UNESCO is organizing the International Scientific Committee (ISC) to discuss conservation and management of the Lumbini World Heritage Site, the birthplace of Lord Buddha; the ancient city of Tilaurakot, included on the Tentative List for World Heritage; and other Buddhist sites in the Greater Lumbini Area (GLA)The meeting will review project activities and coordinate various initiatives carried out by the Government of Nepal, development partners, and donors in the GLA. The meeting will bring together national authorities, donors and international and national experts in archaeology, conservation, urban planning, the environment, tourism and heritage management. Representatives of the Buddhist community are also invited to understand the needs of Buddhist pilgrims and communities. The meeting will be followed by site visits to the Sacred Garden of Lumbini and Tilaurakot, and Heritage Festival in Tilaurakot on 6 March 2020. UNESCO is also organizing a workshop on initiating the World Heritage nomination process in order to facilitate the Government of Nepal for the development of the nomination dossier of sites on the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage Status, in particular, the ancient Tilaurakot site, on 7 March 2020 in Lumbini.

The Preparatory Group of the Executive Board should contribute to the efficient preparation of regular sessions of the Executive Board and facilitate its decision-making. The Group should be inclusive and cost-effective. The Group shall be open to all UNESCO Member States.

To celebrate the 2020 edition of International Women’s Day, UNESCO is taking the conversation further by looking at what concrete actions the private and public sector should take in order to ensure that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is part of the solution, rather than part of the problem, in global efforts to achieve gender equality. At Headquarters, UNESCO is organising the High-Level Conference: “Gender Equality and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: What solutions from the private sector?”. It will take place on Saturday 7 March 2020, from 9:30 to 4:30pm. To celebrate International Women’s Day, UNESCO invites you to its high-level conference: “The Private Sector Takes Action: Gender Equality and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence”. The event will take place on Saturday 7 March 2020, from 9:30 to 4:30pm. The conference comes as a follow-up to UNESCO and EQUALS’ publication in March 2019 of I’d Blush if I Could: closing gender divides in digital skills through education. This report features recommendations on actions to overcome global gender gaps in digital skills, with a special examination of the impact of gender prejudice coded into some of the most prevalent artificial intelligence applications. The recommendations concerning AI’s gender biases are urgent in light of the explosive growth of digital voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. Almost all voice assistants are given female names and voices, and express a ‘personality’ that is engineered to be uniformly subservient. The gendered submissiveness and servility expressed by so many of these ‘female’ digital assistants illustrate the gender biases coded into AI products. As I’d Blush if I Could explains, these biases are rooted in stark gender imbalances in digital skills education and in the gender imbalances of the technical teams developing frontier technologies. The outcome of this conference will feed into UNESCO’s efforts to develop a global normative instrument on the ethics of artificial intelligence, in line with its mandate unanimously decided upon by Member States at the 40th session of its General Conference in November 2019. The event will be followed by the inaugural meeting of the Exponent Roundtable, a Google initiative to operate under the patronage of UNESCO (TBC), which consists of a small group of people inside and outside of Google that are working with the private sector to advance gender equality efforts globally. Objectives of the conference Bringing technology sector leaders, representatives of Member States, civil society and academia together to share their insights and experiences on opportunities, challenges and best practices to: overcome the built-in gender biases found in AI devices, data sets and algorithms improve the global representation of women in technical roles and in boardrooms in the technology sector create robust and gender-inclusive AI principles, guidelines and codes of ethics within the industry To find out more about this event and register your participation, please visit the conference website: https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/womenday  

Information session at which ADG/ED Ms Stefania Giannini will provide an update on the Futures of Education initiative from 10:30-12:00 on Monday, 9th March 2020 in Room IX at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France.UNESCO launched the Futures of Education initiative to reimagine how knowledge and learning can shape the futures of humanity in a context of increasing complexity, uncertainty and precarity during a high-level event at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019 in New York. An International Commission consisting of eminent thought-leaders from multiple fields of expertise, was mandated to develop a flagship global report on the Futures of Education for release in 2021 under the leadership of the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Her Excellency President Sahle-Work Zewde. The first meeting of the Commission took place on 28-29 January 2020 at UNESCO with the aim of taking stock of the global situation in education today and what can be predicted for 2050 and beyond. The initiative also aims to catalyze a global debate, therefore a set of on-line platforms were launched recently on the website inviting people from all over the world to offer their opinions and visions for the futures of education.

High-quality learning assessment systems are key elements of robust education systems. They generate data on learning and achievement that are required to monitor equitable educational outcomes, inform evidence-based policymaking, and improve teaching and learning practices. - The webinar in English, with ACER, will be from 8:00 to 9:30 CET / 18.00 to 19:30 AEDT - The webinar in French, with GPE, will be from 16.00 to 17:30 CET / 11.00 to 12:30 EST The second in the series of Learning Portal webinars on the use of learning assessment data will feature presentations from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), highlighting country experiences of using learning assessment data and suggestions to improve its use in educational planning and decision-making. In addition, the webinar will also present new resources and global public goods related to this theme.

The workshop will focus on adult education, technical and vocational education and training and the recognition of qualifications. .

The UNESCO Netexplo Forum 2020 consists of two parts: Netexplo Innovation Forum 2020 and Netexplo Smart Cities Accelerator. The Innovation Forum 2020 will showcase 10 breakthrough digital innovations with the potential of profound and lasting impact on the digital society. The innovations are spotted worldwide through a year-long work by the Netexplo University Network, made up of globally renowned universities in the technology domain. The Innovation Forum will highlight some of the most promising global innovators in digital technologies, whose innovations have influences the development of our society through new forms of education, communication, information, solidarity and management around the globe. The UNESCO Netexplo Forum 2020 will also comprise of the second edition of the Netexplo Smart Cities Accelerator programme. Building on its first edition, the event aims to share the best practices on Smart Cities all around the world. Cities decision-makers face a range of questions in the attempt of meeting their citizens’ most urgent needs. These vary from safety, to funding models, to infrastructure and attractiveness. There are as many solutions as there are cultures and territories. And all of them are sources of inspiration. The event aims at helping city decision-makers to seize the opportunities offered by Smart Cities to improve the lives of women and men worldwide.

An open session for the public, especially International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) National Committees, representatives of UNESCO’s Member States and cooperating organizations, will take place at UNESCO. IGCP is a joint programme of UNESCO and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). It supports scientific projects related to the Earth sciences across the world, selected by the IGCP Council and Scientific Board and involving one of the five themes that constitute the Programme: earth resources, global change, Geohazards, Hydrogeology and Geodynamic. On the occasion of the Open Session, and within the framework of the UNESCO Global Geoparks, new applications will be presented. Your participation would be very valuable for us to collect your constructive comments regarding IGCP projects.

The International Support Group (ISG) is open to the participation of all Member States who have their Delegations at UNESCO Headquarters, to advise the Secretariat of the Man and biosphere programme (MAB) on relevant aspects of the MAB Programme. This group meets regularly once or twice per year and the MAB Secretariat provides first-hand information to the Member States. It was set up by the MAB Programme's International Co-ordinating Council (ICC) at its 21st session held in the Jeju Island Biosphere Reserve, Republic of Korea from 25 to 29 May 2009. During this meeting, the Secretariat will provide updates on the following topics: - Main developments and achievements of the MAB Programme since the 15th ISG Meeting, held in March 2019; - Results of the 31st Session of the International Co-ordinating Council of the MAB Programme, held in Paris in June 2019; - Information on the 26th Session of the International Advisory Committee on Biosphere Reserves, held in February 2020; - Main information on the upcoming 32nd Session of the International Co-ordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme.