Putting SDG 4 Back on Track After COVID-19: The Essential Role of Multilingualism in Education

A High-Level Political Forum Side Event on 11 July 2022

co-hosted by the NGO Committee on Language and Languages, the Universal Esperanto Association, and the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations

Register here by July 10!

About:

Even before COVID-19, alarms were sounded that progress on SDG 4 was too slow and that the achievement of its targets by 2030 was in jeopardy. Linguistic inequality in access to education has been a key factor. The 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report showed that 40% of the global population was not accessing education in a language they understand. The onset of the pandemic exacerbated such inequalities as over 1.6 billion learners experienced school closures, cutting them off from language and literacy learning opportunities. Moreover, the digital divide prevented vulnerable populations, especially in least developed countries, from accessing online education, including resources for language development. In order to achieve inclusive and equitable education for linguistically diverse student populations, multilingualism must be foregrounded in post-pandemic educational planning.

Accordingly, this side event focuses on recommendations for the role of languages in education put forth in Reimagining Our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education, the UNESCO report on the Futures of Education initiative. Specifically, it brings together leading experts in the field of language education from diverse global contexts who address what it means in practice to take a multilingual perspective on the targets of SDG 4. Drawing upon empirical research and documented best practices, they demonstrate how schools can cultivate multilingual resources, including mother tongues, major world languages, national and regional languages, Indigenous languages, and international languages like Esperanto to achieve inclusive and equitable education that empowers students as global citizens prepared for participation in social, economic, and political life.

Programme:

Pedagogical Translanguaging to Make the Most of Multilingualism, Professor Jasone Cenoz, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU
Multilingualism as a Resource for Learning and a Decolonial Strategy, Dr. Xolisa Guzula, University of Capetown, School of Education

Moderated by Professor Humphrey Tonkin and Professor Francis M. Hult with welcoming remarks by Mr. Guillermo Escribano, Director General for the Spanish Language around the World at the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Spain

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Language and Languages is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations – for more information, please email the co-chairs at tonkin@hartford.edu or fmhult@umbc.edu. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN.

Putting SDG 4 Back on Track After COVID-19: The Essential Role of Multilingualism in Education

A High-Level Political Forum Side Event on 11 July 2022

co-hosted by the NGO Committee on Language and Languages, the Universal Esperanto Association, and the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations

Register here by July 10!

About:

Even before COVID-19, alarms were sounded that progress on SDG 4 was too slow and that the achievement of its targets by 2030 was in jeopardy. Linguistic inequality in access to education has been a key factor. The 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report showed that 40% of the global population was not accessing education in a language they understand. The onset of the pandemic exacerbated such inequalities as over 1.6 billion learners experienced school closures, cutting them off from language and literacy learning opportunities. Moreover, the digital divide prevented vulnerable populations, especially in least developed countries, from accessing online education, including resources for language development. In order to achieve inclusive and equitable education for linguistically diverse student populations, multilingualism must be foregrounded in post-pandemic educational planning.

Accordingly, this side event focuses on recommendations for the role of languages in education put forth in Reimagining Our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education, the UNESCO report on the Futures of Education initiative. Specifically, it brings together leading experts in the field of language education from diverse global contexts who address what it means in practice to take a multilingual perspective on the targets of SDG 4. Drawing upon empirical research and documented best practices, they demonstrate how schools can cultivate multilingual resources, including mother tongues, major world languages, national and regional languages, Indigenous languages, and international languages like Esperanto to achieve inclusive and equitable education that empowers students as global citizens prepared for participation in social, economic, and political life.

Programme:

Pedagogical Translanguaging to Make the Most of Multilingualism, Professor Jasone Cenoz, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU
Multilingualism as a Resource for Learning and a Decolonial Strategy, Dr. Xolisa Guzula, University of Capetown, School of Education

Moderated by Professor Humphrey Tonkin and Professor Francis M. Hult with welcoming remarks by Mr. Guillermo Escribano, Director General for the Spanish Language around the World at the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Spain

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Language and Languages is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations – for more information, please email the co-chairs at tonkin@hartford.edu or fmhult@umbc.edu. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN.

[monthly mtg] NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Agenda for June 16, 2022

Zoom link: https://fordham.zoom.us/j/85797881478

1. Moment of Silence in Honor of the Land we are on and the Native Peoples of this Land

2. Welcome and Review of Agenda

3. Meeting Minutes of April 21, 2022

4. Report of the Executive Committee

5. Guest Speaker: Dan Baron Cohen is a community performance educator and eco-cultural activist of Welsh-Quebecois origin and has lived in Brazil since 1998 and in the Brazilian Amazonian city of Marabá since 2009. He has developed numerous programs with indigenous peoples of the Amazon/Brazil and worked with UNESCO and UNICEF. See below for more.

