The Eighteenth Session of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) took place on 9-10 April 2019 in Moscow. The Governing Board meets at least once a year to define the general policy of the Institute, to approve the IITE Programme Activities and Budget as well as to provide guidance on the Institute’s operations. This year, Members of the Governing Board reviewed the Report delivered by the Director on the activities of IITE for 2018 and financial report, the implementation plan of the IITE Programme Activities for 2019-2020. Documents adopted at the Governing Board Meeting also include IITE Resource Mobilization Strategy 2019-2021 and Risk Register. Four new Members of the Governing Board – Ms. Maria Cecilia Calani Baranauskas from Brazil, Ms. Li Chen from China, Ms. Dorothy Gordon from Ghana and Ms. Asha Kanwar from Canada attended the Meeting for the first time.
The Governing Board Chairperson Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (UAE) welcomed the representative of UNESCO Director General, the representatives of the Russian Government and Members of the Governing Board, IITE staff and expressed his gratitude to the Government of the Russian Federation for its continuous support to the Institute. Director-General of UNESCO was represented by Mr. Valtencir Mendez, UNESCO HQ Education Sector, who expressed his particular gratitude to the Russian Government for its continued support and hope for further fruitful cooperation. Ms. Aysur Belekova, 1st Secretary of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, and Ms. Ksenia Trinchenko, Head of the Multilateral Cooperation Section of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Higher Education took part at the session of the Governing Board. Ms. Trinchenko spoke about the cooperation of the Ministry and the Institute stressing the importance of creating digital education, which is one of the strategic priorities of the Russian Federation and UNESCO to address the challenges in the digital age. Following the recommendations and guidance of the Governing Board expressed at its Meeting in 2018, IITE has made substantial progress in the implementation of its Strategy and Programme Activities. The focuses of the 18th session of the Board were partnership and resource mobilization, visibility and communication as well as support of Governing Board Members to IITE Programme Activities.
The second day the session of the Governing Board was combined with the participation of Members of the Governing Board in the Launch of Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM), which was held at Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) on 10 April 2019 within the framework of Moscow International Education Fair.
