UNESCO Office in Doha

UNESCO Doha Office’s overall Education objectives for the current biennium 2008/2009

• Achieve Progress in Education for All by providing technical assistance to member states to overcome the challenges identified in the Mid-Term Review and to address particular issues such as inclusive education and literacy
• Develop the UNESCO Educational Support Strategy (UNESS) documents for all member states of the Doha cluster.
• Enhancing the quality of education by putting emphasis on:
• The role of ICT's in teacher training and in improving the teaching/ learning process. 
• Promoting peace education and intercultural learning through the Associated Schools Project network.
• Debating the reform of secondary education.
• Fostering early childhood care and education.

Member States of the Gulf cluster are demonstrating increasing commitment towards EFA. This has been translated in an increasing demand of technical assistance.  Capacity building in educational statistics, inclusive education, improving quality of textbooks, life skills education, promoting early childhood education are all areas that have been tackled through training workshops and advisory missions organized by UNESCO Doha Office.  

Member states have produced their Education for All Medium Term  Reports in 2008, and a sub-regional report has been compiled summarizing,  synthesizing and analyzing  all the information as an attempt to highlight the sub-regional perspective.  This report as well as the UNESS documents will enable UNESCO to address country specific needs and ensure effectiveness and response to Member States’ needs and demands for educational development.
The UNESS process which has been adopted as a method for planning the Organization’s Education Sector’s Medium-Term Strategy and biennial programmes, as well as defining UNESCO’s programme priorities and implementation strategies in each country, has been launched for the six Doha cluster countries.    

Two countries, namely Qatar and Oman have already finalized and validated their UNESS documents in both English and Arabic.

The other 4 countries of the Doha cluster are now well advanced in their reports and have achieved substantial progress since the regional meeting which took place in Doha in July 2008, in collaboration between UNESCO Doha and Beirut Offices.  

UNESCO is also addressing specific educational issues that constitute a common concern in the Arab region such  as the reform of secondary education, unified performance standards for teachers, the role of non-governmental organizations in EFA and education for intercultural dialogue.  

UNESCO offices in the region, are joining together to organize expert meetings, and symposia to tackle these issues.