A MOST Academy on Inclusive Social Development will be organised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 26 to 27 March 2018. It will bring together researchers and policymakers to explore ways to improve the availability, accessibility, and usage of evidence that is necessary for promoting social inclusion through public policies.
The commitment to “leave no one behind” is the cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda and a crosscutting theme of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet, despite the widespread agreement on the importance of social inclusion as a principle, its practical application to resolve real-world problems raises complex questions:
Where do we look for evidence on “what works” when it comes to fighting inequalities and promoting social inclusion?
How do we achieve, maintain, and measure social inclusion in different areas of social and economic life?
To support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its inclusive social development goals, UNESCO has launched projects in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to improve the availability, accessibility and usage (commonly referred to as valorization) of evidence needed to design and monitor inclusive policies.
The Malaysian National Working Group led by the Institute for Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS) at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia chose to focus on two government programmes under the responsibility of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM): Family and Community Empowerment (FACE) and Activity Center for Elder Persons (PAWE). The intensive six-month research and analytical effort by the Working Group produced the Situational Analysis to identify the prevailing practices in using evidence for these programmes, and the Operational Protocols to improve these practices and to promote rational, rights-based, and evidence-informed decision-making.
The MOST Academy on Inclusive Social Development will use the knowledge produced during the research phase of the project to enhance the capacity of professionals from different backgrounds (academia, government, and civil society) and to strengthen the research-policy interface towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
A MOST Academy is a capacity-building module within UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme, designed to strengthen the competencies for evidence-informed decision-making in Member States.
The project is funded by the Malaysian Government (Funds-in-Trust for UNESCO).
Links:
More information on the MOST Academy
Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme
Theme page:
URL:
https://en.unesco.org/events/most-academy-inclusive-social-development-malaysia