Issue 39: From 21st to 25th August 2017 Message of the Director Dear Colleagues and Partners, This week I had the opportunity to participate in the Conference on Girls' Education in Africa and Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) 1
in Lusaka, Zambia, from 23 to 24 August 2017. I was invited as co-sponsor of the conference to give the keynote speech whose focus was on overcoming the bottlenecks of gender equality through bringing back normalcy to gender power relations. The event presented a great opportunity to reflect on the work done to place girls' education issues in national, continental and intercontinental education policies and laws, conventions and agreements and find possible solutions to challenges that still hinder gender equality and women's empowerment. The event revolved around the issue of promoting youth leadership and engagement in regional, continental and international education dialogue on the gender equality goal in education, as well as exploring opportunities for establishing strategic partnerships focused on promoting girls and women's education in Africa. It was recommended that the next 25 years should be based on a strategy of involving the participation of all ministers of education irrespective of gender. Within this Conference on Girls' Education in Africa, UNESCO hosted a parallel session on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education in Africa, with the objective of preparing a Roadmap for a Regional Strategy on STEM Education in Africa. It was a fruitful sharing of experiences among the African Union, the East African Community, the African Academy of Sciences, as well as UN agencies, universities, development agencies and the private sector. On 23 August we celebrated the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its abolition, paying tribute to all those who fought for freedom against slavery. This point in history greatly impacted also Eastern 2
Africa. For this, I warmly invite you to take a look at the UNESCO 8 Volumes on the General History of Africa, one of the major contributions to the knowledge of Africa's history and historiography. Next week the office will participate in a two-day workshop to map UNDAF outcomes and outputs in Nairobi, Kenya, UNESCO will provide input to this process in contributing towards the development of the next UNDAF (2018-2022) in Kenya. I wish you a productive week ahead! Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta Announcements Horn of Africa crisis. The Call to Action for the Horn of Africa was released, advocating to extend the right to education to all children around the world, especially the most vulnerable and excluded. You can find the Advocacy Letter on Education in Emergencies, here. 3
The July Edition of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in Nairobi, featured UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa in three activities carried out by UNESCO in July, including the Technical and Vocational Education Training systems for quality and employability (TVET) regional workshop, as well as the Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education Technical workshop, and the work on UNESCO in shaping a digital future by supporting the Kenya Internet Governance Forum. You can read the UNIC Newsletter here. 4
First Education Cannot Wait -grant for UNESCO UNESCO Regional Office for Nairobi was granted 63,000 USD from the Education Cannot Wait fund for emergency-support in Madagascar. This is the first time UNESCO benefits from this fund that was created at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016, with the aim to increase the education system's resilience to crises. Events of the week Consultation meeting with partners and donors in Djibouti on the UNDAF 2018 to 2022 28 August 2017 Djibouti Ville, Djibouti China-Africa Dialogue II Theme "China's engagement with UNESCO to support Higher Education in Africa through UNESCO Priority Africa Programme" 6 September 2017 UNESCO Headquarters, Paris-France Room II Two-day Workshop to Map UNDAF Outcomes and Outputs and Plan for the UNDAF 28 to 29 August 2017 Nairobi, Kenya 5
Communication Focal Points Meeting for Eastern Africa 29 August 2017 Nairobi, Kenya A consultative meeting with stakeholders to develop SIDA work plan on HIV and Health Education 2018-2020. Meeting organized jointly by Ministry of Education, UNESCO and Kenya National Commission for UNESCO 31 August 2017 Nairobi, Kenya Pre-validation meeting of the Rwanda Teacher Development Framework 29 to 31 August 2017 Kigali, Rwanda Meeting of the sub-committee on Science & Technology for the preparation of the National and International Workshop on Future Earth Sciences 30 August 2017 Kigali, Rwanda Data collection on MIL in 16 primary teachers training colleges 28 August to 18 September, 2017 Kigali, Rwanda 6
Second roundtable discussions aimed at prevention, monitoring and countering hate speech (Human rights nexus) 30 August 2017 South Sudan Meetings Strengthening Somalia Information and Communication Platforms for peace and security 23 August 2017 Nairobi, Kenya UNESCO met with the World Bank, and with its partners UN Women and UNHCR, to follow-up on the development of a UN inter-agency project aimed at upstreaming and downstreaming interventions that contribute to Strengthening Information and Communication in Somalia to promote peace and public access to information for the vulnerable populations, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals and according to the United Nations Trust Fund for human security requirements (people-centered, comprehensive, context-specific, preventionoriented, protect and empower). Following the Human Security approach and 7
the identification of the causes of insecurities on the ground, UNESCO and its partners will agree on thematic areas of work and will lead the way forward. UNESCO and Free Press discuss media freedom in Somalia On 24 August 2017, UNESCO discussed with Free Press on the interventions that the organizations are supporting in Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland during the last quarter of 2017 and upcoming projects and activities in 2018. The interventions are in support of the implementation of the Somalia Media Strategy 2016-2020 Strategic Media Development Goals. During the meeting, UNESCO and Free Press discussed on how to further develop and implement the media legal framework in Somalia, strengthen the capacity of media operators, workers, institutions and stakeholders, develop public service ethos in media, improve media security, as well as being part of the Somalia Media Working Group. Training of 80 teacher Educators on management and support of the Leaner Management System 23 to 25 August 2017 Wakiso, Uganda 8
From 23 to 25 August 2017, a 3-day faceto-face training workshop for Teacher Educators from all Teacher Training Institutions (TTIs) in Uganda was conducted at Shimoni Core PTC in Wakiso, Uganda. This training aimed at developing ICT skills for teacher educators, by improving their skills to integrate ICT as a pedagogical tool in their teaching and learning, thus enabling them to use modern education technology practices. The hands-on training equipped teacher educators with skills on how to use and manage courses and supported the Teacher Educator E- Learning System (TEELS), a Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) that is designed to Uganda's context. The second phase of the training workshop will take place from 30 August to 1 September 2017. These blended training workshops will be followed by a 1-month, online training session, where participants from both phases will interact with the facilitators and complete the rest of the course online. Missions Karalyn Monteil Workshop on the Development of the African Union model law on the protection of cultural heritage 27 to 30 August 2017 9
Lilongwe, Malawi Alice Ochanda Cracking the Code: Girls education in STEM 28 to 30 August 2017 Bangkok, Thailand Publications Agenda 2063 African Union The document is a strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years. It builds on, and seeks to accelerate the implementation of past and existing continental initiatives for growth and sustainable development. You can read about the Aspirations of Africa here 10
3rd meeting of the SDGs - Education 2030 Steering Committee 29-30 June 2017 New York, United States Meeting Report the report here. The Document reports on the activities of the SDG- Education 2030 Steering Committee, whose mandate is to provide strategic guidance to Member States and the education community, make recommendations for catalytic action, advocate for adequate financing and monitor progress towards SDGs targets through the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Global Educational Monitoring (GEM) Report. You can find Videos Health Literacy and Behavioral Change Project 11
UN days & Public Holidays International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its abolition 23 August 2017 Eid Al Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice 2 September 2017 UN offices will be closed in several countries in the region, on Friday 1st September 2017 Birthdays Virginia Ntheketha Mumo 26 August 2017 Mika Odido 31 August 2017 12
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