6. Update on Indigenous Health Subcommittee [Rashmi]

7. Update on the Education Subcommittee [Rick]

8. Other Items and Announcements

Guest speaker bio for Dan Baron Cohen, community educator and eco-cultural activist:

Dan works with Afro-Indigenous Youth in Amazonian region of Para, Brazil. The Rivers of Meeting education project, began by awakening sleeping cultural roots and human rights through Afro-Contemporary percussion, dance and lyrics workshops. Over 12 years, excluded youth were nurtured to become community workshop leaders and coordinators of medicinal plants, street library/cinema projects, dance and audiovisual companies, annual festival and workshop courses in their Community University of the Rivers, to defend the River Tocantins and nurture an eco-village based on eco-pedagogies for sustainable community.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@yahoo.com or bknotts@uua.org.

[monthly mtg] NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Agenda for June 16, 2022

Zoom link: https://fordham.zoom.us/j/85797881478

1. Moment of Silence in Honor of the Land we are on and the Native Peoples of this Land

2. Welcome and Review of Agenda

3. Meeting Minutes of April 21, 2022

4. Report of the Executive Committee

5. Guest Speaker: Dan Baron Cohen is a community performance educator and eco-cultural activist of Welsh-Quebecois origin and has lived in Brazil since 1998 and in the Brazilian Amazonian city of Marabá since 2009. He has developed numerous programs with indigenous peoples of the Amazon/Brazil and worked with UNESCO and UNICEF. See below for more.

6. Update on Indigenous Health Subcommittee [Rashmi]

7. Update on the Education Subcommittee [Rick]

8. Other Items and Announcements

Guest speaker bio for Dan Baron Cohen, community educator and eco-cultural activist:

Dan works with Afro-Indigenous Youth in Amazonian region of Para, Brazil. The Rivers of Meeting education project, began by awakening sleeping cultural roots and human rights through Afro-Contemporary percussion, dance and lyrics workshops. Over 12 years, excluded youth were nurtured to become community workshop leaders and coordinators of medicinal plants, street library/cinema projects, dance and audiovisual companies, annual festival and workshop courses in their Community University of the Rivers, to defend the River Tocantins and nurture an eco-village based on eco-pedagogies for sustainable community.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@yahoo.com or bknotts@uua.org.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

This year’s observance of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) at 1:30pm (NYC time) on June 15 coincides with the fourth review of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Ministerial Conference on Ageing in Rome, Italy. While there will be an in-person WEAAD observance, we are pleased to invite everyone to participate virtually.

Details and registration here: World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

In preparation for the event, this month the NGO Committee on Ageing-NY participated in the review and appraisal cycle of MIPAA in Rome. A new preamble paragraph has been added to recall the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, and the convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, among other treaties and covenants. The fact remains that older persons remain invisible and unprotected. The pandemic’s excessive toll on older persons has documented that human rights of older persons are not being protected. We must continue to advocate for a legally binding document to protect the human rights of all older persons.

Please note: The UN International Day of Older Persons (UNIDOP) will be held once again in person at the UN (and live webcast). The exact observance date is pending due to space availability at the UN. The NGO Committee on Ageing-NY is collaborating on the theme with its counterparts in Geneva and Vienna on addressing older women and issues of climate change, pandemic and other issues, but from the perspective of the resilience and contributions of older women. Robin Fenley is chairing this year’s observance.

Note: The new chair of the Vienna Committee on Ageing is Shantu Watt and in Geneva, the new chair is Kelly Fitzgerald.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Ageing-NY is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Ageing-Vienna, please visit ngoageingvie.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Ageing-Geneva, please visit ageingcommitteegeneva.org.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

This year’s observance of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) at 1:30pm (NYC time) on June 15 coincides with the fourth review of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Ministerial Conference on Ageing in Rome, Italy. While there will be an in-person WEAAD observance, we are pleased to invite everyone to participate virtually.

Details and registration here: World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

In preparation for the event, this month the NGO Committee on Ageing-NY participated in the review and appraisal cycle of MIPAA in Rome. A new preamble paragraph has been added to recall the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, and the convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, among other treaties and covenants. The fact remains that older persons remain invisible and unprotected. The pandemic’s excessive toll on older persons has documented that human rights of older persons are not being protected. We must continue to advocate for a legally binding document to protect the human rights of all older persons.

