Japan and UNESCO move forward on shared priority areas

On Monday 7 February, UNESCO and the Government of Japan opened their annual consultations with a high level dialogue.

With representatives of UNESCO’s key government partners including Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and technology (JAMSTEC), the purpose of the meeting was to take stock of on going cooperation and plan for the future. In his opening address, HE Ambassador Oike expressed Japan’s determination to continue to support projects in the six strategic priority areas that UNESCO and the Government of Japan agreed last year, namely, “protection of all forms of heritage in crisis”, “ESD”, “UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”, “ResiliArt”, “DRR” and “AI ethics”, and its wish to further strengthen the advocacy efforts with UNESCO in these areas.

During the meeting the Government of Japan also announced that funding in the amounts of USD 3.8 million would be made available for new collaborative projects.

“I would also congratulate Japan for the leadership demonstrated in evolving its regular consultations with UNESCO: bringing all government partners around the table, forging a strategic dialogue around common high level priorities and going forward we hope, seeking ever stronger synergies between our engagement with each of our partners, and amplifying UNESCO’s message through joint advocacy, engagement and visibility activities” said Jean-Yves Le Saux, Director of the Bureau of Strategic Planning on closing the meeting.