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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)

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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, prevention-

oriented, protect and empower). Following the Human Security approach and

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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

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From 23 to 25 August 2017, a 3-day face-

to-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

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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

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3rd meeting of the SDGs - Education 2030 Steering Committee

29-30 June 2017 New York, United States

Meeting Report

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

the report here.

Videos

Health Literacy and Behavioral Change

Project

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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

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