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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Trash Hack Action Learning for Sustainable Development: A Teacher's Guide Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) gives people the tools to tackle the problems of the present and future, to fight the climate crisis, change the world and achieve the SDGs. ESD rethinks what we learn, where we learn and how we learn. It is about lifelong learning, which lets people develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that enable them to make informed decisions and actions on global problems.The action-based activities in this guide intend to contribute to fostering the three dimensions of learning (cognitive, socio-emotional andbehavioural) and thereby promoting cross-cutting competencies for the SDGs, such as systems thinking, anticipatory competency, collaboration, critical thinking and integrated problem-solving. 
International Forum on AI and the Futures of Education: Developing Competencies for the AI Era Synthesis Report; 7-8 December 2020 Year of publication: 2021 Author: Fengchun Miao | Wayne Holmes Corporate author: UNESCO This synthesis report has been developed by the UNESCO Unit for Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Education within the Future of Learning and Innovation Team, drawing on the International Forum on AI and the Futures of Education held in Beijing and simultaneously online from 7 to 8 December 2020.The Forum underlined the importance of reviewing the very purpose of education, together with the opportunity for real transformation, and the role that AI might play. It is widely acknowledged that current educational practices and educational environment are very rigid, and that the future of education should be more flexible and responsive to changing circumstances and innovation. National education authorities should identify what skills young people need to enable them to live and thrive in the new realities of a constantly changing world, and what digital transformation makes possible in the national and international context. In short, new education models are needed to put students at the centre, to move away from a focus on memorizing content, to integrate the digital and the analogue, and to foster human cognitive, socioemotional and critical skills, all of which might – with foresight and careful attention – be enabled by AI and other digital technologies. 
Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development: Synthesis Report; Mobile Learning Week 2019 Year of publication: 2019 Corporate author: UNESCO During the five-day event for Mobile Learning Week 2019, UNESCO gathered participants from around the world to share experiences, initiatives and plan joint actions with a view to harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. The report stems from the work that the speakers presented and the insights that all the participants shared at the event. 
AI and Education: Guidance for Policy-Makers Year of publication: 2021 Author: Fengchun Miao | Wayne Holmes | Ronghuai Huang | Hui Zhang Corporate author: UNESCO Artificial intelligence (AI) is envisioned as a new tool to accelerate the progress towards the achievement of SDG 4. Policies and strategies for using AI in education are central to maximizing AI’s benefits and mitigating its potential risks. Fostering AI-ready policy-makers is the starting point of the policy development process.This publication offers guidance to policy-makers in understanding AI and responding to the challenges and opportunities in education presented by AI. Specifically, it introduces the essentials of AI such as its definition, techniques, technologies, capacities and limitations. It also delineates the emerging practices and benefit-risk assessment on leveraging AI to enhance education and learning, and to ensure inclusion and equity, as well as the reciprocal role of education in preparing humans to live and work with AI.The publication summarizes three approaches to the policy responses from existing practices: independent approach, integrated approach and thematic approach. In a further step, it proposes more detailed recommendations and examples for planning AI and education policies, aligned with the recommendations made in the 2019 Beijing Consensus on AI and Education. 
Taking Stock of Progress Towards Gender Equality in the Water Domain: Where Do We Stand 25 Years After the Beijing Declaration? Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) Women are not only the main persons responsible for water collection in many parts of the world, but they also possess invaluable knowledge with regard to water resources and play a key role in water and sanitation management at the local and community levels. Accordingly, women must be able to enjoy equal access to water and also have an equal say in the management and governance of water resources. Twenty-five years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, progress towards gender equality through the fulfilment of the basic right to water and sanitation is clearly off track.Despite advances at the policy level in acknowledging the need to progress towards gender equality in the water sector – and the resulting benefits – large gender inequalities persist in practice. Women are generally under-represented in terms of participation at all levels: from institutional bodies that manage national or transboundary waters, to water-related institutions such as governmental water agencies and water utilities, to local water management institutions.This report provides a detailed overview of the existing and emerging challenges to gender equality in the water domain with a particular focus on: access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health, employment,climate change management, water governance, education and training, and data collection and funding. Systematic and sustained efforts to eliminate these inequalities are essential to achieve meaningful and lasting gender equality in the water sector, and to promote sustainable development in general.Governments, international organizations, professionals and policy-makers in the water sector, academia and NGOs are invited to join forces to accelerate the achievement of gender equality in water for a more just, sustainable and peaceful future. 
