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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Why the World Needs Happy Schools: Global Report on Happiness In and For Learning Year of publication: 2024 Corporate author: UNESCO Seeing a teacher smile. Hearing students laugh. Feeling a hug from a friend. Smelling fresh air. Tasting a nutritious school meal. These five senses can stimulate happiness at school and improve the learning experiences, outcomes and well-being of students. Through the ‘Happy Schools’ initiative, UNESCO is placing happiness at the core of the transformation of education. It encourages education systems to recognize happiness as both a means to and a goal of quality learning. The initiative is informed by a growing evidence base linking happiness with better learning, teaching, well-being and overall system resilience. This report presents the UNESCO global Happy Schools framework consisting of 4 pillars – people, process, place and principles – and 12 high-level criteria to guide the transformation of learning. It offers a holistic model for embedding happiness into education policies and cultivating it in schools through systemic changes. The report illustrates how the ‘Happy Schools’ initiative aims to create top-down and bottom-up transformation, encouraging governments to recognize happiness as a core objective of education. It supports the scaling of promising practices of joyful learning from the school to the policy level. 
Earth Network Project: Connecting UNESCO-Designated Sites With Experts to Boost Biodiversity Year of publication: 2024 Corporate author: UNESCO The Earth Network project was launched in 2021 with the support of the Government of Italy. It brings together over 380 experts from more than 60 countries, encompassing diverse biodiversity-related fields that include land restoration, environmental management and environmental law. The specialists volunteer to put their unique skillsets and knowledge at the disposal of sites designated by UNESCO which request their assistance. The Earth Network covers all scientific domains and proudly combines different forms of knowledge: scientific, practitioner, local and indigenous. On the ground, these experts provide technical advice, collect data, build partnerships, and provide training tailored to the specific needs and priorities of each UNESCO-designated site. 
Quality Physical Education Policies and Practice: The Global State of Play Year of publication: 2023 Corporate author: UNESCO With the majority of countries around the world investing less than 2% of their education budgets into physical education, the well-being of our future generations is at risk. Quality physical education (QPE) can deliver broad physical, social, emotional, and academic benefits. However, QPE is often under-prioritized and poorly implemented, suffering from deficiencies in funding, inclusivity, allocated time, and well-trained staff. UNESCO’s sport flagship, Fit for Life, aims to address this by working with governments to develop quality PE policies and building the capacities of teachers and coaches to deliver inclusive lessons as part of a well-rounded curricula. UNESCO’s work in QPE is directly informed by data collected via a unique global survey, gathering insights on PE policy and provision. Key data highlights from the most recent survey demonstrate the urgent need to increase the status of this subject in our schools. This requires collective action to establish and implement standards, promote knowledge-sharing, and foster inclusive participation for all youth. 
Multilingualism and Language Diversity for Inclusion in Education: Brief on Inclusion in Education Year of publication: 2024 Author: Piet Van Avermart Corporate author: UNESCO Language is a fundamental factor for inclusion in education. From a monolingual point of view, acquiring the language of instruction has long been regarded as the key to inclusion. However, multilingualism can be a valuable resource for all: inclusive school policies and multilingual practices recognize and foster linguistic diversity, benefit learning and create cohesion. 
High Level Ministerial Dialogue on Education for Peace Year of publication: 2023 Corporate author: UNESCO This High-level event brought together voices from around the world to discuss what quality and relevant education needs to look like today to bring about real and lasting peace. 
Including Education in the Pact for the Future: An SDG 4 Youth & Student Network Contribution Year of publication: 2024 Author: Laeek Siddiqui | Juliette Gudknecht | Daniela Moreno Farfán | Azkha Mikdhar Corporate author: SDG 4 Youth & Student Network | UNESCO Inclusion is the promise towards a fair and equitable education for all. It is critical to ensuring that every youth and student succeeds. Highlighted by UNESCO in the 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report, striving towards inclusive education is non-negotiable, as education is a human right. With the current challenges of our world highlighted in the 2030 Agenda, specifically in the areas of poverty, armed conflict and digital transformation, inclusion must be an essential imperative in all policies. The Summit of the Future (SOTF) convenes on the 22 to 23 of September at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States. One of its outcomes, if inter-governmentally agreed-upon, would be the Pact for the Future. The Pact is action-oriented, including a chapeau followed by 5 chapters: 1) sustainable development and financing for development; 2) international peace and security; 3) science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation; 4) youth and future generations; and 5) transforming global governance. Along with the Pact are two annexures: the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations. This document introduces the advocacy of the SDG 4 Youth & Student Network – a network hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the Global Education Cooperation Mechanisms Inter-Agency Secretariat – for inclusive and equitable education at the SOTF, to uphold peace, sustainable development, youth and future generations. It is essential to #IncludeEducation in the Pact and the outcomes of the SOTF for our #InclusiveFuture, to ensure that no one is left behind. It brings attention to how education is essential to global cooperation and empowering future generations, calling upon you to join us in supporting inclusive education systems, with the Global Education Meeting convened by UNESCO side by side with the G20 meeting on 31 October and 1 November 2024 in Fortaleza, Brazil. 
Chile: Artificial Intelligence Readiness Assessment Report Year of publication: 2023 Corporate author: UNESCO The Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM) is a diagnostic tool intended to assist Member States in upholding their commitment to the Recommendation by helping them understand how prepared they are to implement AI ethically and responsibly for all their citizens. The RAM questionnaire forms the basis for the first section of this readiness assessment report, providing a comprehensive but detailed overview of laws, institutions, and the cultural, social, and human capital landscape shaping AI. This is then complemented in the second section by a summary of concerns and priorities raised during a national multistakeholder consultation that was conducted in 2023. Finally, the third section presents a roadmap and recommendations for building capacities across national institutions, laws and policies, and human capital, to achieve a responsible AI ecosystem aligned with the UNESCO Recommendation. As the very first country to complete the RAM and the country report, Chile is blazing the trail not only for Latin America but the world. We applaud the initiative the Chilean government has taken to update its AI strategy putting ethics and governance front and centre, and thank them for inviting UNESCO to assist in this endeavour. The report presented here reveals a complex and rapidly-changing landscape. In the legal and regulatory dimension, the 2021 National Artificial Intelligence Policy (NAIP) represents a substantive and wide-ranging commitment to developing AI. One of the key recommendations of this report is to fully integrate the UNESCO Recommendation into the NAIP’s axis of Ethics, Regulation, and Socioeconomic Impacts. Notably, the RAM reveals the pressing need to update legislation around data protection and cybersecurity to meet the challenges of AI. It also highlights several areas the Chilean government is actively working to develop. [...] Overall, this report presents a fundamentally optimistic vision that we at UNESCO share: that ethical governance and responsible regulation of AI is entirely consistent with innovation and economic growth, and is essential for ensuring a technological ecosystem that benefits the public good. In drawing a clear line from the RAM data through to the multistakeholder consultations and the recommendations, Chile has a clear roadmap for how to get there. (This text has been extracted from the Foreword of the publication) 
World Heritage Glaciers: Sentinels of Climate Change Year of publication: 2022 Corporate author: UNESCO | International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) It outlines the importance of glaciers for sustaining life, their role as indicators of climate change, and their accelerated retreat due to global warming. The report emphasizes the urgent need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to 1.5°C, which could save glaciers in two-thirds of World Heritage sites. Additionally, it underscores the importance of adaptive measures like improved monitoring networks, early warning systems, and targeted policies to address the inevitable changes in glacierized areas. It also advocates for inclusive stakeholder engagement, particularly involving Indigenous Peoples and local communities, to develop effective responses to the challenges posed by climate change. The document serves as a call to action for international cooperation and collaboration to protect the Outstanding Universal Value of World Heritage glaciers and ensure their continued benefits for humanity. 
Mainstreaming Social and Emotional Learning in Education Systems: Policy Guide; Highlights Year of publication: 2024 Corporate author: UNESCO UNESCO’s policy guide unpacks social and emotional learning (SEL) as a broadening of the educational process, from a focus on cognitive aspects to a balance between cognitive, social and emotional, and behavioural dimensions of learning, putting forward initial action ideas to guide its systematic mainstreaming in education. It builds on and extends previous work undertaken by UNESCO on SEL from the perspective of Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), Building Strong Foundations for Health and Well-being Education, the Happy Schools Framework, and in multiple UNESCO Offices and Institutes. 
3rd Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination: Final Document Year of publication: 2024 Corporate author: UNESCO The third edition of the Global Forum against Racism and Discrimination with the theme “Race to the top: putting racial equity and justice at the forefront of development agendas” was held in São Paulo, Brazil, on 29 November 2023 and 1 December 2023. At the invitation of Brazil, in partnership with the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Mover Foundation, Instituto Ibirapitanga, the Global Forum highlighted the importance of placing racial issues at the core of development and implementation strategies, with a view to socioeconomic development. The Global Forum welcomed Ministers, high-ranking officials of national bodies responsible for combating discrimination and promoting equality, mayors of the International Coalition of Inclusive and Sustainable Cities - ICCAR, academics, scientists, civil society actors, NGOs, artists and digital influencers to share good practices, strengthen commitments and discuss effective strategies to combat racism and various forms of discriminations, including recommendations on how to proceed. The Global Forum’s agenda covered several topics, such as co-creating inclusive policies with impacted communities’ inputs; increasing awareness-raising on historical systems such as transatlantic enslavement to better comprehend and dismantle their contemporary legacies such as racism; progress towards gender equality; enhancing the capacities of civil society to be an agent of change; addressing artificial intelligence and its role in perpetuating racism; protecting the rights of indigenous peoples; establishing legal and policy frameworks prioritizing anti-racism and anti-discrimination on a local and global scale; strengthening the roles of cities, civic spaces, artistic and academic communities; enhancing the importance of informed data baseline on equality for governments; and promoting social philanthropy to address racial inequality. The 2023 edition was also marked by the launch of new initiatives. One of the main outcomes of the Global Forum is the establishment of the UNESCO Network of Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Officials aiming to strengthen the development of innovative and inclusive policy solutions for peace, equity and non-discrimination. UNESCO has launched the new UNESCO Anti-Racism Toolkit, the Gender-Based Resilience Framework, the ‘Let’s Talk‘ project with Harvard University to combat prejudice against migrants, and the development of a new joint OECD-UNESCO briefing on combating discrimination against migrants. Volume X of the UNESCO General History of Africa, entitled Africa and its Diasporas, was also launched during the Global Forum. The publication offers a mapping of African diasporas throughout the world, valorizing their contributions to modern societies.