UNESCO Clearinghouse on GCED

Framework for the Implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Beyond 2019 Year of publication: 2019 Corporate author: UNESCO This document contains the proposal for a new framework for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) beyond 2019 and the comments and observations of the Executive Board thereon.

Policy Review Report: Early Childhood Care and Education in Kazakhstan Year of publication: 2005 Corporate author: UNESCO UNESCO launched a joint UNESCO/OECD Early Childhood Policy Review Project as a component of the 2004-2005 plan. The purpose is to provide selected countries with an opportunity to review their early childhood policies and identify concrete options and strategies for improvement. Four countries were chosen based on their expressed interest - Brazil, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Kenya. This review was conducted as part of Kazakhstan's participation in the project, which is being implemented in collaboration with the OECD.

[Summary] Reimagining Our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: International Commission on the Futures of Education | UNESCO Our humanity and planet Earth are under threat. Urgent action, taken together, is needed to change course and reimagine our futures. Education, long acknowledged as a powerful force for positive change, has new, urgent and important work to do. Informed by a global consultation process engaging about one million people, this report of the International Commission on the Futures of Education invites governments, institutions, organizations, and citizens around the world to forge a new social contract for education that will help us build peaceful, just, and sustainable futures together and for all.The report features in-depth looks at digital technologies, climate change, democratic slippage and societal polarization and the uncertain future of work. It aims not only to open the conversation about education to everyone and provoke thought, but to spur each of us on to action. It argues, above all, that it is through millions of individual and collective acts of courage, leadership, resistance, creativity and care that we will change course and transform education to build just, equitable and sustainable futures.

Youth of Central Asia, Challenges for Peacebuilding: A Comprehensive Research Review Year of publication: 2021 Author: Laura Yerekesheva Corporate author: UNESCO The estimations are that by 2030, the world will be home to 1.3 billion young people. This speaks about the importance of the youth for development in various parts of the globe, particularly in developing countries which constitute 90% of the global youth population. From comprehensive holistic perspective peace, peacebuilding and dialogue embrace all aspects and dimensions of life – inter-generational, social, economic, political, ethnic, religious, civic, ideological, cultural, and natural. The youth related issues are directly linked with the SDGs agenda. Central Asian states are also on the list of developing countries, with an increasing demographic share of the youth in the general population, meaning that the countries of the region are “young.” As of 2020, the total population of the four countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) was 68.46 million, of which youth comprised 16.55 million or 24,1%. What Challenges for Peacebuilding the Youth of Central Asia Face? This highlights the urgency required for elaborating and implementing special policies on youth development. For Central Asia, the peace and peacebuilding agenda is the development agenda, and vice versa, as neither is possible without the other, and these in turn are intrinsically linked with youth-related issues. This report provides a detailed overview of the existing challenges to the youth of the 4 countries of the region – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan, Uzbekistan – structured around three main themes of peacebuilding: (1) an education and learning environment; (2) economic and social participation; and (3) civic engagement. Governments, international organizations, professionals and policymakers in the youth, peacebuilding and development sectors, academia and NGOs are invited to join forces to accelerate the achievement of youth development for a more just, sustainable and peaceful future.

Youth and Violent Extremism on Social Media: Mapping the Research Year of publication: 2017 Author: Séraphin Alava | Divina Frau-Meigs | Ghayda Hassan Corporate author: UNESCO Does social media lead vulnerable individuals to resort to violence? Many people believe it does. And they respond with online censorship, surveillance and counter-speech. But what do we really know about the Internet as a cause, and what do we know about the impact of these reactions? All over the world, governments and Internet companies are making decisions on the basis of assumptions about the causes and remedies to violent attacks. The challenge is to have analysis and responses firmly grounded. The need is for a policy that is constructed on the basis of facts and evidence, and not founded on hunches or driven by panic and fearmongering. It is in this context that UNESCO has commissioned the study titled Youth and Violent Extremism on Social Media: Mapping the Research. This work provides a global mapping of research (mainly during 2012-16) about the assumed roles played by social media in violent radicalization processes, especially when they affect youth and women. The research responds to the belief that the Internet at large is an active vector for violent radicalization that facilitates the proliferation of violent extremist ideologies.

