The training workshop “Building intercultural competencies for sustaining peace”, will be held in Oman, from 24 to 26 February 2020, for Kuwaiti and Omani secondary school teachers. Organized jointly by UNESCO and the Omani National Commission, it is sponsored by the Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud Programme for the promotion of Arabic Language. The workshop will consist of two sessions: 1) Writing Peace and; 2) Story Circles. These sessions will be facilitated by international experts, and respectively Eric Cattelain and Darla Deardorff. Strengthening intercultural competencies is one of UNESCO's contributions to peace-building, disseminating knowledge about cultural diversity, the evolving notion of cultures and their interdependence. Within the framework of the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2013-2022), led by UNESCO and the Programme of Action on the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence, UNESCO consists of a laboratory of innovation in terms of content and methodologies. One of UNESCO's approaches to peace-building among the youngest is the dissemination of knowledge about cultural diversity and the evolving notion of cultures and their interdependence. It develops and tests tools for the development of intercultural skills. The objective of such knowledge-sharing initiatives is to provoke reflection on the interdependence and interconnection of cultures and strengthen the sense of belonging and responsibility towards humanity. The event will present two of the tools recently published by UNESCO: "Writing Peace" is a manual designed to provide schoolchildren (aged 8-18) with intercultural competencies. Through familiarization with writing systems, students discover and become aware of the cultural interdependence, our respective multiple identities, their history and cultural heritage. The manual was piloted in 42 countries in 2019 through the UNESCO Associated Schools around the world. Participating teachers recommended its inclusion in national curricula to prevent racism and discrimination, aligned with values and principles of human dignity, citizenship participation and respect for the others "Story Circles" is a structured yet flexible methodology for developing intercultural competence in a variety of contexts, both formal and informal, presented in the UNESCO Manual for Developing Intercultural Competences. Piloted around the world by UNESCO, this methodology has proven to be effective in different contexts and focused on a variety of different issues. Story Circles is an important resource for anyone concerned with effectively managing the growing cultural diversity within our societies to ensure inclusive and sustainable development. Using Story circles, the teachers will put into practice the proposed methodology, followed by a second practical exercise guided by the newly trained facilitators.

The Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme will meet at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, on 25 and 26 February 2020. The main objectives of the meeting will be to review the MOST Action Plan, and to provide advice to the MOST Intergovernmental Council (IGC) on a set of envisioned activities for the MOST Programme in 2020 and 2021. The SAC encompasses 9 internationally recognized experts representing various disciplines in the social sciences, and the Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Council (IGC) who attends in an ex-officio capacity. It functions as a permanent committee. Its specific role is related to programme conceptualization, strategy development and scientific advisory research regarding MOST projects.

The Art Lab Design Thinking Jam is a joint one-day co-creation workshop organized by UNESCO, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, at the Martin Bodmer Foundation, on 26 February 2020, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the mandate on cultural rights and on the margins of the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council. Cultural operators and foundations working in the field, UN colleagues, engaged artists, former refugees will develop together the outline of a prototype tool to enable humanitarian and development operators to better integrate art and culture into their work. Participants will appreciate the diversity and the relevance of inclusive artistic approaches in building resilience among victims of discrimination and marginalization. Cultural operators and artists will address the obstacles encountered and the conditions necessary for the development of artistic practices. Representatives of organizations working with those who have left everything behind and those who were left behind will inform participants about their structural environment and the contexts in which they work, including the reality of migrant, displaced or extremely poor people. Together, they will address the following challenge: why are the arts and culture, whose powers are transformative for people in vulnerable situations, not used more often? During the ideation phase, participants will create and focus on solutions that respond to this issue. This phase will be followed by the elaboration of a prototype likely to be developed to enable organizations to better integrate art and culture into their work, for the purposes of social reintegration and citizen participation of the most deprived. Participants will also be invited to evaluate during a piloting phase, whose scope and duration will be defined jointly, the potential of the solutions developed during the Design Thinking Jam, in terms of desirability, feasibility and sustainability. *** Launched by UNESCO in December 2018, the Art Lab for Human Rights and Dialogue has the ambition to integrate arts and culture into humanitarian and development programmes in a more mainstream way. It compiles, tests, analyzes and synthesizes initiatives using cultural and artistic approaches to enable marginalized people to recover their human dignity and their voice, in order to develop training tools and share practices that contribute to their re-integration into society.

