UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization  

Profile

The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations within its overarching objectives of building of peace, eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, sciences, culture, communication and information. The work of the Organization is being implemented and leveraged through the involvement of its different Sectors, Field Offices, Designated and Affiliated Sites, Category I and II Centers, UNESCO Chairs and Networks. 

UNESCO is a key player within the United Nations system in addressing current and emerging global challenges through a focus on the contribution of communication and information to building inclusive Knowledge Societies, enabling sustainable development. In particular, the Division of Knowledge Societies supports UNESCO’s Member States with programmes leveraging access to information and knowledge through ICTs as one of the pillars towards building peace and promoting fundamental rights and freedoms.

In the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 recognizes the importance of public access to information and fundamental freedoms, with the target of creating peace, justice and strong institutions. UNESCO supports Member States in ensuring that the digital revolution is harnessed for human rights, empowerment, informed decision-making and human development, to strengthen the foundations of peace.

Furthermore, innovation in ICTs for learning and equal participation in societal development is nowadays essential for the achievement of SDGs 4 and 11, which call for equitable and inclusive access to quality education for lifelong learning, including the most marginalized social groups. 

Since several years, UNESCO adopted an “Open Solutions” approach – to empower and promote the social and economic inclusion of all (SDG 10, target 2), with a view to support Member States to substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training (SDG 8, target 6).

Building on the inter-sectoral approach of UNESCO’s Integrated Framework of  Action ‘Empowering Youth to Build Peace’ (2015), the Organization acts  to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and values that empower them  to engage as responsible global citizens and to be resilient to any form of abuse or  manipulation, including radicalization and violent extremism. In this framework, UNESCO launched different projects of Youth Empowerment, through capacity building actions enabling citizen’s participation in national and local societies.

The EU and UNESCO have in the recent past strengthened their cooperation and synergies. On 8 October 2012 a MoU, which sets clear strategic priorities and stimulated an increased dialogue in shared domains of interest between the two organisations, was signed. The agreement builds on a longstanding cooperation with the EU in the core mandate of UNESCO such as education, the sciences, human rights and cultur.

Role in the Project

UNESCO is mainly involved in the following Work Packages:

• WP 2 – Codesign Processes
  Expertise: UNESCO has an extensive record of projects bridging the gap between institutions, national and local organizations (including NGOs) and beneficiaires, youth in particular. UNESCO has also experience in IT capacity building projects for the deployment of services. 
   Role: UNESCO is involved in the definition of the service provision and prototypes, user experience and feedback. 
• WP 6 - Deployment, piloting and user validation
  Expertise: UNESCO experience in deployment of capacity building services involving different type of stakeholders, service providers on the one hand, and beneficiaries, on the other. UNESCO’s reinforces its action in the field by nurturing work collaborations with local partners, including government services, international and national organizations.
  - Role: UNESCO is a leader in Work Package 6 on Deployment, piloting and user validation

Web site
https://en.unesco.org/