Resources
Explore a wide range of valuable resources on GCED to deepen your understanding and enhance your research, advocacy, teaching, and learning.
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Translation: From One World to Another (The UNESCO Courier No. 2; April-June 2022) Year of publication: 2022 Corporate author: UNESCO To translate is “to say almost the same thing”, in the words of the Italian writer Umberto Eco. A whole world is contained in this “almost”. To translate is to confront the other, the different, the unknown. It is often the essential prerequisite for those who want to access a universal, multiple, diverse culture. It is therefore no coincidence that the League of Nations took up the issue in the 1930s, envisaging the creation of an Index Translationum.Taken over by UNESCO in 1948, this Index allowed the first census of translated works in the world. Two years later, the Representative Works programme was launched to translate masterpieces of world literature. UNESCO’s support for the publication last year of a lexicon of words from indigenous languages of Mexico that are untranslatable into Spanish is a continuation of these efforts.Although their disappearance was predicted as early as the 1950s, translators – who are most often women – have never been as numerous as they are today. The machines developed in the aftermath of the war have not been able to outdo this behind-the-scenes profession. Nor have digital translation tools, which have become the standard feature of our globalized conversations, even if they have contributed to transforming the job.This is because language is more than just a means of communication. It is that, and much more. It is what written or oral works make of it, contributing to forge what is sometimes called the ‘genius of the language’, which the most powerful applications cannot restore. 
Textbooks for Sustainable Development: A Guide to Embedding Year of publication: 2017 Corporate author: UNESCO | Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development(MGIEP) This guidebook introduces the approach of embedding education for sustainable development into core subjects, building on the German initiative as well as consolidating other existing efforts. This ambitious work began when the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), with support from Engagement Global gGmbH, brought together 30 international experts in mathematics, sciences, languages, geography and education for sustainable development in Bangalore, India, in June 2016. These experts co-drafted this guidebook. This publication is designed as a guide for stakeholders in textbook development – education ministries, national curriculum authorities, textbook writers and publishers – to help them produce a new generation of textbooks. Such textbooks will make a clear departure from the mechanistic transmission of information and procedural knowledge devoid of meaning and contextual relevance. They will also advocate a new vision of learning and contribute to fostering young people’s competencies and capabilities to shape more peaceful and sustainable societies. Competencies such as critical and systemic thinking, appreciation of diversity, empathy and commitment to change are the key goals of this ambitious publication. 
Global Partnership Strategy for Early Childhood, 2021-2030 Year of publication: 2022 Corporate author: UNESCO The Global Partnership Strategy for early childhood is the result of inter-agency efforts to counter the negative trend in education and to overcome the reduction and closure of services for health, nutrition, sanitation, and child protection in all regions of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Well-designed and implemented policies and services for early childhood care, education and development enable all countries to protect and guarantee child rights, achieve high rates of return on their investments in child and family development and widen avenues for transforming societies and lives. 
Revised Recommendation Concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education Relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ('1974 Recommendation') Year of publication: 2022 Corporate author: UNESCO The revision of the 1974 Recommendation provides the international community with the opportunity to strengthen the instrument so that it can support the design and implementation of effective educational policies and programmes, which can put the world on a pathway to lasting peace and sustainable development for all, in line with the requirements of the 2030 Agenda and the body of international legal norms adopted since 1974. 
Defending Creative Voices: Artists in Emergencies, Learning from the Safety of Journalists Year of publication: 2023 Author: Rosario Soraide Corporate author: UNESCO Artists and cultural professionals often come across significant challenges to their freedom of expression, including violence and harassment – online and offline – legal persecution, detention, imprisonment and, in the worst of cases, murder. Emergency situations can result in additional risks for them, as many become increasingly targeted in connection to the visibility of their work and see their livelihoods impacted upon by income loss and unemployment in the cultural sector. While the attacks and threats that artists and cultural professionals face during emergencies are similar to those affecting journalists, they do not receive the same level of attention nor access to protection mechanisms and opportunities for assistance. Over the past decades, a strong framework has emerged to advance journalists’ safety at international, regional and national levels, including through legal and regulatory instruments, protection mechanisms, support networks and consistent collective mobilization for their rights. Despite growing awareness of the vulnerability of artists and cultural professionals in emergency contexts and increased efforts to safeguard their rights and ensure their safety, progress in this regard remains comparatively much more incipient. With the support of UNESCO’s Culture and Communication and Information Sector, and based on a comparative analysis, this study therefore aims to strengthen the protection of artists and cultural professionals during emergencies by drawing lessons from the experience, challenges, and achievements in the field of journalists’ safety. It presents actionable recommendations and identifies areas in which synergies between key stakeholders promoting, respectively, artistic and media freedom could serve to reinforce the protection of both at-risk artists and journalists. 
