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UNESCO-APCEIU Virtual Consultation Meeting on Global Citizenship Education (GCED) for East Asian Countries
Post date: 
2021/07/01
© UNESCO

On 17 June 2021, UNESCO Beijing Cluster Office, in close collaboration with the Asia-Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), jointly organized the virtual consultation for East Asian countries on Global Citizenship Education (GCED) progress at country level. A total of 20 government officials and experts from the Ministries of Education, the National Commissions for UNESCO, education institutions and civil society organizations in China, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea participated in the sub-regional consultation for East Asia. 

 

The main objective of the sub-regional consultation was to review the progress of GCED implementation at the country level. The participants shared knowledge and experiences related to GCED initiatives, policy, capacity development, sharing best practices and discussed innovative strategies to strengthen and scale-up GCED in the cluster countries. 

 

Prof. Shahbaz Khan, Director of UNESCO Beijing Office, opened the virtual sub-regional consultation on GCED. He welcomed the participants and highlighted in his remarks the need to strengthen Global Citizenship Education (GCED) in the Cluster Countries and informed the participants that GCED remains one of UNESCO’s strategic responses to the many global challenges including COVID-19 pandemic that had affected all the countries. He reiterated the significance of scaling-up GCED by promoting, exchange, interaction and policy dialogue on GCED that will guide the world to find innovative solutions to a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and secure societies. 

 

Dr. Hyun Mook LIM, Director of APCEIU, highlighted in his opening remarks the necessity to further strengthen and deepen the policy and strategic dialogue, advocacy and monitoring of GCED at local, national, regional and global levels. He highlighted the slow pace of GCED implementation and integration in Member States. He highlighted the vision and mission of GCED to support countries integrate GCED in the education systems and assured the participants that APCEIU is strongly committed to play its role to advance GCED in all the countries. The sub-regional consultation was timely for the Member States to review the status of implementation of GCED and identify practical strategies to scale up GCED implementation at country level with a sharper focus on the SDG4.7 indicators and implementation of SDG4.7 and implications of COVID-19 pandemic, and to identify alternative solutions together to enhance GCED at all levels.   

 

Mr. Mark Manns from the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok then shared with the participants the update of the GCED regional activities implemented and coordinated by the Regional Bureau within the Asia-Pacific Region. The Regional Bureau acknowledged the excellent on-going partnership with APCEIU to further advance and mainstream GCED at country and regional level. 

 

Mr. Jay Jaehong Kim then followed the regional update from APCEIU who presented the update on the progress by APCEIU GCED initiatives and progress at the global and regional level. He highlighted the strategic partnership with UNESCO Regional Bureaus in all the regions to advance GCED in further performing its core functions as a category II Centre to promote policy dialogue, capacity development, and knowledge sharing through the GCED clearinghouse and monitoring evaluation and research. He urged all participants to register and take part in some of the GCED on-line courses offered by the APCEIU to increase their knowledge and understanding of GCED.  

 

The four Member States (China, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea) covered by the UNESCO Beijing Cluster Office, made brief country presentations to inform the participants about the current progress, GCED scaling up, country actions, initiatives in GCED implemented in each of the cluster countries. Japan recognized the importance of GCED, which is fully integrated in the ESD Programme implemented in ASPnet Schools throughout Japan. Mongolia had fully implemented GCED aligned with the national strategy to mainstream GCED at all levels of the education system. China places GCED as an important priority. It hopes that the newly established UNESCO ASPnet Category II Centre will further promote GCED at the global and school level. Republic of Korea highlighted the importance of developing SDG4.7 indicators and wish to work closely with UIS to further expand on the global Indicators work related to SDG 4.7.

 

The participants from cluster countries acknowledged the significant coordination role of the Regional Bureau and APCEIU in facilitating, supporting and coordinating the effective GCED implementation at the global, regional and country levels. They noted that the sub-regional consultation was very useful and informative in sharing good practices and experiences in the promotion of GCED and related technical issues on SDG4 Target 4.7. Indicators. 

 

After the update on the GCED progress and challenges by cluster countries, Mr. Roshan Bajracharya, Regional Advisor from UNESCO UIS Regional Desk, presented to the participants on SDG4.7 indicators and challenges. He highlighted on the technical aspects of developing SDG4.7 global indicators and challenges include the lack of data related to the SDG4.7 Indicators. All the participants have recognized the need to discuss more on the core indicators of SDG4.7 and address some of the challenges in separate UIS capacity building workshops in education statistics and SDG4 indicators. All participants at the consultation agreed that there is more work to be done on the SDG4.7 Indicators and more dialogue is needed. 

 

The participants unanimously agreed on the importance for a collaborative approach to work together in strengthening GCED implementation at country level in the East-Asia Sub-region. The participants from the cluster countries have agreed to establish a joint mechanism to share and to promote GCED good practices, SDG4.7 indicators, and data collection matters, which will ultimately contribute towards the achievement of SDG 4.7 and Education 2030 Agenda.  

 

In the closing remarks, Mr. Robert Parua, Programme Specialist for Education from UNESCO Beijing Office, thanked all the participants from the four cluster countries, Regional Bureau and UIS in participating in the first GCED sub-regional virtual consultation and assured the participants the continuation of the GCED dialogue on an annual basis to track progress. Mr. Lim, Director of APCEIU, thanked UNESCO Beijing for jointly organizing the GCED Consultation for East Asia and assured all participants that APCEIU is strongly committed to supporting the East Asian countries in strengthening the implementation of GCED at country level. The consultation closed with consensus to continue the constructive dialogue for GCED in the sub-region.    

 

Global Citizenship Education (GCED) is a strategic priority area of UNESCO’s Education Sector programme and builds on the work of Peace and Human Rights Education and culture of peace and non-violence. GCED has become an integral part of the global education agenda in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and has now become increasingly important since our world is more interconnected than ever before.

 

UNESCO has established strategic collaboration with the UNESCO Category II Centre (APCEIU) in Seoul, Republic of Korea in advancing and promoting GCED at the global, regional and national levels through policy dialogues, capacity building and knowledge sharing in GCED. In close collaboration with APCEIU and the Government of the Republic of Korea, UNESCO has organized various global, regional, sub-regional and national consultations and conferences to further advance the GCED global agenda and to strengthen the capacity of education stakeholders in order to achieve SDG 4.7. 

 
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