The new Bureau of the Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme will meet at UNESCO Headquarters (Miollis) in Paris, on 27 and 28 February 2020. Elected on 25 November 2019, the Bureau will discuss the MOST Action Plan for 2020 and 2021, and other initiatives. Agenda items: - Review of the MOST Action Plan and further initiatives (2021-2021)- Oral report by the MOST Scientific Advisory Committee- Monitoring of the Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers- Proposal for the establishment of BRIDGES as a MOST sustainability science coalition- General History of Africa- The Silk Roads- Sultan Bin Abdulaziz programme to strengthen Arabic language at UNESCO- Review of revised MOST Statutes and Rules of Procedures- Preparation of the Extraordinary Session of the Intergovernmental Council, September 2020- Discussion of draft decisions and recommendations The working languages will be English and French as per Rule of Procedure 15. The meeting will also be open to IGC members, which are not members of the IGC Bureau, as observers.

UNESCO is organizing the launch of the Dynamic Coalition for the Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation on 2 March 2020 at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, during Mobile Learning Week. The Dynamic Coalition will aim to expand and consolidate commitments to actions and strategies as well as reinforce international cooperation among all stakeholders in the 4 areas of the UNESCO OER Recommendation: i) Building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER; ii) Developing supportive policy; (iii) Encouraging inclusive and equitable quality OER; and (iv) Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER. Link: Open Educational Resources (OER)

Following the approval by the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference, through 40 C/Resolution 53, of the revised Statutes of the Intergovernmental Council for the Information for All Programme (IFAP), and in accordance with Article 6 of the said Statutes, an extraordinary session of the IFAP Council will be held with the objective to constitute the IFAP Bureau. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Room XI (Fontenoy Building) from 3.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. on Monday, 2 March 2020. The meeting will be chaired by Mr. Moez Chakchouk, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, who will participate on behalf of UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. Following the election of the Bureau, as a point of information, the Secretariat will present the questionnaire through which IFAP Members can contribute to the Director-General’s reflection of UNESCO’s Strategy, Programme and Budget. This is aligned with recommendation 74 of the Working Group on Governance (39 C/Resolution 87) regarding the opportunity for UNESCO's International and Intergovernmental Bodies (IIBs) to input into the draft C/4 and C/5 documents. Simultaneous interpretation of the event will be provided in both French and English. Links:  Revised Statutes of IFAP Council Guidebook for Members of UNESCO’s International and Intergovernmental Bodies Information for All Programme (IFAP)

Join the next IIEP-UNESCO Strategic Debate on how to make schools a safe place by preventing school violence and bullying. International statistics report that one in three students is regularly bullied by his/her peers at school. School violence is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. It includes physical, psychological and sexual violence between peers including bullying and cyber-bullying, as well as violence perpetrated by teachers. School violence and bullying have major consequences: they strongly affect student learning and can lead to absenteeism, dropout, depression and suicide. The forthcoming IIEP Strategic Debate intends to take stock of what is known in terms of international and national trends and existing causes. It will focus on how to prevent school violence and the respective responsibilities of political leaders, education actors (Ministries of Education, inspectorates, heads of schools, parents, teachers), but also civil society organizations. Speakers: - Imanne Agha, Chargée de mission "Violence et prévention à l’école", French Ministry of Education - Christophe Cornu, Team Leader, Section of Health and Education, UNESCO - Sébastien Tavergne, Head of school, Lycée Le Corbusier (Cormeilles-en-Parisis / Académie de Versailles) Michaela Martin, Programme Specialist at IIEP-UNESCO, will moderate the debate. This event will be conducted in both English and French languages, with simultaneous interpretation. The Debate will be followed by a cocktail at 6 pm. Not in Paris? We will be livestreaming this debate in both English and French. Make sure to register here to receive a reminder and link to the web cast. Follow the debate on Twitter with the #StrategicDebate and @IIEP_UNESCO.