Sustainable Development Goals

Audrey Azoulay was speaking on Friday in Beijing, China, where she co-chaired the award ceremony for the 2023 UNESCO Prize for the Education of Women and Girls, alongside the agency’s Special Envoy, Professor Peng Liyuan. She appealed for an “intensification of global investments in favour of girls and women’s access to education”. Striving towards equality Ms. Azoulay said “significant progress” has been made in education since the international community adopted the UN Declaration and...

26 September 2023Human Rights Forced separations and language policies for Uyghur and other minority Muslim children at State-run boarding schools in China’s Xinjiang region carry the risk of forced assimilation, three UN independent human rights experts said on Tuesday. Classroom teaching at these institutions is almost exclusively in Mandarin, with little or no use of the Uyghur language, they said in a statement. They warned that separating the children from their families “could...

According to the UN health agency, the tobacco industry’s approach has resulted in increased use of e-cigarettes, with nine out of 10 smokers starting before the age of 18 – and some as early as 11. “Considering that children spend nearly one-third of their waking hours in school, and much of the peer pressure they encounter occurs within these educational environments, schools play a pivotal role,” WHO said. Schools are in “a uniquely powerful position to play a major role in reducing...

Primary school girls and boys walk to a UNICEF-supported community centre in Shahristan District in central Afghanistan. 18 September 2023Culture and Education The international community must ensure that every girl in Afghanistan has an opportunity to learn, the head of the UN fund for education in emergencies said on Monday – the second anniversary of the Taliban’s edict banning secondary education for girls. “Denying education to girls is a violation of universal human...

18 September 2023Culture and Education The number of children missing out on any schooling has increased by six million, bringing the total to 250 million, according to new figures released on Monday by the UN Education, Science, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The increase is partly due to the mass exclusion of women and girls from education in Afghanistan but can also be attributed to broader stagnation in education provision worldwide. The findings undermine UN Sustainable...

9 September 2023Culture and Education With a staggering hike in attacks targeting schools and hospitals, and over seven million refugee children out of school, the UN chief called on Saturday for a new push to defend vulnerable students and teachers worldwide. Marking the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said it was important to defend “havens of education”. “Education is not only a fundamental human right, but a pathway to...

8 September 2023Migrants and Refugees More than seven million refugee children are out of school globally according to UN data – that’s more than half the world’s population of displaced, school-aged children. “With the displaced population rising every year, there is a significant and increasing proportion of the world’s children who are missing out on their education,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday that by the...

2 September 2023Culture and Education Afghanistan’s Logar province is one of the most conservative areas in the country. Even before the decision of the de-facto authorities to suspend girls’ access to beyond primary education, most families did not let their girls go to school. Most girls and women in this province are illiterate. More than 1,000 women and young girls, from 15 to 45, are now learning how to read, write, and calculate for the first time in their lives through literacy...

The study provides a global analysis of the potential exposure of occupations and tasks to generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the possible implications for job quantity and quality. It was written by three social scientists at the UN agency who predict the new technology will likely complement and not destroy jobs by automating some tasks rather than taking over a role entirely. Tech on the rise Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, or ChatGTP, has been stoking worldwide...

15 August 2023Culture and Education The UN fund that ensures children can continue learning during emergencies and protracted crises, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), launched a campaign on Tuesday to elevate the voices of young Afghan girls deprived of their basic right to education. #AfghanGirlsVoices comes precisely two years after the de facto Taliban authorities seized control in Afghanistan and will continue until September 18, which marks the start of their official ban on school...