v. Buttlar
UNESCO, 2007. (PDF, 97 pages)
Publ: 2007; 2008/ED/EFA/MRT/PI/77.


This bibliography contains a selection of publications that deal with the topic of education and conflict, in the form of political and/or violent/ armed conflict. Publications looking at conflict/conflict management in education (e.g. in schools) have not been included.

New Issue of the UNESCO Courier

© UNESCO/Michel Ravassard
UNESCO campaign «Send my friend to school» (2005). Work by Tara Badcock (Australia)

UNESCO Courier 2007 - number 10

Education for All, halfway there

1990 : The Education for All (EFA) campaign is launched in Jomtien (Thailand). The international community pledges to provide quality basic education to all children, youths and adults.

2000 :In Dakar, Senegal, more than 160 governments set six goals to be reached no later than 2015. The goals concern early childhood education, primary school, life skills, adult literacy, gender parity and quality education.

2007:“We are halfway there and we have good reason to be optimistic,” says, in this issue of the UNESCO Courier, Nicholas Burnett, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education and director of the just-launched 2008 EFA Global Monitoring Report. Troublesome areas remain nonetheless, notably early childhood education, gender parity and adult literacy.

Click here to read go to the new issue.

EFA Report has now been issued

EDUCATION FOR ALL BY 2015:
WILL WE MAKE IT?

Just released!

The Report in 10 questions

There is a very helpful three minute video with the key results from the report. It features Nicholas Burnett, director of the staff that prepared the 2008 report and now the new assistant director-general for education of UNESCO.

Click here to see the video,

UNESCO photo contest on The Changing Face of the Earth

UNESCO photo contest on

The Changing Face of the Earth

UNESCO’s International Geoscience Programme (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.

Contestants may enter in either of the categories:

• 15-20 year olds and
• contestants aged 21 years and over.

Each winning contestant will receive a copy of two UNESCO books: Explaining the Earth and The Changing Face of the Earth. In addition, the best entries in each category will win a camera. The names of the winning contestants will be announced in the October 2008 issue of A World of Science and on UNESCO’s science portal.

Photos can be entered in any of ten categories:

1. Soil – Earth's living skin, Planet Earth in our hands
2. Groundwater – towards sustainable use
3. Hazards – minimizing risk, maximizing awards
4. Earth and health – building a safer environment
5. Climate change – the ‘stone tape’
6. Resource issues – towards sustainable use
7. Megacities – going deeper, building safer
8. Deep Earth – from crust to core
9. Ocean – abyss of time
10. Earth and life – the origins of diversity

Read more about the contest.

The Global Education Digest 2007

The Global Education Digest 2007 presents the latest education statistics from primary to tertiary levels in more than 200 countries. This edition focuses on the financing of education and provides a series of indicators to compare spending patterns across countries and levels of education.

The education budget of a single country like France, Germany, Italy or the United Kingdom outweighs education spending across the entire sub-Saharan African region, according to this report from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS). Governments in sub-Saharan Africa spend only 2.4% of the world’s public education resources. Yet about 15% of the school-age population lives in these countries, according to the Digest. In contrast, the United States, which is home to just 4% of the world’s children and young people, spends 28% of the global education budget. This is mainly due to the large numbers of university students and the relatively high costs associated with this level of education.

Download the Digest (PDF, 208 pages.)

21st Century Dialogues: “Making Peace with the Earth”

“Making Peace with the Earth” was the theme of the a session of 21st Century Dialogues, which brought five eminent personalities - Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Hubert Reeves, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Luisa Molina and Mathis Wackernagel - to UNESCO on the 26th of November.

The session was organized around the launch of the book “Making Peace with the Earth”, third anthology of the 21st Century Dialogues, just published in French, English, Spanish and Catalan by UNESCO. In the book, seventeen experts, politicians, scientists and thinkers formulate their answers to the questions:

• What is the future of the planet?
• What is in store for humanity?

Read more.

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day

1 December 2007

“We must continue to intensify our efforts, adapt our actions to the epidemiological and social situations on the ground, and mobilize sufficient financial resources for the AIDS response in the time to come. I pledge UNESCO’s firm commitment to fulfilling its role [of leadership] in the global response to HIV and AIDS."

Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO

• UNESCO's Response to HIV and AIDS

• EDUCAIDS - The Global Initiative on Education and HIV & AIDS
• UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education
• Director Generals World AIDS Day Message

Launch of the 2008 edition

Education for All by 2015:
Will we make it?

This report assesses progress towards the six education for all goals midway to the target date for achieving them -- 2015;

There have been some real gains since 2000:

• the number of children starting primary school has increased sharply,
  
• there are more girls in school than ever before and
• spending on education and aid has risen.

But poor quality, the cost of schooling for poor families and high levels of adult illiteracy are militating against the chances of achieving education for all.

Read the Summary Report.

The full report is to be released on Thursday. The full report, regional overviews, statistical search tool, background papers, video interviews and UNESCO Courier feature stories are to be on line on 29 November.

Major environmental education conference in India

© UNESCO/Dominique Roger

Studying butterflies in France

UNESCO co-sponsored the Fourth International Conference on Environmental Education on 24-28 November in Ahmedabad, India. Some 1500 participants are expected.

Mark Richmond of UNESCO’s Education Sector will deliver a keynote address on behalf of the Director-General on 26 November.

Read the interview with Peter Woods, an expert on education for sustainability, who represents the Australian Government at Ahmedabad and other international environmental forums.