Please note: The UN International Day of Older Persons (UNIDOP) will be held once again in person at the UN (and live webcast). The exact observance date is pending due to space availability at the UN. The NGO Committee on Ageing-NY is collaborating on the theme with its counterparts in Geneva and Vienna on addressing older women and issues of climate change, pandemic and other issues, but from the perspective of the resilience and contributions of older women. Robin Fenley is chairing this year’s observance.

Note: The new chair of the Vienna Committee on Ageing is Shantu Watt and in Geneva, the new chair is Kelly Fitzgerald.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Ageing-NY is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Ageing-Vienna, please visit ngoageingvie.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Ageing-Geneva, please visit ageingcommitteegeneva.org.

Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN (CRNGO) Annual Membership Meeting

Venue: Online and Baha’i International Community (866 UN Plaza, Suite 120)

RSVP required: https://bic-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvf-uorDkuH9GvRCtVkcF-JfCsuk8EOTY5

As we emerge from a pandemic-induced hiatus during which the Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN (CRNGO) largely carried out its activities through the CRNGO Climate Working Group, the CRNGO Bureau invites its members to come back together, in community, in a moment of reflection, to be together for its first Annual Membership Meeting in three years.

The event will be hosted in a hybrid format in recognition of the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing, and each individual’s comfort level with gathering in physical space is different.

The purpose and objective of the Annual Membership Meeting is to help foster community and facilitate learning and interaction among religious and spiritual NGOs working at the United Nations as well as those interested in engaging with the UN.

The Annual Membership Meeting will open with welcoming remarks by members of the Bureau, followed by a consultative process where participants are invited to reflect on how their organizations have successfully engaged with the UN in the past three years, and share their perspectives on some of the challenges to creating change at the UN.

At the meeting, annual membership dues will be collected, the results of the election of the new Bureau will be presented and it will launch a process to create our 2022 to 2024 programme of work, striving to deepen the Committee’s religious community engagement with the UN.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns, please visit csvgc-ny.org.

Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN (CRNGO) Annual Membership Meeting

Venue: Online and Baha’i International Community (866 UN Plaza, Suite 120)

RSVP required: https://bic-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvf-uorDkuH9GvRCtVkcF-JfCsuk8EOTY5

As we emerge from a pandemic-induced hiatus during which the Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN (CRNGO) largely carried out its activities through the CRNGO Climate Working Group, the CRNGO Bureau invites its members to come back together, in community, in a moment of reflection, to be together for its first Annual Membership Meeting in three years.

The event will be hosted in a hybrid format in recognition of the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing, and each individual’s comfort level with gathering in physical space is different.

The purpose and objective of the Annual Membership Meeting is to help foster community and facilitate learning and interaction among religious and spiritual NGOs working at the United Nations as well as those interested in engaging with the UN.

The Annual Membership Meeting will open with welcoming remarks by members of the Bureau, followed by a consultative process where participants are invited to reflect on how their organizations have successfully engaged with the UN in the past three years, and share their perspectives on some of the challenges to creating change at the UN.

At the meeting, annual membership dues will be collected, the results of the election of the new Bureau will be presented and it will launch a process to create our 2022 to 2024 programme of work, striving to deepen the Committee’s religious community engagement with the UN.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns, please visit csvgc-ny.org.

Implementing the CSW66 Agreed Conclusions: The Case for Widows, Women’s Land Ownership, and Inheritance

Don’t miss NGO CSW/NY‘s last monthly meeting until September!

Meeting discussion will center on advocacy for the implementation of the CSW66 Agreed Conclusions with a focus on widows, women’s land ownership, and inheritance.

Register here!

Please note that this meeting will be in English. However, the recording will be available with subtitles in the 6 UN languages on our Youtube channel.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on the Status of Women-NY is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women-Vienna, please visit ngocswvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women-Geneva, please visit ngocsw-geneva.ch. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org.

Implementing the CSW66 Agreed Conclusions: The Case for Widows, Women’s Land Ownership, and Inheritance

Don’t miss NGO CSW/NY‘s last monthly meeting until September!

Meeting discussion will center on advocacy for the implementation of the CSW66 Agreed Conclusions with a focus on widows, women’s land ownership, and inheritance.

Register here!

Please note that this meeting will be in English. However, the recording will be available with subtitles in the 6 UN languages on our Youtube channel.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on the Status of Women-NY is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women-Vienna, please visit ngocswvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women-Geneva, please visit ngocsw-geneva.ch. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org.

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