The Korean National Commission for UNESCO (KNCU) co-hosted a Training Workshop for Officials of Asian National Commissions for UNESCO in Bangkok, Thailand, from 21^st to 24^th June in cooperation with the UNESCO Bangkok Office and the Thai National Commission for UNESCO. Around 50 participants attended this workshop, including 30 officials from 21 National Commissions for UNESCO, and some 15 officials from the UNESCO Bangkok Office, as well as two participants from UNESCO Headquarters: Stoyan Bantchev, Chief of the Participation Programme and Fellowships Section (ERI), and Xiaolin Cheng, Senior Field Coordination Officer in the Division of Field Support and Coordination (FSC). The 21 participating National Commissions were those of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.

The workshop took place over four days. On the first day, officials from the Education, Natural Science, Culture, Social and Human Sciences, and Communication and Information Divisions at the UNESCO Bangkok Office led various sessions on the following themes: ‘An overview of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and SDG 4’, ‘Education 2030 in Asia and the Pacific’, ‘The role of National Commissions in the implementation of SDG 4-Education 2030’, and ‘UNESCO’s programme priorities for 2016-2017 (38C/5)’.

On the second and the third day, officials from UNESCO Headquarters gave presentations titled ‘Sustainability of UNESCO’s field network and interface & cooperation between National Commissions and field offices’ and ‘UNESCO’s Partnership Strategy’.

Also on the second and third days, the Secretary-General of KNCU and other staff members from KNCU also gave participants an introduction to KNCU’s implementation of cooperative projects with fellow National Commissions, including the Bridge Africa and Bridge Asia Programmes, and shared KNCU’s experiences in the area of public relations, and how it engages with the private sector and the general public.

Alongside the above-mentioned sessions, participants spent time working in small groups to draft and present on an inter-regional or sub-regional Participation Programme project proposal, and learned how to edit videos on Youtube in order to build their capacities to promote the activities of their National Commission. Participants also had an opportunity on the final day of the workshop to make visits to Chitralada Royal Villa and the UNESCO Bangkok Office.