42 C 42 C/21 Job: 202303670 General Conference 42 C/21 3 November 2023 Original: English Item 4.7 of the provisional agenda REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE UNITWIN/UNESCO CHAIRS PROGRAMME OUTLINE Purpose: Pursuant to 215 EX/Decision 9, the Director-General submits to the General Conference the report on the activities of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme. The financial and administrative implications of this document have been covered in document 42 C/5. Decision required: paragraph 22. 42nd session, Paris 202342 C/21 I. Background 1. Pursuant to 215 EX/Decision 9, this document provides an update on the results of measures taken to improve the management of the programme, as well as on efforts to better leverage the expertise and collective intelligence of the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks. 2. The activities undertaken by the Secretariat build on the proposals for the improvement of the progamme outlined in 215 EX/9, and on the recommendations of the 2021 Audit of the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks Programme conducted by UNESCO’s Internal Oversight Service. 3. As at October 2023, the programme comprises a total of 957 UNESCO Chairs and 42 UNITWIN Networks across all regions of the world. II. Report on programme activities Streamlining administrative procedures and improving database management 4. Processing backlog of applications and updating membership: The backlog of unprocessed applications has been cleared and all expired agreements have been regularized by July 2022. As a result, some 150 new members have been added, and 110 members that have been inactive or no longer working in UNESCO priority areas, have been removed from the programme. The temporary measure introduced in 2022 and 2023 that limits the number of applications per cycle to two per country ensured that the number of dossiers to be treated was manageable during this period. 5. Facilitating the processing of requests for renewal: On the basis of a recommendation of the 2021 IOS Audit, new agreements and renewals now have an end date either on 30 June or on 31 December, thereby aligning all UNESCO Chair and UNITWIN Network agreements to two dates a year. This streamlined process ensures that requests for renewal are processed in a more effective manner. 6. Ensuring involvement of UNESCO National Commissions and timely submissions of requests for renewal: In close collaboration with National Commissions for UNESCO, monthly reminders are sent to programme members nine months prior to the expiration of their agreements. This aims to ensure that submissions of potential requests for renewal are processed prior to the expiration of the agreement. To further assist this process, reporting has been simplified through the introduction of a new standardized reporting template. 7. Online platform: Efforts to further improve the online application and evaluation platform, developed in 2022, are underway. These innovations seek to improve the user interface, and to facilitate the publication of new documents related to the programme. The online platform, which also serves as a repository for all activity reports, records of publications, and engagement with UNESCO, will further provide the data to inform the C/5 monitoring indicator relative to the share of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN networks that engage with UNESCO. Promoting visibility and improving communication 8. Updated public listing and internal database: A regularly updated public listing of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks, tabulated by region, country, host institution, and thematic focus, is posted on the programme webpage. An internal database includes updated contact information of the (co)chairholders/network (co)coordinators and their team members, the thematic focal points, as well as other key information to facilitate engagement between UNESCO and the network. 9. UNESCO country profiles: A list of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks per country has been added on the UNESCO webpage, in the same vein as existing lists of World Heritage Sites, elements inscribed on the list of intangible cultural heritage and the Memory of the World collections.42 C/21 – page 2 10. UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs webpage: Regularly updated, the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs webpage includes a section for members to promote their activities which are open to the community and beyond. The webpage also includes over 150 videos from individual UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks, highlighting their main contributions to the programme. Strengthening community engagement and knowledge sharing 11. Community engagement: The programme members are invited to join an online community and engage on social media1, for sharing recent knowledge production and information about upcoming events. It allows UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Network members to connect with each other, encourages peer-to-peer dialogue and facilitates collaboration across higher education institutions, and with UNESCO. 12. Regional and/or thematic networks: Efforts are underway to connect UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks at regional levels and/or by theme. The UNESCO Regional Office in Venice, for instance, has set up an interactive platform open to all science-related UNESCO Chairs and Centres from the region. It offers a space to share documents on a set of topics, as well as the possibility to meet online to build project proposals and enhance capacity and coordination. Similar efforts are underway in Latin America and the Caribbean among those working on Higher Education, led by the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC). The UNESCO Chairs and Networks in Africa have also been convened to strengthen connections and cooperation between UNESCO Chairs working in and with Africa. UNESCO is supporting these UNESCO Chairs by developing a flexible structure that brings them together as think tanks to support UNESCO’s Operational Strategy for Priority Africa (2022-29) in line with their areas of focus. 