Evaluation of UNESCO’s Action to Revitalize and Promote Indigenous Languages: Within the Framework of the International Year of Indigenous Languages Year of publication: 2021 Author: Claire Thomas | Lydia van de Fliert | Oliver Loode | Silvia Quattrini | Mihaela Cojocaru Corporate author: UNESCO To draw attention to the critical loss of indigenous languages and the urgent need to preserve, revitalize and promote them and to take further urgent steps at the national and international levels, in 2016 the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 71/178 proclaimed the year beginning on 1 January 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages (hereafter the IYIL2019). UNESCO was invited to serve as the lead agency for the Year and the coordination role was internally assigned to the Communication and Information Sector. UNESCO requested an evaluation of its action within the IYIL2019 with a view to learning from its experience during 2019 and further strengthening its coordination and implementation role during the upcoming Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032).As the lead agency for the IYIL2019, UNESCO played a key role raising awareness of not only the critical loss of indigenous languages, but also the positive value and meanings that indigenous languages provide to Indigenous Peoples and humanity at large. The evaluation found that UNESCO led the development of an ambitious and relevant Action Plan for the Year. It also succeeded in setting up an 18-member Steering Committee composed of representatives of Member States, Indigenous Peoples and the UN three-party indigenous mechanisms. UNESCO staff implemented more than 80 activities around the world, with three-quarters of these at the global level and the majority of national events in Latin America and the Caribbean region. It also maintained an interactive website, which registered more than 880 events around the world.Leading and coordinating the IYIL2019 was not without its challenges, particularly as UNESCO was asked to lead this effort within existing resources and relying on a very small core team. Its programme sectors found creative solutions for indigenous language programming, but without a budget for intersectoral activities, collaboration between sectors was limited to information sharing and activities in Africa and the Arab States were few. The evaluation also found that the Action Plan lacked a meaningful results framework and thereby did not facilitate the monitoring of the IYIL2019. Partnerships with UNESCO networks and the wider UN system were underutilized and many opportunities for future collaboration have been highlighted for the upcoming Decade. 
The World in 2030: Public Survey Report Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: UNESCO This report presents the results of the World in 2030 Survey, launched by UNESCO in May 2020 to provide a platform for people to share their views on our world’s most pressing challenges, including what specifically they are worried about, and, most importantly, what solutions they feel are mostneeded. The results of this survey present a clear and systematic framework for action, one that can enrich global reflection over the coming decade as part of a renewed push to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.Over 15,000 respondents from all regions of the world responded to the survey, providing a clear snapshot of global per- spectives. This survey received particular participation from women and young people. A majority of respondents had a university education, and the top region from which participants hailed was Latin America and the Caribbean.Responses to the World in 2030 Survey indicate clear trends in the concerns felt by global citizens. According to survey respondents, the top challenge facing peaceful societies in the lead up to 2030 was, by far, climate change and loss of biodiversity, ranking in the top four challenges of 67% of respondents, and coming out on top for all regions and demographics. When examining this challenge, people were most concerned about increasing natural disasters and extreme weather, loss of biodiversity and its impact on people, pollution of the ocean and rising sea levels, and risk of conflict or violence. The top proposed solutions were investing in green energy and sustainable economies, teaching sustainability through education, effective international cooperation, and building trust in science and science-based decisions.The next four most highlighted global challenges were violence and conflict (44%), discrimination and inequality (43%), lack of food, water and housing (42%), and health and disease (37%). There was some limited variation in the rankings of the relative importance of these four challenges across regions and demographics. For example, women and minority group respondents both ranked discrimination and inequality as the second most important global challenge, following climate change and biodiversity loss, rather than third, while respondents from indigenous communities and from Asia and the Pacific ranked health and disease as the second most important global challenge, rather than fifth. The World in 2030 survey was an open online questionnaire held from May to September 2020. It was made available in more than 25 languages. This report also analyses results along regional, gender, age and other demographic lines, presenting a complex and valuable portrait of global sentiment on these key issues. 
Online Expression: eMedia Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: e-Media project Consortium | Erasmus+ The handbook on Online Expression gives an insight on what is online expression, and intends to promote a more creative, active and wise use of the web, exploring the opportunities given not only by social media and blogs. The aim of the handbook is to help teachers guide young people to hone their online expression skills by explaining how to be proactive in their online expressions and less reactive, to become a digital prosumer and not a consumer. The hanbook focuses on the following elements that characterizes online active participation: The creation of relationships; The building of a community or the fact of representing a community; The collective interest; The intention to produce a change, to influence society. 
Freedom & Creativity: Defending Art, Defending Diversity; Special Edition Year of publication: 2020 Author: Laurence Cuny Corporate author: UNESCO In anticipation of the third edition of Re|Shaping Cultural Policies, this special edition of the Global Report series that monitors the implementation of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, focuses on one of the Convention’s overarching goals: the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms and, in particular, artistic freedom. Freedom of expression, information and communication, as well as the ability of individuals to choose cultural expressions is a prerequisite for the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions.Building on the recommendations put forth in the 2018 Global Report, this special edition provides an overview of current advances and challenges in the legal protection of artistic freedom, the protection of the social and economic rights of artists and cultural professionals and the monitoring of artistic freedom at the national, regional and international levels.By producing new evidence and valuable analysis, the 2005 Convention Global Report series is intended as a reference tool for cultural policymaking and advancing creativity for development. 
UNESCO Science Report: The Race Against Time for Smarter Development Year of publication: 2021 Author: Susan Schneegans | Tiffany Straza | Jake Lewis Corporate author: UNESCO This seventh edition of the report monitors the development path that countries have been following over the past five years from the perspective of science governance. It documents the rapid societal transformation under way, which offers new opportunities for social and economic experimentation but also risks exacerbating social inequalities, unless safeguards are put in place.The report concludes that countries will need to invest more in research and innovation, if they are to succeed in their dual digital and green transition. More than 30 countries have already raised their research spending since 2014, in line with their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite this progress, eight out of ten countries still devote less than 1% of GDP to research, perpetuating their dependence on foreign technologies.