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Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) under the auspices of UNESCO, UNESCO Venice Office and the Global Education Network Europe (GENE) co-organized the 2018 Europe and North America Regional GCED Network Meeting in cooperation with UNESCO Headquarters on 21-22 November in Lisbon, Portugal. The meeting brought together about 50 participants from GCED-implementation institutions from the government, academia, civil society and international organizations in the region. 

In their welcoming remarks, the co-organizers, including Director of APCEIU Mr Utak Chung, identified the aim of the conference in deepening the understanding of GCED in the region and providing a platform to discuss avenues of future collaboration and effective ways of strengthening networking for GCED within and beyond the region, recognizing that the meeting is the first of its level on GCED to bring together representatives of different sectors in the region. 

The first session touched upon the overview of GCED in both the global and regional contexts. Ms Lydia Ruprecht, Team Leader of Section on Education for Global Citizenship, UNESCO Headquarters, took the lead to present on the significance of GCED in the global education agenda and UNESCO’s efforts to realize GCED and SDG 4.7. Mr  Utak Chung then took the stage to explain GCED in the global agenda and the global activities of APCEIU. After which, representatives of UNESCO field offices and APCEIU briefed the participants on respective regional GCED networks of Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Arab States,  where speakers touched upon challenges, on-going actions to future actions. Then, representatives of the networks and institutions related to GCED in Europe and North America shared their activities and experiences. 

The next session was dedicated to review of the current status of GCED implementation in Europe and North America, serving as an opportunity to know who is doing what in the region, sharing their activities on GCED and recommendations for a possible regional GCED network in Europe and North America. The session also showcased a wide variety of initiatives being implemented in the region for GCED by different actors. Following the session, participants were divided in several groups by sector and had group discussions on the challenges and remaining gaps in GCED implementation in the region. Through the discussions, participants identified the need to develop new pathways for partnership within and beyond the region.  

On the second day, participants discussed the ways of strengthening GCED implementation both globally and regionally through the Europe and North America Regional GCED Network, sharing the needs and possible contributions to the network. The two day meeting was concluded with the establishment of a network steering committee with participation from 15 organizations to bring the recommendations of the meeting to action. 

On 23 November 2018, Mr Utak Chung presented on the network meeting outcomes as well as APCEIU initiatives on GCED at the 2018 GENE International Conference.

URL:

Strengthening Regional Action for GCED: Europe and North America Regional GCED Network Meeting > APCEIU News - APCEIU (unescoapceiu.org)