UNESCO Chair renewed until 2028!

In February 2024, the UEA UNESCO Chair renewal application was approved by UNESCO, meaning that the programme will continue until 30th June 2028. The letter from UNESCO to the UEA Vice Chancellor stated that: “the Chair’s work related to youth and adult literacy and learning for social transformation has contributed to UNESCO’s Strategy for Youth and Adult Literacy (2020-2025), and to the development of an effective model of South-South and triangular cooperation among partner universities … and has added value to UNESCO’s work by sharing insights about the complex relations between literacy, education and development.”

For this third phase, an additional objective has been added: to find new ways of decentralising and democratising the leadership of the UNESCO Chair programme. Dr. Catherine (Kate) Jere, Prof. Sushan Acharya (Tribhuvan University CERID Nepal) and Dr. Ahmmardouh Mjaya (University of Malawi) have been appointed as Co-Chairs, with Prof. Anna Robinson-Pant continuing as Chair until 2028. At the Annual Review Group meeting in April 2024, the UK National Commission for UNESCO said they were happy to support the move to the Co-Chair model. They see this as a great opportunity to strengthen collaboration between countries, and the model has been held up by UNESCO as a means to encourage greater equity in the UNESCO Chair network overall.