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JAAGO Foundation: how a simple technological solution can be expanded from a classroom to a whole country

September 30, 2019

2020 UNESCO calendar of "Colors of Bangladesh"

February 26, 2020

Dr Firdausi Qadri : fighting disease linked to humanitarian crises and climate change

Dr Firdausi Qadris research aims to understand and prevent infectious diseases affecting children in developing countries and promote early diagnosis and vaccination with global health impact In recognition of her outstanding achievements she is receiving the 2020 LOréalUNESCO For Women in Science award given each year to five exceptional women scientists from different regions of the world Globally over 800000 children die of diarrhoea each year and 56 of children in lowincome countries do not receive the recommended treatment In Bangladesh cholera and typhoid are both major causes of enteric diseases yet many people lack the knowledge or means to prevent these debilitating even lifethreatening conditions Expanding access to vaccination and promoting early diagnosis are fundamental to decreasing the countrys disease burden and helping to ensure that more children and adults lead longer healthier lives Dr Firdausi Qadri is leading pioneering work to understand the microbiological and immunological basis of bacterial diseases and treat infectious enteric gastrointestinal and diarrheagenic diseases affecting children in Bangladesh and beyond optimising vaccines for young children suffering from malnutrition Her scientific excellence and passion to help others have led to major studies of an oral cholera vaccine among nearly a million people at risk in vulnerable Bangladeshi communities with a vaccine due to be launched imminently To promote the rapid diagnosis of cholera and typhoid she has also developed innovative diagnostic tools and successfully overseen their journey from the laboratory to a practical commercially viable reality The suffering of thousands of diarrhoea patients is due to poor living conditions and highly contagious contaminated food and water she says Staying close to my roots in Bangladesh has enabled me to better understand peoples needs and find lifechanging solutions As a scientist at the unique International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh ICDDRB in Dhaka Bangladesh Dr Qadri has used biochemical immunological and molecular approaches to research the bacteria behind cholera Vibrio cholerae and typhoid Salmonella typhi as well as enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli ETEC She explores the capacity of mucous membranes to protect themselves against these pathogens and investigates the respective bacteria at a genetic level to better understand their infectious characteristics This builds on her longstanding interest in understanding Vibrio cholerae as well as ETEC and their potential to cause cholera epidemics in Bangladesh I knew I wanted to find a diagnostic method and work towards a prevention mechanism she recalls Dr Qadris groundbreaking work on cholera vaccinations has had a positive ripple effect advancing progress on vaccines against diseases including cholera typhoid and ETEC diarrhoea In particular she is working on a typhoid vaccine in the urban slums of Dhaka and both this and her cholera vaccine studies are being replicated in Asia Africa and Haiti I would like to see our work scaled up to treat many more people globally as they struggle with the risk of disease linked to humanitarian crisis and climate change she says In 2014 Dr Qadri founded the Institute for developing Science and Health initiatives ideSHi to help develop novel approaches to diagnosing genetic disorders and train biomedical scientists and clinicians in immunology and molecular biologybased research Under her leadership ideSHi also conducts humanitarian and research programmes to identify pragmatic solutions to public health challenges in Bangladesh and participates in health discussions at a global level Dr Qadri is active in fostering a supportive national culture for biotechnological innovations and acts as an expert adviser nationally and internationally working with the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization for example Her interest in life sciences began at an early age I felt that knowing the biochemical and immunological mechanisms of the living being was extremely important she recalls Ive been amazed by the way microorganisms grow and help humans to live on this planet But Im also alarmed by their capacity to endanger peoples lives Dr Qadris family was a real source of inspiration and support for the early stages of her scientific journey encouraging her to reach ever higher in her ambitions Yet life as a scientist in Bangladesh has not always been easy To overcome the lack of funding resources and researchers and fight entrenched cultural expectations and gender prejudice she has leveraged courage and determination and achieved excellence through rigorous multitasking and a superb team of scientists I dream that in countries like ours we will develop stateoftheart selfsustaining facilities to support the mentoring and capacity building of young people especially women in scientific research Importantly she sees international collaborations as the building blocks of my achievements These have included partnerships with leading researchers in the US Sweden France the UK the Republic of Korea and India Balancing the demands of scientific research with family life remains the greatest challenge Dr Qadri perceives for women in science today Ultimately she believes that women scientists must play a dual role in the quest to further the cause of science both succeeding in their field and serving as role model for future generations Beyond this achieving gender balance in science means instilling the wonder of science in girls and boys and encouraging them to embrace its potential to change the world More information 22nd LOréalUNESCO For Women in Science Awards recognizes five exceptional women researchers in the life sciences source World Health Organization httpswwwwhointmaternalchildadolescentdocuments9789 All photos © LOréal Foundation

