About the MOST Programme
MOST is UNESCO’s intergovernmental science programme on social transformations.
MOST works with governments, social and human science communities and civil societies to improve connections between knowledge and action, connections that are one key to positive social change.
Within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, MOST contributes to development, to the eradication of poverty, to inclusive and sustainable responses to environmental change and to the promotion of inclusive, effective and accountable governance, as well as to the achievement of UNESCO’s Global Priorities: Africa and Gender Equality.
MOST supports Member States in improving policymaking processes through a strengthened research-policy interface, which uses knowledge focused on human needs from the social and human sciences to promote a culture of evidence-informed decision-making.
MOST has three operational pillars:
- The research pillar, operating in close coordination with the Scientific Advisory Committee, networks social science and humanities communities in order to:
- produce and systematize and promote inclusive and open access to knowledge
- deploy systems thinking approaches to foster interdisciplinary approaches such as sustainability science
- promote multi-stakeholder exchanges of knowledge and experience, including through the publication of MOST Discussion Papers and MOST Policy Papers
- and foster the development of appropriate methods and metrics.
- MOST intergovernmental forums - subregional Ministerial Forums, the Intergovernmental Council, UNESCO governing bodies and other UN Forums – enable Member States, through MOST, to shape international agendas and develop the technical basis to respond to them.
- Policy support and capacity-building, through MOST Schools, Futures Literacy Labs, the Inclusive Policy Lab and MOST Direct, involve work with individual Member States and specific science communities to embed MOST outcomes in national debate and policy design.
MOST is implemented nationally, regionally and internationally.
It operates with networks and partners including UN entities (UNRISD, UNDESA), social science bodies (ISSC, CODESRIA, CLACSO, FLACSO, ACSS) and other stakeholders.
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