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Improving tsunami readiness around the South China Sea

The South China Sea region and its neighbouring basins including the Sulu and Celebes seas comprise one of the worlds most vulnerable areas to earthquakes and tsunamis owing to seismic activity in the Manila Cotabato and Negros and Sulawesi trenches

January 13, 2022

Careers for Post-Millennials: Driving the Future with Science, Engineering, and Innovation

The future careers of postpandemic have shifted to be more innovationdriven Critical sectors such as healthcare technology and engineering business and finance or even arts essentially require innovations to thrive in the postpandemic era However there are gaps in the needs and supply of ready professionals and workers to nurture innovations in these sectors The situations during the COVID19 pandemic have widened and worsened this gap especially related to the Asia Pacific regions existing educations inequity To challenge this issue UNESCO in collaboration with Thai Young Scientist Academy PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited and the National Science Museum Thailand NSM conducted a series of online workshops for youth on Careers for postMillennials Driving the Future with Science Engineering and Innovation These workshops aimed to inspire and encourage youth in the region to pursue careers as professionals in innovationdriven sectors The training materials were prepared specifically for high school students and university students comprised of three focused career groups 1 automation and robotic engineers 2 creative and arts digitisation designers and engineers and 3 health and related environmental professionals In addition to that a virtual job exhibition was organised to give participants an experience of job hunting Organised between May and July 2021 51 female and 46 male students in Thailand participated in each workshop broadcasted live on Facebook with more than 2000 total views Two documentary videos on Healthcare Professionals and Design Engineering were also produced as learning materials for the training session Participants expressed their delight in participating in the workshops They identified the workshops as a platform to sharpen the skill sets of innovators and enrich the knowhow in science engineering and innovation The main lesson taken as the organiser is the challenges of delivering the knowledge through an online platform or hybrid event modality The complex combination of online learning and live discussion through an elearning platform would be ideal for providing the knowledge encouraging discussion and supporting more creative and critical thinking which is required for the future workforce This activity reinforced the attainment of the 2030 Agenda especially on Sustainable Development Goals 4 9 and 17 For further information please contact Dr Ai Sugiura asugiuraunesoorg The recorded Online Sessions can be seen at UNESCO Jakarta EPlatform Further info about NSMs Job World virtual exhibition and NSMs Futurium project

September 17, 2021

UNESCO and Norad mobilize youth to translate storybooks into ethnic minority languages in Bangladesh

