Coping with New Challenges

Population Growth

Environmental Degradation

Quality of Life: Health, AIDS and Drugs Problems

The Crisis in Human Values

In education, as in its other fields of competence, UNESCO seeks, through its action and thinking, to contribute to tackling the major challenges facing the world today.

A feature of the last years of this century is the growing importance attached by the international community to development problems and their humanistic and social aspects, as reflected in particular through the organization of a series of important international events: conferences on Environment and Development (1992), on Human Rights (1993), on Population and Development (1994), on Women and Development (1995), the World Summit for Social Development (1995), and the United Nations Year for Tolerance (1995). In preparation for these events, UNESCO organized in 1993 an International Congress on Population Education and Development in Istanbul, a Pan-African Conference on the Education of Girls in Ouagadougou and an International Congress on Education for Human Rights and Democracy in Montreal.

The campaigns against drug abuse and AIDS also occupy an important place in international concerns and UNESCO is contributing to prevention through its education programmes.

A further feature of this period is the increase in international activities aimed at preserving or consolidating peace. UNESCO's action in this field is planned with due regard for the overall background against which national capacities have to be rebuilt and democratic dialogue has to be restored. With this in mind, UNESCO has embarked on fresh action to reconstruct educational services through a series of activities aimed at providing emergency assistance to those Member States faced with the need to make far-reaching changes in their education system and at providing educational services for refugee or displaced populations.

Environment, Population, Development

The interdisciplinary inter-agency co-operation project 'Environmental and Population Education and Information for Human Development' is directly linked to the follow-up to the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. In its bid to tackle environmental, population and development issues, - issues which are becoming increasingly interlinked -, the project seeks fresh approaches to education, training and information that will be both integrated and based on sound scientific data. The project will foster the combined thrust of multilateral assistance by strengthening co-operation with institutional partners of the United Nations system.

Governments should give priority to quality and equity and administration targets for improving girls' education within the framework of national development plans; ... The Ouagadougou Declaration on the Education of Girls, 1993 Education for human rights in a changing world should be participatory and operational, creative, innovative and empowering at all levels of civil society. World Plan of Action on Education for Human Rights and Democracy, Montreal 1993 An education concerning population issues should be provided for both sexes and all age groups at all levels and in both formal and non-formal education. The Istanbul Declaration on Population Education and Development, 1993

Prevention through education School today has a duty to contribute to the fight against drug abuse and AIDS. Preventive education is aimed not so much at spreading knowledge as at bringing about a change of attitudes and behaviour among young people and helping them to contend with these problems. UNESCO, with other U.N. agencies, the European Communities and relevant NGOs, is endeavouring to promote new methods of education through pilot projects. It is also promoting the exchange of information on experiments carried out in different parts of the world. Several information centres have been set up. These include, at Headquarters, the AIDS School Education Resource Centre (ASERC), which has a collection of over 2,000 documents and handbooks and more than 500 audio-visual items, and an international information network for education on the prevention of drug abuse, which publishes a newsletter. Integrating prevention through education into school curricula and into out-of-school educational activities has now become a priority and it is essential to convince decision-makers of the need for an integrated approach to these questions. With that in mind, UNESCO is planning to organize regional seminars to increase awareness of these problems.

Education for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy

UNESCO has been endeavouring for many years to set up a comprehensive system of training and education for human rights and intercultural understanding, covering all educational levels and targetted on a number of groups, such as schools and universities, along with such occupational categories directly involved in the protection of human rights, like magistrates, police forces and elected representatives.

The main partners in this undertaking are the 2,800 Associated Schools spread over 114 countries, the network of Associated Universities, and the UNESCO Chairs for peace and human rights.

The activities involved include the development of prototype curricula and educational materials such as the Human Rights Teaching Handbook for universities or methodological guides such as International understanding through foreign language teaching; the organization of bilateral or multilateral consultations for the revision of school textbooks; training workshops and other similar activities.

Fresh emphasis is laid on creating a culture of peace. In this context, priority is given to education, both formal and informal, using cross-conflict teams. These may include, for example, teams to design new curricula or administer a model school. Educational exchanges and other co-operative ventures are supported and initiated. At the university level, a special chair for peace culture will be established in association with related disciplines.

Emergency Assistance If peace-keeping is a role for the Security Council, peace-making is a central concern for UNESCO whose constitution requires it "to build the defences against war" in people's minds. In countries experiencing emergencies, UNESCO, in co-operation with the United Nations Department for Humanitarian Affairs and other agencies is providing assistance for the reconstruction of educational, scientific and cultural institutions destroyed by war. These activities, while catering for emergency situations, are nevertheless part of a long-term framework for development involving the training of human resources and the promotion of endogenous capacities. It is noteworthy that in many countries, education is becoming a focus for national consensus, rising above political or ideological divisions: in Mozambique, an emergency education plan has been drawn up in co-operation with UNDP, UNICEF and UNHCR, for demobilized child soldiers victims of the war; in El Salvador, a forum of reflection on education and the culture of peace was held in April 1993; in Cambodia, literacy and human rights education programmes have been organized for demobilized soldiers. UNESCO has co-operated in humanitarian aid operations carried out under the aegis of the United Nations. These were mainly focused on creating temporary educational structures to ensure continuity in the education of war victims: in Somalia: the 'Islands of education for peace'; in Slovenia and Croatia: the development of educational centres for refugee children; in Afghanistan: the creation of tent schools and mobile literacy teams; implementation of the SHARE programme of humanitarian aid for the education of refugees.