Message from Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of International Women’s Day

Women are born free and remain equal to men in rights Today Article 1 of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen written in 1791 by Olympe de Gouges seems to us to state the obvious but at the time of its publication this message of justice dignity and equality was still far from being the common opinionSince then the cause of equality has made significant progress particularly in recent years The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action whose 25th anniversary we are celebrating this year was a catalyst for many initiatives in this regard ~read full message here

"Implementation Partners Agreement Signing Ceremony” Between the Department of Archaeology and UNESCO

Within the framework of the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and its World Heritage Funds an International Assistance project on Updating the Tentative List in Bangladesh is jointly carried out by the Department of Archaeology and UNESCO Launching the project an Implementation Partners Agreement Signing Ceremony was held between the Department of Archaeology and UNESCO on 27 January 2020 at the Department of Archaeology Mr Md Hannan Mia Director General Additional Secretary of the Department of Archaeology and Ms Beatrice Kaldun Head of Office and UNESCO Representative to Bangladesh together with key staff and the international expert came together and signed the agreement for Updating the Tentative List in Bangladesh In this context UNESCO Dhaka Office provides technical guidance and advisory services having an international World Heritage expert engaged to support the Department of Archaeology in updating the Tentative List in Bangladesh for future nominations of World Heritage Sites in Bangladesh This project will analyze and reexamine the justification of the properties which were included in the existing Tentative List of Bangladesh and assess the potential Outstanding Universal Value OUV authenticity and integrity of new properties for inclusion in an updated Tentative List Tentative List A Tentative List is an inventory of those properties which each State Party intends to consider for nomination as a World Heritage site

Video Campaign to Cope with COVID-19 in Bangladesh: #BeCreative to Promote Art

Like everywhere in the world Bangladesh is part of the COVID19 crisis The UNESCO Dhaka Office is fully aware of the need to activate all our potential including culture and art during this situation

Cyclone Amphan makes landfall across Sundarbans World Heritage properties

UNESCO expresses its deep concern over cyclone Amphan which recently hit Bangladesh and eastern India and wishes to express its deepest sympathy for the loss of human life and the material damage caused by this disaster in solidarity with the people affected On 20 May 2020 cyclone Amphan made landfall across the West BengalBangladesh coast which includes two World Heritage properties Sundarbans National Park India and The Sundarbans Bangladesh inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987 and 1997 respectively This transnational mangrove ecosystem is known for being the worlds largest remaining habitats for the Bengal Tiger and other threatened flagship species such as Irrawaddy and Ganges River dolphins Emergency impact assessments have been conducted by the respective authorities to assess the magnitude of the damage caused and a report from concerned authorities in Bangladesh indicates that there has been no major impact on the Outstanding Universal Value of the Sundarbans while significant damage was caused to infrastructure and facilities associated with the property The national authorities in India are currently assessing the impact of the cyclone on the Sundarbans National Park The World Heritage Centre stands ready to discuss with the authorities any assistance that may be required to support the World Heritage properties and the surrounding communities affected by this disaster and calls upon the international community to help support the Bangladeshi and Indian authorities in their recovery efforts For more information visit here

Eswatini TVET Policy Review report launched

February 21, 2021

Director-General condemns killing of journalist Burhan Uddin Mujakker in Bangladesh

February 26, 2021

Director-General calls for investigation into death in detention of writer and blogger Mushtaq Ahmed in Bangladesh

Eswatini joins Sustainability Starts with Teachers programme

Eswatini joins the Sustainability Starts with Teachers programme

Translate a Story: Online Launch Event in Bangladesh

The online launch event of the Translate a Story Initiative in Bangladesh is coming soon In the initiative more than 300 books ebooks and other early age reading materials which have been translated into the Bangla language by volunteers with the support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation Norad the Association for the Development of Education in Africa ADEA UNHCR the Global Book Alliance UNESCO and other partners will be launched in the Global Digital Library link httpsdigitallibraryio from where they can be accessed free of charge thus supporting homebased learning and reading for children in a language they speak at home The COVID19 pandemic during which most children are confined at home and therefore often struggle to access reading materials available in local languages has reinforced the need for openly available early grade reading resources in languages children speak at home In response to this need the Translate a Story Initiative mobilizes and engages volunteers in the highquality peerreviewed translation of publicly available early grade reading books into different languages In Bangladesh as part of the Translate a Story Initiative the Ministry of Education in cooperation with UNESCO and Norad mobilized volunteers for the translation and translation peer review of more than 300 children books into Bangla Placed in the Global Digital Library the books are openly available to use by schools and families in Bangladesh and other countries free of charge