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ADDIS LIAISON OFFICE
E-Newsletter
United Nations Educational ,
Message from the Director
UNESCO/AU News
Education
Science
Culture Communication/Information
Scientific, and Cultural
Organization
Inside This Issue
BUILDING PEACE IN THE MINDS OF MEN AND WOMEN
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 7
April-May 2013
• First Regional Coordination Meeting in Nairobi of four UNESCO Offices (Addis Ababa, Juba, Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam)
• UNESCO Director-General met with employees in of UNESCO Liaison and IICBA Offices in Addis Ababa
Dear readers,
On 25th May, the African Union/former OAU celebrated its 50th anniversary with presence of many VIP personalities including UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova who spoke at Youth Assembly held at the “Africa Hall” where the OAU was founded. Among other events, the Meeting of Experts has successfully launched the IX. volume of the General History of Africa. Pleasant reading.
Firmin Edouard Matoko Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office and
Representative to Ethiopia
Over 200 young people from different corners of Africa gathered in historical Africa Hall to address their leaders...read more on Page 1.
The UNESCO Liaison Office Addis Ababa supported the delivery reference books to 10 target secondary schools in two regions of Ethiopia...read more on Page 3.
A Sustainability Science Workshop for Post 2015 Development Agenda was held in Addis Ababa on April 4th...read more on Page 5.
UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova visited Addis Ababa and met with African Youth and Ethiopian government officials...read more on Page 7.
Meeting of Experts launched the IX. volume of General History of Africa. The Meeting took place in Addis Ababa from May 20-22...read more on Page 6.
Wall painting of the founding fathers of the Organization for African Unity in the Africa Hall at
UNECA premises in Addis Ababa.
Mission of the Office:
• Advocates for UNESCO mandate, strategic program priorities and orientations
• Presents the Organization’s positions and views on issues of relevance to the work of the African Union Commission and UN Economic Commission for Africa
• Acts as a clearing house for information of relevance to UNESCO
• Develops partnerships that contribute to foster the cooperation between UNESCO and these two institutions
• Acts as UNESCO’s Representation to Ethiopia
PAGE 2 UNESCO NEWSLETTER
UNESCO / AU NEWS
independent African States, to decolonize and reclaim their history. The same week the Meeting of Experts on the development of the last IX. volume of the General History of Africa took place in Addis Ababa. UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova presented the General History of Africa project to the African youth and said: “You have to be proud to be Africans and for this you have to know your history,” adding that the History is now being adapted for school textbooks. “We are also working on Africa’s 129 World Heritage Sites, to preserve traditions. In today’s globalizing world, it is more important than ever to know about your history, to be proud of it, to respect your identity and that of others, if you want to move forward and build a culture of peace. For this, we need quality education for all, qualified teachers, good universities, and skills that enable you to become
citizens of the world. UNESCO is working on all these fronts to accompany government’s efforts across the continent, one of our global priorities,” added Ms Irina Bokova during the speech. The Youth Forum was concluded by final words by Mr Carlos Lopez who stressed more space for youth participation in all levels of administration and governing institutions and who also said that youth are the most important contributors to the African continent’s structural transformation.
Lively Youth Forum held at legendary circular
Africa Hall Addis Ababa, 24 May, 2013
Over 200 young people from different corners of Africa gathered in the historic Africa
Hall in the ECA compound in Addis Ababa to address the leaders of Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Senegal, Zambia, Namibia, as well as the UN representatives, including UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova, UN Economic Commission Executive Secreatary Mr Carlos Lopez and Chairperson of the African Union Commission Ms Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. The lively discussion was spinning around topics such as: corruption, mentoring and leadership, poverty and peace and security. The young participants were anything but shy and their hands were constantly swinging in the air eager to ask more questions to the Presidents of the above mentioned African countries including one of the founding members of the Organization for African Unity, Zambia’s first President, H.E. Kenneth Kaunda. The youth event held on the occasion of 50th anniversary gave special attention to UNESCO’s General History of Africa, a vast eight volume history books initiated in 1964 to respond to the aspirations of the newly
UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova speaking at the Youth Forum on May 24, 2013.
Participants of the Youth Forum in the Africa Hall in Addis Ababa.
UNESCO NEWSLETTER PAGE 3
Education News I.
prepared for lessons. Due to a shortage of reference books in the schools, teachers were very pleased to receive support from UNESCO Addis Ababa.
Workshop on Linkage between Universities and
Secondary Schools Adama, 23-24 May, 2013
UNESCO Addis Ababa Liaison Office in partnership with the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (MoWCYA) has been implementing a flagship joint program (JP) on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE). As part of the major JP interventions, MoWCYA together with Ministry of Education (MoE)organized a workshop in Adama town from May 23 to 24 focusing on strategies to strengthen
linkage between Universities and surrounding secondary schools. Total of 61 professionals (out of which 29 were females) attended the workshop from MoWCYA, MoE, 31 Universities, school principals, UNESCO and other concerned organizations. The workshop resulted in Universities and secondary schools sharing experience among each other with regard to promoting gender issues, and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was developed which can institutionalise and support the linkage between Universities and secondary schools.
Crowd Sourcing Girls Education Project –
Enhancing Learning through Reference Books
Support Benishangul-Gumuz and Amhara Regions, April, 2013
The UNESCO Addis Ababa Education sector
supported ten target secondary schools in the Benishangul-Gumuz and Amhara regions with
reference books, under the Crowd Sourcing Girls Education Project. During the field visit in April and following consecutive discussions with school staff, students and communities, it was understood that there was a serious shortage of reference books in the target schools to boost the learning. Some of the books available in the school library were obsolete and not concomitant with the revised curriculum. In sum 695 reference books ranging from Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Oxford dictionary and English and other subjects were delivered, amounting in total to 97,670.54 ETB ($5,328.5). The reference books were identified based on the schools’ needs and their effectiveness on students’ preparation for the grade 10 National Examinations. Moreover, this endeavor contributed to improve the quality of education, enhance students reading skills and enable them to spend their time in a productive manner. Teachers will also benefit from the reference books by extending their knowledge and being better
Teachers of Tongo Secondary School.
Participants of the workshop in Adama.
UNESCO NEWSLETTER PAGE 4
Education News II.
Project Cycle Management Training Bahir Dar, 22-26 April, 2013
The Crowd Sourcing Girls’ Education Project aims to boost the capacity of school principals and teachers to effectively manage the project and promote girls’ education challenges in Benishangul-Gumuz and Amhara Regions in Ethiopia. In light of this, the education sector of UNESCO Liaison Office Addis Ababa convened a training on Project Cycle Management for total of 39 principals (out of which 11 female), vice principals and teachers in Bahir Dar Town from April 22 to 26.
The training was instrumental in enhancing participants’ knowledge and skills to adequately plan, and mobilize resources at
school and larger community levels in order to promote girls’ education. “It was very helpful to implement, monitor and evaluate the project and deliver results. Consequently, each school identified project ideas and developed draft project proposal which could be enriched later along with relevant multi-stakeholders, “ said Demelash Zenebe, UNESCO Coordinator for the Girls’ Education Project.
One of the school principals said that: “The
knowledge and skills grasped from the training will
help improve our professional progress, apply in
the teaching-learning process like concepts of
monitoring and evaluation, raise funds and design
school development plan and manage different
development projects.”
UNESCO organized a workshop for Inspectors Adama, 15-19 April , 2013
A five day training was organized by UNESCO Liaison Office in cooperation with Inspection Directorate of the Ministry of Education from April 15-19 in Adama town to capacitate inspectors from four emerging regions of Ethiopia. The workshop was opened by speeches by Mr. Firmin Matoko, Director of UNESCO Liaison Office in Addis Ababa and Mr. Ato Abebe Defersha, Inspection Directorate Director, Ministry of Education. As a new initiative, the General Education Inspection Directorate has developed the following implementation documents: National School Inspection Framework and National School Inspection Guidelines and Checklists for primary and secondary schools. In addition, a National School Classification Framework document was created. The objective of the workshop, attended by almost 50 participants, was to train the school inspectors and increase their level of awareness of current trends and status of school inspections in Ethiopia and discuss the above mentioned documents.
National Workshop on Establishment of Capacity
Building Corners in the Teachers Training Colleges Adama, 24-26 April, 2013
Within the CapEFA program, Ministry of Education together with the UNESCO Liaison Office organized a workshop prior to establishing so called capacity building corners in the four emerging regions of Ethiopia (Afar, Gambella, Somali and Benishangul-Gumuz). “The participants of the workshop were drawn from Teachers Training Colleges from the four regions, which are lacking behind in achieving EFA goals, in order to collaboratively work with the regions and identify methods and modalities they could use to solve the region’s challenges in education,” says Demissew Lemma, UNESCO CapEFA Coordinator. The workshop was resumed by drafting an action plan to resolve the problems of the emerging four regions through creation of training corners in the Teachers Training Colleges and identification of joint
Training participants in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
PAGE 5 UNESCO NEWSLETTER
Science News
Sustainability Science Workshop for Post 2015
Development Agenda Addis Ababa, 4 April, 2013
The UNESCO Liaison Office Addis Ababa together with the UNESCO Jakarta office in Indonesia organized a panel discussion session with a theme: “Africa - Asia Cooperation for Post 2015 Agenda.” The session connected experts from Asia and Africa via video conferencing system supported by SOI (School on Internet Asia) in Tokyo. The discussion of over 50 experts was part of the Workshop on “Sustainability Science: A Science based Approach to realize the Future We Want for All,” held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and organized by UNESCO in collaboration with the International Science, Technology and Innovation Centre for South – South Cooperation, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan. The participants from Africa included Dr. Mahama Ouedraogo from the Department of Human
Resources Science and Technology (HRST), African Union Commission, Mr. Kasirim Nwuke from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and also experts from Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ethiopia.
