On the margins of the 40th Session of the UNESCO General Conference, this high level side event will inform Permanent Delegations and other stakeholders about the Second UN Ocean Conference (Lisbon, Portugal, 2-6 June 2020) and the upcoming launch of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). More information on the Decade is available at: www.oceandecade.org.Currently in preparation, the Implementation Plan for the Decade will be unveiled in Lisbon with the launch of the Ocean Decade Alliance, a group of engaged leaders from sciences, education, culture, governments, private sector, civil society, and youth committed to actions through the transformative power of science. Internationally renowned scientists, practitioners and young ocean leaders will share their views with participants on how they can support the Decade.

Friday 15 November 2019 from 6.15pm to 7.30pm, UNESCO HQ Room II The event will discuss the role of education and youth empowerment in climate action, and showcase some good practices of how young people are already active for the climate around the world, both inside and outside the classroom. It will include examples from the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet), UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and winners of the UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The second half of the event is dedicated to the awarding of the three winners of the 2019 UNESCO-Japan Prize: a community trust from Botswana, a foundation in Brazil and a city in Germany. All three winning projects are empowering learners, including youth, to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to act upon sustainability challenges such as climate change. Funded by the Government of Japan, the Prize consists of three annual awards of USD 50,000 for each recipient. Within the context of the UNESCO Strategy for Action on Climate Change and UNESCO’s Operational Strategy on Youth 2014-2021, the first half of this event aims to recognize youth and young scientists not just as beneficiaries but also as essential actors in finding solutions for climate change and climate change advocacy. Youth are often just as active and organized locally and globally within their networks as experts. However, sometimes they face challenges connecting with global policy and decision-making processes. Therefore, UNESCO supports the mobilization of youth for climate action and the organization of intergenerational dialogue between youth and decision makers that recognizes youth as knowledge-holders (including indigenous knowledge) and innovators who provide solutions for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Asia regional launch of the Global Digital Library is being held in Kathmandu, Nepal. The event will highlight the importance of the platform for stakeholders involved in reading materials development, primary education programming, or community reading programmes in the Asia region. Ministries of education, donor community and NGOs working on supplementary reading materials, school managers, teachers, international and national non-governmental organizations, local publishers, digital distributors and content providers in Asia are encouraged to attend.

In view of present situation of media in the country, a series of trainings on producing gender-balanced contents, to young journalists working with print, online and broadcasting media will be conducted. The training workshop aims to give an exposure to young journalists on the dynamics of election reporting based on UNDP’s Training Module as well as UNESCO’s standards of Gender Sensitive Indicators for Media. The journalists and the women parliamentarians will have an opportunity to interact with each other on the problems and limitations of both the parties affecting the gender-balanced media coverage. The journalists and the parliamentarians will come out with a joint commitment through a joint exercise forming the working groups to recognize the needs of both sides. The training will be conducted in four different places: Kathmandu (18-20 October), Janakpur (21-23 October), Surkhet (4-6 November) and Butwal (8-10 November).

Girls and women’s access to equal education opportunities in the STEM disciplines determines not only their lifelong outcomes but also sustainable development across the Asia-Pacific. Please join us in Bangkok from 21 to 22 November 2019 for a two-day regional research project meeting on “STEM Education for Girls and Women in Asia-Pacific”. As part of the regional research project in STEM for girls and women, and to continue efforts promoting STEM education for all, UNESCO Bangkok will convene the meeting to discuss and share current research and innovative projects and practices regarding Girls/Women in STEM education in the Asia-Pacific. The meeting will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to learn more about what member states can do to enhance the relevance of STEM education for females. In addition, stakeholders will have an opportunity to take stock in various projects, programmes and initiatives throughout the region. UNESCO will engage organizations and institutes to attend, laying the groundwork for a potential network of STEM education experts across the Asia-Pacific that could lead policy discussions and affect change across international, national and local levels. When: 21-22 November 2019 Where: UNESCO Bangkok Office, 920 Sukhumvit Rd, Prakanong Who: Invited guests will include the current researchers who are involved in the project, as well as key partners and stakeholders in the STEM education field, such as those involved in gender education, including academic and research institutes, Ministry of Education officials, external partners from NGOs/CSOs, international agencies, development agencies and technology companies. Organizers: The meeting is organized by UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education. For more details, please contact m.manns@unesco.org and l.ugwuegbula@unesco.org.

The objective of this meeting will be to examine the elements for an instrument to support teachers and learners’ capacity development for the use of Artificial intelligence. The discussions will focus on the concepts provided by the discussion paper commissioned by UNESCO entitled: “A Report about Education, Training Teachers and Learning Artificial Intelligence: Overview of Key Issues”. This commissioned paper on Artificial Intelligence and Education has identified five pillars to guide Artificial Intelligence and education, as follows: • Data awareness, namely the capacity to build , manipulate, and visualize large amounts of data • Understanding randomness and accepting uncertainty or the ability to live in a world where models cease to be deterministic; • Skills allowing individuals to create with code and to solve problems through algorithms; • Critical thinking as adapted to an increasingly Digital society and finally a series of questions amounting to understand our own humanity in view of the changes AI introduces; and • Reconsidering key concepts such as intelligence, experience, creativity, ‘the truth’. The expected output of this meeting will be to provide recommendations on Artificial Intelligence competencies for teachers and learners linked to the ICT CFT and information literacy.