In the framework of the Translate a Story campaign a book translation campaign to facilitate homebased early age reading the Ministry of Education of Bangladesh translated over 300 childrens books from English into Bangla and 100 books into five ethnic minority languages Chakma Marma Garo Tripura and Sadri The campaign is a collaboration between UNESCO and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation Norad with the support of other partners As part of this initiative UNESCO and partners through a team of the Global Digital Library GDL convene dedicated translation webinars for governmental agencies and individual translators who are interested in translating reading materials from English into relevant national languages All translated books undergo a quality assurance process and are made freely available on the GDL platform With relevant preparations and expertise made available from the governmental agencies translated books can be aligned with curriculum standards so that the books can also quickly be approved for later use in the classroom or on the national platform The Aspire to Innovate a2i Programme the Bangladesh governments flagship digital transformation program supported the translation in Bangladesh Over 100 voluntary teachers and students were mobilized to translate the books To guide them through the translation process using the online translation interface of the Global Digital Library UNESCO and Norad organized an online workshop which was attended by 150 participants To officially launch the translated ebooks on the Global Digital Library GDL a2i ICT Division and the Bangladesh National Commission for UNESCO BNCU together with UNESCO Dhaka Office jointly organized a virtual launch event on Tuesday 6 July 2021 The launch event marked an important opportunity to recognize the achievements of engaged volunteers and organizers in making early age reading materials available to children in languages they speak at home which allows for better homebased learning and reading for children The launch event of the Translate a Story initiative will contribute to the scaleup of the E9 Digital Learning and Skills for All Initiative under which a meeting of Heads of State will be convened and chaired by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh HE Sheikh Hasina and the UN SecretaryGeneral The meeting was originally planned on 14 July 2021 but has been postponed due to the surge of COVID19 cases in the country In addition to representatives from UNESCO and Norad the launch event was attended by Dr Dipu Moni Minister of Education of Bangladesh Mr Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury Deputy Minister of Education Mr Md Mahbub Hossain Secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division at the Ministry of Education and Mr Md Shohel Imam Khan Deputy Secretary General of the BNCU The Minister of Education recognized the importance of this initiative in the context of COVID19 school closures in supporting Bangladeshs efforts to ensure the continuity of education and in scaling up digital learning in the framework of the E9 Digital Learning and Skills for All Initiative She congratulated UNESCO Norad other partners and especially the young translators and their mentors for the success of this Initiative One teacher and two students were also invited to share their experience about the translation process Ms Farjana Anwar Assistant Teacher of English at the Ikkshu Gabeshawana High School Ishwardi Pabna district shared how the experience helped her practice her management skills and highlighted the resilience of the Bangladesh education system during the pandemic We are the nation of the brave and we proved it managing all the respected duties even in this pandemic situation to support our government from our position she said Anonyo Zarif Akand a student of grade 7 at The Holy Child School in Manikganj district recollected the joy of reading since he was a young child and was pleased to participate in the effort to enable learners in remote areas of Bangladesh including visually impaired children to access reading material in their mother tongues Thats where we the army of little book lovers from around the nation were allowed to translate the books so that the children can enjoy them in their native languages It was a very delightful experience to work with many other bibliophiles Samaina Sultana Shorna another student who participated in the translation said she enjoyed participating in an international project for the very first time while gathering experience and learning new skills Throughout this journey I was introduced to new features and technology so it improved my digital literacy I have learned how collaboration and teamwork is needed when it comes to solving a problem But most importantly I did something good for my country and especially for the children of this country Christer Gundersen Chief Technology Officer of the Global Digital Library GDL representing Norad underlined the success of the campaign in Bangladesh making it a pathfinding country for others to follow their example especially in mobilizing such a large number of young translators The Library currently offers over 6000 books in 84 different languages thanks to the efforts of volunteers and translators from around the world who joined the campaign The goal of this years campaign is to reach 4400 translation including 1500 governmentapproved books Midway through the campaign 2500 translations have already been completed Additionally the newly added AIpowered feature of the Global Digital Library allows visually impaired children to listen to the text in audio The cooperation between UNESCO and Norad on Translate a Story has been led and implemented by the Unit for Technology and AI in Education Future of Learning and Innovation Team of the Education Sector According to Dr Fengchun Miao Chief of the Unit Bangladesh is leading in the number of books translated followed by Palestine which translated 244 books into Arabic and then Uzbekistan which translated 130 books into Uzbek and 100 books into Russian UNESCO is also working with Cambodia Kyrgyzstan and Qatar As a next step UNESCO will follow up on the actual use of the books in the local context through online facilitation via the GDL and offline support UNESCO also seeks to create a list of inclusive digital storybooks in mothertongue languages approved by governments Resources Translate a Story campaign website UNESCO and partners launch a book translation campaign for early age reading amid the COVID19 crisis UNESCO and partners publish 130 open source childrens books in Uzbek UNESCO and partners organize translation workshops with Bangladesh and Palestine Translate a Story UNESCO NORAD and the Ministry of Education of Uzbekistan gather to celebrate the release of 130 new childrens books in Uzbek on the Global Digital Library Introduction document of the initiative Global Digital Library

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

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

Women in History: Online exhibition pays tribute to women’s achievements on International Women’s Day

This year on 8 March International Womens Day UNESCO Bangkok Office launches Women in History Telling HERstory through Memory of the World online exhibition to encourage more memory institutions in the AsiaPacific to evaluate their collections in terms of gender dimensions The exhibition has gathered 20 documentary collections that contain HERstories from 14 countries including important records from the AsiaPacific region on gender equality issues achievements of women in history and stories told by women To inspire more collections it also highlights inscriptions of prominent women on the MoW international register who have contributed to womens empowerment around the world

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

February 26, 2021

Firdausi Qadri: improving vaccines and diagnostic to ensure children live longer, healthier lives

December 21, 2020

Youths Empowering Youths: Ensuring Adaptation of High Schoolers for the New Normal

November 17, 2020

Call for registration: World Science Day and Green Academies

October 29, 2020

Tourism partnership promotes culture and sustainability

October 29, 2020