The 21st century
Image: A U.S. Tech cluster
The new issue of the UNESCO Natural Science Program flagship publication is out.In focus
2 Megacities of tomorrow
News
11 Benin first to host African Virtual Campus
11 UNESCO nominated to AMCOST
12 Poland rewards architect of molecular biology centre
12 UNCLOS gives countries breathing space
13 Kanawinka joins global geopark network
13 Launch of European Ocean Acidification Project
14 GRAPHIC Africa kicks off
14 Geological gems join World Heritage
Interview
15 Patricia Glibert on why scientists are taking a stand against ocean fertilization with urea
Horizons
17 Mayangna knowledge deep in the heart of Mesoamerica
20 A geotropical paradise
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO was established in 1960 and has successfully coordinated the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWS) for the Pacific Ocean since 1968. After the Sumatra tsunami on December 26, 2004, the IOC received the mandate to help all UNESCO Member States of the Indian Ocean rim to establish their own Tsunami Early Warning System (IOTWS).At the same time IOC began coordinating the establishment of similar Early Warning Systems (EWS) for tsunami and other ocean-related hazards in the Caribbean (CARIBE-EWS) and the Mediterranean and Northeast Atlantic Ocean and connected Seas (NEAMTWS).
To provide immediate interim coverage for tsunami warnings in all other oceans, advisory systems have been established under the aegis of the IOC of UNESCO, in cooperation with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) from the USA and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) from Japan.
The UNESCO/IOC global tsunami website is a one-stop resource for all tsunami-related information.
Laura Bush and other First Ladies with Mr Matsuura
U Win Tin after his release
The International Social Science Journal was initiated by UNESCO in 1949. It is currently published by Wiley Interscience. The most recent issue -- Volume 59 Issue s1 (September 2008) -- is on Human Security.
Information Literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.Information and media literacy enables people to interpret and make informed judgments as users of information and media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information and media messages in their own right. UNESCO encourages the development of national information and media literacy policies, including in education.
The American Library Association
The State Department provides a list of U.S. Biosphere Reserves on its website with links to their websites. About.com has a useful short discussion of UNESCO's biosphere reserves program. The George Wright Society has a useful facet of its website about the Man and the Biosphere program, which is UNESCO's umbrella program under which the World Network of Biosphere Reserves has been organized. (The GWS, headquartered in Michigan, is a nonprofit association of researchers, managers, administrators, educators, and other professionals who work on behalf of the scientific and heritage values of protected areas.) You might also be interested in an earlier book published by UNESCO on biosphere reserves.
Biosphere reserves are sites recognized under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program which innovate and demonstrate approaches to conservation and sustainable development. They are under national sovereign jurisdiction, yet share their experience and ideas nationally, regionally and internationally within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. There are 531 sites worldwide in 105 countries.
The U.S. State Department makes a website available describing the U.S. contributions to the Man and the Biosphere program.Biosphere reserve nominations for 2008. The deadline for submission of new biosphere reserve nominations is 30 September 2008. The MAB National Committees are invited to submit biosphere reserve nominations (and/or extensions to existing biosphere reserves) in hard copy with the original signatures of endorsement and original maps, and also in electronic form as well as periodic review reports. Countries wishing advice may contact the MAB Secretariat or the Field Offices. The nomination and periodic review forms are available in English, French and Spanish. More
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| 30 September 2008
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| 30 September 2008 |
Each year the United Nations system celebrates the International Day of Peace on September 21st. As part of the observation of the day, this week UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura awarded the 2008 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education to the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (South Africa) in recognition of its outstanding efforts in building sustainable reconciliation through education and in addressing systemic injustice in Africa.
Scientists at the Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) in Dakar (Senegal) are now better placed to cooperate with researchers overseas thanks to the installation of the first computing grid at the university, the fruit of a joint effort by the UNESCO/Hewlett-Packard project “Reversing Brain Drain into Brain Gain for Africa” and the Grid Computing Institute of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
In the 2008-2009 biennium, UNESCO is implementing a dozen "intersectoral platforms" that focus on key global challenges. The platforms promote an interdisciplinary approach through the combined action of UNESCO's five major programs: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, communication and information.
The International Basic Sciences Program (IBSP) seeks to strengthen national capacities in the basic sciences and science education. It fosters region-specific actions that involve a network of national, regional and international centers of excellence or benchmark centers in the basic sciences. The Program promotes North-South and South-South co-operation. It is carried out by UNESCO in partnership with the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), scientific unions of the International Council for Science (ICSU), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and other science centers, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The International Basic Sciences Program:
Harnessing Cooperation for Capacity Building in Science
and the Use of Scientific Information
A recent issue of the UNESCO Courier is devoted to remembrance of Claude Lévi-Strauss, the great Anthropologist who published often in The Courier, was very close to UNESCO during his life, and was even in his 90's an active participant in the celebrations of UNESCO's 60th anniversary in 2005.“The efforts of science should not only enable mankind to surpass itself; they must also help those who lag behind to catch up.”
“No doubt we take comfort in the dream that equality and fraternity will one day reign among men, without compromising their diversity.”
“Nothing indicates racial prejudices are diminishing and indications are not lacking to suggest that after brief local respites, they surge up again elsewhere with renewed intensity. Which is why UNESCO feels the need periodically to take up again a struggle whose outcome is uncertain, to say the least.”
“But who better than UNESCO can draw the attention of scientists and technicians to the fact (which they so often tend to overlook) that the purposes of science are not only to solve scientific problems but to find answers to social problems as well.”
What if the countries in the Middle East had no choice but to get along in order to share the region’s meagre water resources? This is the starting premise of Jon Martin Trondalen’s book “Water and Peace for the People”, which will be launched on 11 September at UNESCO. “Water and Peace for the People”, released by UNESCO Publishing, offers a practical guide that suggests concrete ways to resolve these crises. Analyzing what is at stake in each situation while releasing new information, the author examines the conflicts in the Upper Jordan River between Israel and Syria around the Golan Heights, between Israel and Lebanon over the Wazzani Spring, and the longstanding water dispute between Palestinians and Israelis. Challenges confronting Turkey, Syria and Iraq in sharing water of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers are also assessed.
The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being commemorated in a year-long campaign by the UN system. UNESCO, like the rest of the agencies of the system, is evaluating its progress in respecting and promoting human rights. The motto of this campaign is “Dignity and Justice for All of Us”.
Alexa, a company providing information about website use, reports that 0.014 percent of global internet users visit the UNESCO website. Consequently, at the moment, UNESCO's website ranks number 8,136 in cyberspace in terms of traffic. (By comparison, the Americans for UNESCO website ranks 9,968,024; the AU education and culture blog ranks 5,434,393; the AU science and communications blog ranks 5,790,834.) Alexa also reports that the percentage of global Internet users who used UNESCO's website has gone down over the past three months. On the average, a visitor to the UNESCO website downloads about 2.5 pages of material.
For the first time in its 60 year history the annual meeting of some 1,700 non-governmental organizations affiliated with the United Nations will take place outside of the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The Forum will be broadcast live on the internet in English and in French via a new web TV magazine at www.longevitv.com