When Schools Shut: Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: UNESCO School closures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have caused unprecedented disruption for nearly 1.6 billion learners across the globe. Beyond alarming effects on learning loss and school dropout, they pose an immediate and long-term threat to gender equality, with gender-specific effects on health, well-being and protection. This publication exposes these impacts and calls for effective strategies to ensure education continuity, promote gender equality and improve lives and futures. Through a review of published research, a global survey of actions taken by organizations in favour of gender equality in education, and in-depth data collection in five countries, UNESCO and its partners underline the challenges faced by children and young people to continue learning, and to return to school safely. When schools shut also showcases the efforts made by governments and the international community to mitigate harm and safeguard progress towards gender equality in and through education. While it is too soon to grasp the full scope of the impact of school closures, the publication sets out early evidence from across different contexts globally on how girls and boys have been participating in remote learning, planning for the return to school, and coping with mental and physical health challenges during the closures. It is a call to governments and their partners to put gender at the centre of education recovery to tackle declining participation and low return-to-school rates. When schools shut is a timely reminder that schools are essential sites not only for learning, but also lifelines when it comes to health, well-being and protection of all learners. 
World Heritage Forests: Carbon Sinks Under Pressure Year of publication: 2021 Author: Tales Carvalho Resende | David Gibbs | Nancy Harris | Elena Osipova Corporate author: UNESCO | International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) | World Resources Institute This report provides the first global scientific assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration in forests found in UNESCO World Heritage sites.World Heritage forests, whose combined area of 69 million hectares is roughly twice the size of Germany, are some of the most biodiversity-rich habitats on Earth and play a crucial role in climate regulation by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. However, these forests are under increasing anthropogenic pressures, including climate change.By combining remote sensing data with site-level monitoring, this report has quantified the climate benefits of World Heritage forests for the first time, assessed the impacts on carbon of common threats to World Heritage forests and identified sites that are net carbon sources. It therefore provides information to facilitate dialogues between policymakers and local stakeholders for the development of effective solutions aimed at maintaining the continuing role of World Heritage forests as sinks and stable carbon stores for future generations. 
Promotion and implementation of global citizenship education in crisis situations Year of publication: 2017 Author: Robiolle Moul, Tina Corporate author: UNESCO Crisis situations affect the realization of human rights of many people and communities across all regions of the world. Within UNESCO’s relevant areas of work, GCED is a powerful approach to education that can empower people to recover from crises and transform their communities into peaceful and sustainable societies. UNESCO commissioned a desk study that aimed at reviewing existing research on the promotion and implementation of GCED and related programs in countries affected by crisis situations, with particular attention to initiatives benefiting the refugee population. This study unveils the key challenges these programs encounter in such contexts, as well as promising practices that can guide the design and implementation of future GCED in crisis situations.This report is a synthesis of this desk study and supports the evidence that, after analyzing the context and the available means, GCED and related programs can and should be systematically adapted and implemented in crisis situations, including in response to refugee crises. 
A Decade of progress on education for sustainable development: reflections from the UNESCO Chairs Programme Year of publication: 2017 Author: Michelsen, Gerd | Wells, Peter J. Corporate author: UNESCO The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme, launched in 1992, today forms an extensive network of inter-university cooperation involving more than 700 higher education institutions in 128 countries worldwide. Through knowledge sharing and collaborative research in the priority areas of UNESCO’s work in education, the natural and social sciences, culture, communication and information, the Chairs provide a vital contribution to the Organization’s mission. The current volume focuses on the activities undertaken by UNESCO Chairs dedicated to the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within the context of the UN Decade of ESD which culminated in the UNESCO World Conference on ESD, held in AichiNagoya, Japan, 2014. The case studies included, showcase the good practices, applied research and curricula innovations pioneered by the individual UNESCO Chairs, as well as highlighting the challenges and lessons learned both for the new follow-up Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD and the wider Education 2030 Agenda. 
Stories of MIGRATION (The UNESCO Courier no. 4; October-December 2021) Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: UNESCO Through nine stories about migration, this feature story explores the prevalent phenomenon of migration in the context of globalization, and examines the problems and issues related to migration.