UNESCO

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It seeks to build peace through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences, and Culture. UNESCO’s programmes contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals defined in Agenda 2030.

The IAU is an official partner of UNESCO (Associate status). IAU partners with UNESCO for the World Higher Education Database (WHED); for the Futures of Education global initiative.  IAU regularly submits successful proposals to the UNESCO Participation Programme and contributes to various UNESCO Conferences and events on SDG4; IAU has joined the UNESCO Global Education Coalition which seeks to facilitate inclusive learning opportunities;  IAU engages with the UNESCO Chairs network; IAU supports UNESCO’s work on the Digital Transformation of (higher) education and supports the Open Science movement and the work developed during the Digital Learning Week. 

IAU supports the Work of UNESCO and the UN Sustainable Development Goals by bringing in expertise of the higher education sector.  It supported the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD, which ran from 2015 to 2019, aimed to generate and scale-up ESD and to accelerate progress towards sustainable development. And now the ESD for 2030 work. 

The IAU organised several Higher Education panels and debates at the UNESCO World Conference Education for Sustainable Development in May 2021 and was a key partner to the UNESCO World Higher Education Conferences 2022.