UNESCO and Government of Iceland embarking on a decade-long partnership

On 16 November 2023, UNESCO and the Government of Iceland renewed its a five-year Programme Cooperation Agreement (2024-2028) to continue and strengthen its ongoing partnership in several core areas of UNESCO’s mandate, driven by human-rights based approach. This comes as a seamless continuation from the previous five-year Programme Cooperation Agreement (2019-2023). Through this Agreement, UNESCO and Iceland are embarking on a decade-long partnership. The Agreement foresees a total contribution of more than 1.8 million USD (51 million Icelandic Krona) over the next five years. 

Iceland and UNESCO will continue to work together in the field of Education and Communication and Information and will kick-start new cooperation in the field of Ocean sciences. UNESCO is proud that Iceland is expanding its cooperation to UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and supporting in particular, the 2024 ed mition of the State of the Ocean Report. 

Iceland’s cooperation with UNESCO enables the Organization to support education and learning opportunities, especially to those in least developed countries by enhancing capacity development in education systems, through UNESCO’s flagship CapED programme. The cooperation will further boost its work in developing communication, media development, and media and information literacy and defending freedom of expression and safety of journalists through the multi-donor programme on Freedom of Expression and the Safety of Journalists and the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). The engagements will focus on developing countries, countries in transition, and countries in conflict and post-conflict situations.

In line with UNESCO’s Global Priority Gender Equality, promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment will be key pillar of the implementation, within all of the programmes. 

Iceland’s partnership with UNESCO is invaluable as it continues its support to multi-donor programmes through flexible funding at thematic levels, enabling UNESCO to react with agility to ever-changing global contexts and respond to realities on the ground. The long-term nature of the cooperation with predictable and sustainable funding for five years, allows the Organization to plan and engage with the beneficiaries sustainably and deliver more impactful results.

The partnership between Iceland and UNESCO is grounded on constant dialogue and shared values in finding common solutions to the present and future global challenges.