This regional summit is being held in Cairo, Egypt from 15 to 16 December 2019. Its objectives are to foster development of national ethics committees in the Arab and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and establish an effective mechanism of regional harmonization and cooperation to address emerging issues in the field of bioethics. The objectives of the Regional summit will be to: • Follow-up on outcomes of the First Regional Bioethics Summit, Muscat, Oman, April 2017. • Discuss outcomes of the last Global Bioethics Summit (2018) and plan for the upcoming Summit (2020). • Outline and discuss methods of regional collaboration, with special focus on fostering national ethics / bioethics committees. • Develop strategies to strengthen linkages between bioethics committees and policy makers (ministries of health, education, science & technology). • Share experiences and deliberate on ethical issues such as migration ethics; artificial intelligence and ethics, etc..

The Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (GEST Programme), the University of Iceland, Reykjavik, the MOST Programme and the Kenyan National Commission for UNESCO will co-organize a seminar on “New Challenges, Opportunities and Collaborations” which will contribute to UNESCO’s two global priorities: Gender Equality and Africa. Under the overall objectives to contribute to UNESCO’s two global priorities on Gender Equality and Africa, the specific objectives of the seminar are: -To launch the co-operation with GEST, which will be an important partner for SHS and in particular MOST both in terms of visibility and impact. - Build up a network drawing on GEST alumni and experts which can contribute to key MOST activities such as MOST Ministerial Forums and Schools, capacity building and research-policy impact in Africa. - To create a platform for knowledge sharing aimed at implementing gender-focused projects. - To address challenges and implications occurring while promoting gender equality and how to overcome these challenges. The specific themes of the conference will be: - Gender and higher education; - Gender and Climate change and - Men and masculinities Among the keynote speakers will be Dr. N’Dri Therese Assie-Lumumba, Professor Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University. Among the participants will be Dr. Misigo Amatsimbi, Board Chairman, the Kenyan National Commission for UNESCO, Ms Evangelina Njorka, Secretary-General, the KNATCOM, Dr Irma Jóhanna Erlingsdóttir, Director, Gender Equality Studies and Training (GEST) Programme, Ms Ângela Melo, Director, Policies and Programmes, UNESCO, Dr. Mary Khimulu, former Ambassador of Kenya to UNESCO and Chairperson for a UNESCO Category II Center in Kenya, distinguished Professors from the University of Nairobi, representatives from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, UN Women, African Institute for Development Policy and several GEST alumni.

Organized by the NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee in close cooperation with the UNESCO Secretariat, the 11th International Forum of NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, on 16 and 17 December 2019, on the theme “Challenging Inequalities”, with a focus on areas such as youth, income, technology, gender and education. The main objective of the Forum will be to identify concrete examples of good practices and grass-root actions as well as develop a set of recommendations to tackle inequalities, with a focus on areas such as youth, income, technology, gender and education. The Forum will delve into the different dynamics and dimension of inequalities from thematic points of view, and from the notion of power and public policy, in the form of Panels. The thematic panels will be followed by two workshops; one focused on collecting experiences from the field and another on solutions and policy recommendations. To ensure a transversal and multi-stakeholder dimension, the two-day discussion will follow a structured dialogue approach with civil society, Member States, decision makers, programme experts, and academia. This Forum will gather NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO, but is also open to the participation of other institutions and representatives of Member States. The registration, the provisional programme, practical information and working documents are available on the website of the NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee (www.ong-unesco.org). Within the framework of the Directives concerning UNESCO’s partnership with non-governmental organizations (36 C/Res. 108), the International Forums of NGOs are organized twice a year on a priority issue of the Organization, by the NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee. The NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee is an entity composed of NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO elected every two years by the International Conference of NGOs. CONTACTS: NGO-UNESCO LIAISON COMMITTEE Maison des ONG UNESCO 1, rue Miollis 75732 Paris Cedex 15 - France Tel.: +33 1 45 68 36 68 Fax: +33 1 45 66 03 37 E-mail: comite.liaison.ong@unesco.org Facebook: Ngo-Unesco Liaison Committee UNIT FOR CIVIL SOCIETY PARTNERSHIPS Bureau of Strategic Planning UNESCO 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 - France E-mail: ngo@unesco.org

