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UNESCO Beirut has been actively working on promoting Global Citizenship Education (GCED) at the regional level with the aim of assisting education authorities in the development and implementation of GCED policies, learning content and practices.

Capitalizing on this momentum with the goal to solidify global action on GCED, UNESCO Beirut and the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), under the auspices of UNESCO and in cooperation with King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), organized the 2017 Arab States Regional GCED Networking Meeting from 13-14 October 2017 in Luxor, Egypt. Held under the Patronage of H.E. Dr. Tareq Shawki, the Minister of Education in Egypt, and H.E. Mr. Mohamad Bader, Governor of Luxor, the meeting aimed at mapping different GCED programmes in the region and exploring areas of possible collaboration or exchange. Around 40 participants took part in the meeting, representing GCED-implementing institutions from the region, including participants representing National / Regional and International Organizations, Civil Society Organization, Ministries of Education, Teacher Training Institutes, Academia & Universities, and Research Institutes.

The meeting served as a platform to discuss and develop strategies towards the scaling-up of efforts in the promotion of GCED at the regional level. According to Mr Fadi Yarak, Director General of Education at Lebanon’s Ministry of Education, the meeting “was a great occasion to meet stakeholders and partners from different parts of the Arab world, interested in GCED. It also allowed the participants to brainstorm about the common, universal values, that are at the heart of GCED, and that should be promoted by educators and integrated into curricula”.

As to Nazhira Al-Harthi, the director of “Citizenship Programmes” at Oman’s Ministry of Education, she considered that the two-day meeting was of “great value, as it introduced the participants to different GCED initiatives taken at the regional level”. She highlighted that the meeting served as a platform “to discuss the contextualization of GCED in the Arab region, and to brainstorm on future projects and actions to be taken to promote and consolidate GCED in Arab states”.

A key outcome of the meeting was the launching of the Arab States Regional GCED Network. The latter intends to serve as: an “Accelerator” for GCED, to enhance the impact and accelerate the delivery and mechanisms towards the achievements of SDG 4.7 ; a “Bridge”, to connect the different institutions and organizations within and beyond the region, and to connect with other stakeholders to know about GCED; and a “Community” of practice to strengthen the institutional and individual learning capacity through monitoring, data collection, and evaluation. The Arab States Regional GCED Network includes education partners from the Arab region, who have expertise in GCED, and agree to consult and share information and ideas with each other.