Culture
Culture plays a key role in enhancing and preserving our shared identities while enriching individuals with the power of creativity to thrive. Through advocacy and policy support, UNESCO protects cultural heritage and promotes the creative economy to build more inclusive and peaceful societies.
Cambodia is home to a rich collection of diverse cultural heritage and dynamic creative sectors. UNESCO works with the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) and partners to preserve cultural heritage - sites, objects and intangible and underwater heritage, support Smart Cities Roadmap development, and promote the creative and cultural industries for sustainable development.
Education
As the United Nations lead agency for education, UNESCO provides global and regional leadership in education, strengthens education systems and responds to contemporary global challenges through education with gender equality as an underlying principle.
Through its long-standing partnership with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) and partners, UNESCO has been advancing the Education 2030 and SDG 4 agenda. Specifically, UNESCO supports institutional capacity development through sector-wide education policy advice, planning and coordination of national education frameworks, alongside
the implementation of the Education for Sustainable Development 2030 country initiative. UNESCO supports teacher training and reform to enhance their capacity and improve education quality. UNESCO works on the development, implementation and monitoring of the national Lifelong Learning Policy to offer flexible learning pathways and improve literacy skills and basic education for factory workers and out-of-school youth.
Communication and Information
Through capacity-building, policy advice, technical assistance, monitoring and foresight, UNESCO promotes freedom of expression, media independence and pluralism, and the building of inclusive knowledge societies underpinned by universal access to information and the innovative use of digital technologies.
In Cambodia, UNESCO is working to strengthen legislative frameworks to ensure all Cambodians enjoy their rights to freedom of expression and universal access to information. To promote a well-equipped society ready for the digital world, UNESCO is providing technical support to the Ministry
of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC) to develop Southeast Asia’s first national strategy, to integrate Media and Information Literacy across Cambodia’s education, information, labour and telecommunication sectors. As part of its COVID-19 response, UNESCO launched an online campaign with Cambodian influencers, reaching more than 8 million users to build trust in the media and foster the public’s resilience to disinformation and misinformation.
Natural Sciences
As a catalyst for mobilizing international scientific cooperation, UNESCO develops scientific knowledge and solutions for today’s acute economic, social and environmental challenges, to achieve peace, sustainable development and greener societies.
In Cambodia, UNESCO promotes the advancement of science and its applications to strengthen environmental conservation, natural resources management, and Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) through policy harmonization, and scientific and technological capacity building.
Recognizing its unique ecological, economic and cultural values, the Tonle Sap was inscribed as the first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Cambodia in 1997, and enforced by Royal Decree in 2001, as part of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme. Currently, UNESCO is working to promote environment conservation, sustainable livelihoods and education for sustainable development in the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve (TSBR).