Education for Sustainable Development: Partners in Action; Global Action Programme (GAP) Key Partners' Report (2015-2018) Year of publication: 2019 Corporate author: UNESCO The Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was launched by UNESCO as a follow up to the United Nations Decade of ESD in order to accelerate progress on sustainable development and scale up action in all areas of education and learning. Its duration is from 2015 to 2019.To that end, UNESCO works with a network of 97 GAP Key Partners from government, civil society, the private sector and academia active in five Priority Action Areas: advancing policy, transforming learning environments, building the capacity of educators, empowering youth, and accelerating sustainable solutions at the local level. Each GAP Key Partner committed to meet specific targets by 2019. To measure progress in meeting the targets set by the GAP Key Partners, 10 indicators were identified, two in each Priority Action Area. Through surveys sent to them by UNESCO, GAP Key Partners report against these 10 indicators and toward the targets set for each indicator. In the surveys, GAP Key Partners are also invited to rate the benefits of participation in the GAP for their work and provide qualitative data concerning their implementation progress. Three progress reports are scheduled to be produced: The first report, covering progress between 2015 and 2016, was released by UNESCO in 2017 This second report, covering 2015-2018, is to be published in 2019 The third and final report, covering the entire period of the GAP, 2015-2019, will be published in 2020 This second report presents the results of the GAP Key Partners survey carried out at the end of 2018, with a response rate of 78%. The report presents the analysis of the quantitative responses of GAP Key Partners to each of the 10 indicators. Based on the qualitative responses provided by the GAP Key Partners, a short comment on each of the progress status is also provided.

Regional overview: Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia Year of publication: 2015 Corporate author: UNESCO Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Central Asia (CA) have both made significant advances towards Education for All (EFA) since 1999. However, the 2015 EFA Global Monitoring Report shows that despite progress, Education For All remains unfinished business, including in Central and Eastern Europe and in Central Asia. This must be taken into account in the post-2015 agenda.

Visioning and Framing the Futures of Education: February 2020 Year of publication: 2020 Corporate author: UNESCO This statement is the outcome from first meeting of the International Commission on the Futures of Education held in Paris, 28-29 January 2020. Established by UNESCO, the Commission is charged with looking at 2050 and beyond to issue a report in 2021 to rethink how knowledge, learning and education may address the challenges and opportunities, both those foreseen for the future and those with us in the present.

Elections and Media in Digital Times (In Focus Series: Global Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development) Year of publication: 2019 Author: Tarlach McGonagle | Maciek Bednarski | Mariana Francese Coutinho | Arthur Zimin Corporate author: UNESCO Digital companies are enabling politicians, political parties and voters to communicate in unprecedented ways, and expanding opportunities for seeking, receiving and imparting political information and ideas. Alongside positive developments, there also growing concerns about emerging and increasing threats to the integrity and credibility of elections, as well as the media's contribution to free, fair, transparent and peaceful electoral processes.This report highlights three converging trends in media and elections in digital times: the rise of disinformation, intensifying attacks on journalists, and disruptions linked to the use of information and communication technology in electoral arrangements. Offering possible responses to the challenges at hand, this study is a tool for governments, election practitioners, media organizations, journalists, civil society, the private sector, academia and individuals.

Youth and Violent Extremism on Social Media: Mapping the Research Year of publication: 2017 Author: Séraphin Alava | Divina Frau-Meigs | Ghayda Hassan Corporate author: UNESCO | Information for All Programme (IFAP) Does social media lead vulnerable individuals to resort to violence? Many people believe it does. And they respond with online censorship, surveillance and counter-speech. But what do we really know about the Internet as a cause, and what do we know about the impact of these reactions? All over the world, governments and Internet companies are making decisions on the basis of assumptions about the causes and remedies to violent attacks.The challenge is to have analysis and responses firmly grounded. The need is for a policy that is constructed on the basis of facts and evidence, and not founded on hunches – or driven by panic and fearmongering.It is in this context that UNESCO has commissioned the study titled Youth and Violent Extremism on Social Media – Mapping the Research. This work provides a global mapping of research (mainly during 2012-16) about the assumed roles played by social media in violent radicalization processes, especially when they affect youth and women. The research responds to the belief that the Internet at large is an active vector for violent radicalization that facilitates the proliferation of violent extremist ideologies.Indeed, much research shows that protagonists are indeed heavily spread throughout the Internet. There is a growing body of knowledge about how terrorists use cyberspace. Less clear, however, is the impact of this use, and even more opaque is the extent to which counter measures are helping to promote peaceful alternatives. While Internet may play a facilitating role, it is not established that there is a causative link between it and radicalization towards extremism, violent radicalization, or the commission of actual acts of extremist violence.

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