The discussions particularly focused on cooperation for human capital development in Africa.
UNESCO Liaison Office facilitated
the IEEE-AU Meeting Addis Ababa, 19 April, 2013
The UNESCO Liaison Office Addis Ababa facilitated the meeting for IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) with the African Union to develop a better understanding of how the IEEE can assist in expanding engineering capacity within the continent. The IEEE is the world's largest engineering professional society, with 430,000 members in over 160 countries. There are 8000 members in Africa. The delegation was lead by IEEE president Prof. Peter W. Staecker. The formal partnership between IEEE and UNESCO was established through signing the MoU in 2012 to develop joint projects on engineering education in Africa.
Collaboration with the UNESCO Nairobi
Office, Regional Science Bureau for Africa Nairobi, 20-22 April, 2013
The mission to the UNESCO Nairobi office, Regional Science Bureau for Africa, was carried out by Science Program Officer, Ms Masami Nakata from UNESCO Liaison Office in Addis Ababa, to consult with regional science advisors on the overall status of UNESCO science programs and priority issues in Africa, including STI policy, Science higher education, Engineering Education, ICT, Energy, Environment and Water. “The mission identified all crucial follow up actions on which both Nairobi and Addis Ababa UNESCO offices will cooperate,” said Ms Masami Nakata. The discussions were also about UN Regional Coordination Mechanism and how field offices in Africa work together to meet
Participating Japanese students watching the Africa-Asia online panel discussion.
PAGE 6 UNESCO NEWSLETTER
CultureNews
Hence, the renovation of history education is given a
new sense of urgency,” said H.E. Mulugeta Said, State Minister of Culture and Tourism who also welcomed all the participants to Ethiopia and Addis Ababa, the capital city of Africa. Deputy Director General of UNESCO, Mr. Getachew Engida,
said that: “the General History of Africa is a UNESCO flagship and that it
is one of the projects that make him personally most proud of the Organization.” He also stressed that UNESCO is grateful to the Government of Brazil for generously providing the financial support required for drafting and publishing the new volume and for serving on the International Scientific Committee. Ambassador of Brazil, Mrs. Isabel Cristina de Azevedo Heyvaert, was among the speakers during the opening session of the Meeting of experts.
Final opening speech was given by H.E. Erastus Mwencha who said that “It is history that Africa wants to look at and take lessons from. And that all the historians from all over the world who gathered here in Addis Ababa for the three days are crucial for us because we
need to learn from the past and not to repeat the mistakes.”
The Meeting of experts in Addis Ababa outlined
not only the format and the orientation of the IX.
volume, but also its methodology, main themes and
landmarks and challenges in recent African History.
Meeting of experts on the development of
IX. volume of the General History of Africa Addis Ababa, 20-22 May, 2013
Around 60 participants were present at the opening session of the Meeting of experts which took place in Addis Ababa at African Union Commission premises from May 20-22. The opening speeches were delivered by Prof. Elikia
M’Bokolo, Chair of the Scientific Committee for the Pedagogical use of the GHA Project; H.E. Mulugeta Said, State Minister of Culture and Tourism of Ethiopia; Mr. Getachew Engida, Deputy Director General of UNESCO and H.E. Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson AUC. All key note speakers expressed their appreciation and gratefulness to all who participated on the General History of Africa project in the past decades and welcomed the launch of the IX. volume which was the key topic of the discussion of experts in the following days in Addis Ababa. “Today, we are on the eve of the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Organization of African Union. It is a very good opportunity to discuss the General History of Africa as an important issue, the time Africa has engaged in regional integration and sustainable development based on African people’s culture, common heritage and shared values.
Opening speaker panel of the Meeting of experts.
Official logo of 50th Anniversary of the AU/former OAU.
Logo of GHA IX. Volume.