13. National mobilization of UNESCO Chairs/UNITWIN Networks: Numerous annual national meetings of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks were organized by the National Commissions for UNESCO to better engage with the network and to foster synergies between the UNESCO Chairs and other UNESCO networks, such as the UNESCO Associated Schools Network, the Global Network of Learning Cities, as well as category 2 centers under the auspices of UNESCO. These efforts have proven useful in strengthening interdisciplinary collaborations, as has been the case, for instance, with the Network of Italian UNESCO Chairs (ReCUI) which has mobilized all its members for a cycle of interdisciplinary seminars on the new social contract for education. UNESCO continues to support such seminars at national level that strengthen the role of UNESCO Chair networks in national policy debates. Contributing to UNESCO programme and priorities 14. Programme priorities: As per the guidelines revised in 2022, universities are encouraged to connect with UNESCO to co-design activities for the Chair’s programme during the application process. This ensures mutual benefit and reinforces partnerships with the universities as applications are increasingly aligned with UNESCO’s current priorities. 15. Global Priority Gender: As a result of the new required criteria to encourage the appointment of women chairholders or co-chairholders for the establishment of UNESCO Chairs or UNITWIN Networks, some 40% now include at least one woman acting as (co)chairholder. 16. Geographical representation: As at October 2023, the geographical representation of the 957 UNESCO Chairs and 42 UNITWIN Networks is as follows: Europe and North America (42%), Latin America and the Caribbean (18%), Eastern Europe (14%), Asia and the Pacific (13%), Sub- Saharan Africa (8%), and the Arab States (5%). Further efforts are being made to encourage applications of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks in the Global South. 17. Partnership with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): A new partnership with the OHCHR aims to create OHCHR-UNESCO Chairs on Human Rights Economy. 1 LinkedIn Group42 C/21 – page 3 This initiative resonates with the organization’s efforts to ensure the realization of human rights within its fields of competence. It also converges with the objectives of initiatives such as the upscaled commitment against racism, gender-based and other forms of discrimination and the work on inclusion by the Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme. This is completed outside of the regular cycle of applications and not subject to limitations on the number of applications per Member State, and the ambition is to establish them in all regions of the world. Leveraging the expertise of the network 18. Thematic priorities: Efforts have been made to promote South-South and North South-South inter-university collaboration, re-invigorate transdisciplinary cooperation and catalyze international research collaborations on key thematic priorities. Examples include the interdisciplinary Network on Ocean Science and Knowledge for Sustainable Development, as well as initial discussions on new UNITWIN networks on Culture in Emergencies. 19. Monthly UNESCO Chair webinars: A series of monthly UNESCO Chairs Seminars have been held online since January 2023, with up to 450 participants per seminar. These Seminars help to generate interdisciplinary perspectives on topics as varied as the futures of higher education, the right to science and academic freedom, and renewable energy. The September-December 2023 series of Seminars focuses on the Flagship Programmes of the Operational Strategy for Priority Africa 2022-2029. 20. Contributing to UNESCO research activities and participation in UNESCO-led events: UNESCO Chairs from different disciplines have, for example, contributed to articles on aspects of a new social contract for education to be published in Prospects. The open consultation process for the development of the Framework on Culture and Arts Education has received contributions from over 25 UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks in the form of written pieces, participation in expert groups and in organized dialogues. Moreover, UNESCO Chairs continue to be solicited for participation in and contribution to major UNESCO-led events such as the Internet for Trust Conference (Paris, November 2022), the 7th International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS VII) (Baku, June 2023), Digital Learning Week (Paris, September 2023) and the UNESCO World Conference on Culture and Arts Education (United Arab Emirates, February 2024). Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme 21. International Conference of UNESCO Chairs (Paris, 3-4 November 2022): The international conference “Transforming knowledge for just and sustainable futures” marked the 30th anniversary of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme. Supported by the French National Commission for UNESCO, the conference attracted over 500 participants representing some 250 UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks from 80 countries across all regions and provided a space to reflect on accomplishments and ways to transform knowledge to shape the future. Proposed draft resolution 22. In light of the above, the General Conference may wish to adopt a resolution along the following lines: The General Conference, Having examined document 42 C/21, 1. Notes with satisfaction the continued efforts to reform the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme, which plays an important role in strengthening UNESCO’s function as an intellectual agency and in leveraging interdisciplinary research and collective intelligence;42 C/21 – page 4 2. Requests the Director-General to continue implementing the proposals contained in document 215 EX/9 to improve the functioning of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme; 3. Calls on Member States to further support and promote inter-university cooperation through the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme; 4. Encourages Member States to support the strengthening of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme through voluntary contributions; 5. Also requests the Director-General to continue reporting on the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme in the framework of the C/5 Implementation Report. Printed on recycled paper