UNESCO and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) are holding an international workshop for policymakers, entitled “The role of education in addressing anti-Semitism”. The workshop is organized in cooperation with Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the World Jewish Congress (WJC), as part of UNESCO’s activities to address hate speech and to prevent violent extremism. The two-day workshop will bring together government officials from 20 countries from across the world. It is part of a series of international workshops for policymakers, based upon the recommendations exposed in the publication Addressing Anti-Semitism though Education. Guidelines for Policymakers jointly published by ODIHR and UNESCO in 2018. The workshop will build on two previous workshops held this year in Warsaw and Paris in May and July respectively, which convened participants from 41 countries from all regions of the world. It will serve to examine effective practices, key policies and educational approaches that government officials can promote to ensure that education systems build the resilience of learners to anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination. The first day of the workshop will conclude with a public round table discussion on “Different Approaches to Promoting Tolerance through Education”, hosted by the Graduate Institute Geneva from 18h00-20h00. The round table will be moderated by Davide Rodogno, Graduate Institute Geneva, and will include the participation of Kate Gilmore, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, Dr. Herbert Winter, President of Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities and WJC Vice President, and Ahmed Shaheed, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief.

Championing its role as a global laboratory of ideas, UNESCO will host the first Global Futures Literacy Design Forum at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (Room III, IV and VII), on 16 December 2019. The Forum will bring the general public together with leading Futures Literacy practitioners, designers, facilitators, teachers and researchers. The Forum has two primary objectives. One is to prepare the ground for a UNESCO Ministerial Summit on Futures Literacy in late 2020 by showcasing and refining a range of already proven techniques for integrating Futures Literacy into government activities. Two is to build awareness and networking related to the development and diffusion of Futures Literacy. Participants in the Forum will be invited to engage in active learning-by-doing. This will not be a conventional one-to-many broadcast event with speakers from a podium. The laboratories that will be designed and curated by senior experts from the Global Futures Literacy Network will use collective-intelligence methods to explore the nature and practice of Futures Literacy as a capability. Get ready to work and play. The Forum will close with a living-theatre celebration of humanity’s capacity to imagine the future. The event will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, on December 16, 2019. Futures Literacy (FL) is a capability: the capacity to use-the-future for different reasons, using different methods, in different contexts. The Global Futures Literacy Design Forum and The Ministerial Summit on Futures Literacy are being built on the foundation of UNESCO’s success at establishing a Global Futures Literacy Network. This network is composed of 11 UNESCO Chairs and a wide-range of communities of practice that are actively advancing Futures Literacy around the world. Why “Global Futures Literacy Design Forum”? The term 'design' is in the title because the focus of the Forum is on presenting and refining a set of practical tools for governments, enterprises and communities interested in integrating Futures Literacy into what they do. In order to achieve the goal of sharing and refining designs for such tools, UNESCO is inviting expert practitioners to curate special laboratory type experiences. Leading members of the Global Futures Literacy Network are working together to co-create these labs that will showcase and refine a range of different tools for exploring and building Futures Literacy. At the Forum participants will be able to experience and test different approaches to integrating Futures Literacy into the work of many communities, with an emphasis on the public sector. The labs all use a range of specific collective intelligence techniques, with different durations and outcomes, that invite people to engage in learning-by-doing. Or, what is often called, user-driven design. In the context of the event, they will cover a number of critical themes: Governance; Ethics; Evaluation and assessment; Identity and culture; Narrative and discourse. The Forum is being designed as a learning voyage, not a passive one-to-many broadcast type event. Experiential, performative, aesthetic, and creative activities aim to invite participants to encounter their own reasons and methods for imagining the future. The curated sessions will be an opportunity to deploy collective intelligence and learning-by-doing from a wide range of different perspectives. Towards the end the different strands will start to be drawn together: initially in a plenary session where members of the UNESCO and Futures Literacy communities will share their perceptions; and then in a celebration of humanity’s capacity to imagine the future - a living-theatre celebration that expresses the richness of being alive in a complex emergent universe.

The Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) of UNESCO is organizing the Second Meeting of Water for Human Settlements related Chairs and Centres at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The meeting’s objective is to discuss and update on current activities and joint areas of work related to urban water. Furthermore, it will discuss the way forward, vis-à-vis the Medium-term Strategy outlined in the Eight phase of the IHP (IHP-VIII), the "Nairobi Matrix" and IHP-IX Strategy. Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN-Habitat have been invited and will be participating in the discussion. Following the First Meeting in 2018, this Second Meeting will serve as an opportunity for relevant Chairs, Centers, and the Secretariat of IHP to: 1. Update and discuss the current activities and joint areas of work under the Theme 4: Water for Human Settlements; 2. Discuss the way forward, vis-à-vis the Medium-term Strategy outlined in IHP-VIII, the "Nairobi Matrix" and IHP-IX Strategy: a. Identify the activities required; b. Identify the Chairs/Centers responsible for the implementation of each activity; c. Prepare a work plan for 40/C5 d. Identify gaps and needs to be addressed under the framework of IHP-IX. UNESCO as the scientific arm of the United Nations family is expected to lead the scientific and research agenda of future challenges. The IHP is the only intergovernmental programme of the United Nations system devoted to water research and management, and related education and capacity development. Following the IHP-VIII’s (2014-2021) objective of putting science into action required for water security, the IHP-IX (2022-2029) will guide significantly the next phase of water development. Currently, the first order draft of IHP-IX is undergoing the second in-depth consultation with the UNESCO Water Family to further develop the draft document and adapt it to the needs of the Member States and other Water Family Members. Reference documents: Final report of Nairobi Meeting (11-13 September 2013) Strategy Plan for IHP-VIII (2014-2021) Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) Theme 4 Water and Human Settlements Contact: Mr Alexandros Makarigakis, a.makarigakis@unesco.org

UNESCO, like other partners in the Congo, supports the implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP). The organization of a MOST school is one of the contributions that the Organization will make to the implementation of the UNDAF and the aforementioned NDP. It will enable Congo to have a nucleus of experts that can be referred to for the development of an inclusive migration policy. This MOST school will be held at the Great University Library of Brazzaville, Congo, from 18 to 20 December 2019. The training will alternate thematic presentations, practical exercises in plenary, group activities, individual activities, and role-plays. Learning will be supported and guided by experienced facilitators. *** Organized in the context of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme, MOST Schools are capacity-building activities focused on strengthening the competencies for evidence-informed decision-making in Member States. They help develop the capacity of researchers and decision-makers to translate knowledge into action. Their primary goal is to support long-term sustainable development in contexts where capacity gaps may be a major constraint to translating research into action.

World Arabic Language Day is celebrated every year on 18 December. On this occasion, UNESCO will host three Round Tables dedicated to this year’s theme “Arabic Language and Artificial Intelligence”, followed by a concert, at its Headquarters in Paris on 18 December 2019. Experts, academics, artists and representatives of specialized institutions will gather to debate on: 1. The impact of artificial intelligence on the preservation and promotion of the Arabic language. 2. The computerization of the Arabic language and the cognitive future. 3. The launch of the regional report "Arabic as a gateway to access and transmitting knowledge”. This celebration is organized in collaboration with the Permanent Delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to UNESCO, in partnership with the Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Foundation. UN Languages Days aim to promote and celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity, as well as the equality of all official languages used in the Organization and its agencies: Arabic (18 December), Chinese (12 November), English (23). April), French (20 March), Russian (6 June) and Spanish (12 October). The celebration also resonates with the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2013-2022), for which UNESCO is the lead UN Agency.