PAGE 7 UNESCO NEWSLETTER
Communication/Information
UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova met
with staff of Liaison and IICBA UNESCO Offices Addis Ababa, 24-25 May 2013
UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova met with some employees of UNESCO Liaison Office and IICBA Office during her two day visit to Addis Ababa on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the African
Union (AU)/ former Organization of African Unity
(OAU).
On the first day of the Director-General’s visit to the African capital, Addis Ababa, Ms Irina Bokova spoke to African Youth during the Youth Forum (more on page 2), met with experts of history and scholars who were attending the meeting on the IX. volume of General History in Africa (more on page 6), and also met with the following representatives of the Ethiopian government: States Ministers of Education, Science and Technology, Culture, Communication and Water and Energy to discuss various issued related to relevant UNESCO sectors. On the second day of the visit, the Director-General attended the opening ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the AU/OAU at the premises of theAUC. The program of celebrations continued in the Millennium Hall with speeches by Presidents and Representatives of different countries including the United States, Brazil, European Union and of course many political representatives from the African
“This Golden Jubilee is a great moment for Africa and for the world,” said the Director-General in her message of congratulations to the AU on its
50th
anniversary. “This is a time to celebrate, and to look wit confidence and determination to consolidating Africa’s rise. UNESCO will advance with Africa every step of the way.” The Director-General Ms Irina Bokova visited Addis Ababa for the second time during her term since November 2009 when she has been elected as the first woman to be the head of the Organization.
Regional Coordination Meeting
UNESCO Offices Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Juba,
Dar-es-Salaam Nairobi, 23-24 April, 2013
The directors of the four UNESCO offices met in Nairobi for the Regional Coordination Meeting held from April 23-24. They agreed, among other issues, to develop a Regional Strategy Document for 2014-2017 with priority areas for all mentioned UNESCO offices as follows: Youth, Gender Equality, Culture of Peace, and Culture for Development. Mobilization of extrabudgetary resources is crucial if UNESCO’s mandate and visibility is to be upheld in a satisfactory manner so a fund mobilization strategy was discussed as well. The next meeting is scheduled for September 2013.
Director-General Ms Irina Bokova with UNESCO Liaison and IICBA Office staff and participants of the Meeting of experts.
UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova with DDG Mr Getachew Engida and some members of the Scientific Committee for the Pedagogical use of the GHA Project.
PAGE 8 UNESCO NEWSLETTER
Upcoming Events
UNESCO / AU News
• 20th Conference of African Ministers of Industry (CAMI-20), Nairobi, Kenya, 10-14 June 2013 • 5th Session of the AU Commission Conference of Ministers of Sport (CAMS5), Abidjan, Cote D’ Ivoire, 22-26 July 2013 • A Special Summit of the AU Heads on HIV/AIDS, Abuja, Nigeria, July 12-15, 2013 • COMEDAF Bureau Steering committee meeting and the Teacher’s Congress round table meeting
Addis Ababa, July 15-19, 2013
Education
• International Expert's Meeting n Promoting a culture of peace and non-violence in Africa through education for peace and conflict prevention, Addis Ababa, June 18-19, 2013
• Field visit to Girls’ Education Project from UNESCO HQ and Addis Ababa Liaison Office, June, 2013
• 2nd Eastern Africa High Level Forum on EFA, Kampala, Uganda, July 8-11, 2013
Science
• Sharing lessons learnt through Studies on Hydrogeological mapping in Somali Region, co-organized by Japan International Cooperation Agency and UNESCO Addis Ababa, 8 July, 2013 • Groundwater Hydrolics, Water Well design & Geochemistry training, Addis Ababa, mid June, 2013
Culture
• Steering Committee meeting (phase 2) for the Restoration of Bete Gabriel/Rufael churches of Lalibela, Lalibela, June, 2013
• Consultation meeting on boundary modification for Simien Mountains National Park World Heritage site, Simien Mountains National Park, June, 2013
Communication / Information
• Participation in the UN Communication group in Addis Ababa with focus on the following topics
within “UN delivering as ONE”: Countdown MDG Campaign, Annual Report, Media Award, and Media Forum, June, 2013
UNESCO NEWSLETTER PAGE 9
Contact Us
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO Addis Ababa Liaison Office
P.O. Box 1177 Tel: +251-11-5513953 Fax: +251-11-5511414 E-mail: [email protected] Addis Ababa, Ethiopia For further information on different sections, please, contact: Mr. Paul Mpayimana, Education Specialist – [email protected] Ms. Masami Nakata, Science Specialist – [email protected] Mr. Getu Assefa, Culture Specialist – [email protected] Ms. Petra Vytecka Sedinova, Communication Officer – [email protected]
UNESCO staff of Addis Ababa Liaison Office.
