UNESCO New Delhi and the Indian National Mission for Empowerment of Women sign a Charter of Collaboration

"Promotion of Gender Equality" is Ms. Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director -General's priority initiative and UNESCO promotes a two-pronged approach involving both gender-specific programmes and gender mainstreaming within UNESCO’s five areas of competence - Education, Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture, and Communication and Information.

In-line with this initiative UNESCO New Delhi Office recently signed a "Charter of Collaboration" with the National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) under the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India, which has been setup for socio - economic empowerment of women and will implement several convergence pilot projects. It has been mutually agreed that UNESCO New Delhi will provide technical support in facilitating a "Gender Equality Observatory", undertake joint projects, research, evaluation studies and create a 360 degree approach on media and communication on issues related to the gender equality in the areas of UNESCO’s competence.

The Charter of Collaboration was signed by Mr. Shigeru Aoyagi, Director UNESCO New Delhi and Ms. K. Ratna Prabha, Additional Secretary and Mission Director, on 14 November 2012 at UNESCO New Delhi and later handed over to Mr. Alisher Umarov, Programme Specialist Education, UNESCO New Delhi by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Union Minister of State, Ministry of Women and Child Development at the Vatsalya Mela on "Safety and Protection of Women and Child Rights", held at Dilli Haat, New Delhi.

Although education is a right but it is not a reality for all girls. Therefore the potential of partnerships, notably with the government agency is highly important to find creative new ways for more effective action. The "Charter of Collaboration"is hoped will complement these efforts by stepping up national advocacy, and acting as a ‘national conscience’ for the advancement of girls and women. We hope to continue such collaborations for carving better future for our girls and women. Accordingly Mr. Umarov took this opportunity to present the UNESCO Report "World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education" to Smt. Krishna Tirath. He highlighted the contents of the report produced by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, which includes over 120 maps, charts and tables featuring sex-disaggregated data and gender indicators. He also mentioned that it allows readers to visualize the educational pathways of girls and boys and track changes in gender disparities over time.

In the past UNESCO New Delhi had successful collaboration on gender related issues with various partners such as INTEL, IGNOU, NIOS, MHRD, NLM, MICROSOFT, ILFS-IETS, ESSILOR'S, TERI, CII, Doosra Dashak etc. UNESCO has commissioned several research and resource materials like ICT Policy Tool Kit, LIFE Kit, Changing perspectives of Water management, Handbook on Right to Education for Children with disabilities, Different approaches to EFA, and others covering different aspects of gender equality in human development areas.

• Source:UNESCO New Delhi
• 27-11-2012