literacy

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

[book launch] Contemporary ecotheology, climate justice and environmental stewardship in world religions

Seasonal Greetings from Switzerland,

On behalf of the World Council of Churches’ Economic and Ecological Justice Programme, please find below the invitation to attend our upcoming ECOTHEE book launch webinar: 

“Contemporary ecotheology, climate justice and environmental stewardship in world religions” (ecothee. Vol. 6) taking place Tuesday, 14th December 2021 at 17:00 CET

Please register through this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpd-2pqTorGdBLN1P6LWw67PhPNO8pDAVo

Kindly find the link on our website, for additional information about the programme: https://www.oikoumene.org/events/book-launch-webinar-contemporary-ecotheology-climate-justice-and-environmental-stewardship-in-world-religions .

___________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit congocsd.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org

[book launch] Contemporary ecotheology, climate justice and environmental stewardship in world religions

Seasonal Greetings from Switzerland,

On behalf of the World Council of Churches’ Economic and Ecological Justice Programme, please find below the invitation to attend our upcoming ECOTHEE book launch webinar: 

“Contemporary ecotheology, climate justice and environmental stewardship in world religions” (ecothee. Vol. 6) taking place Tuesday, 14th December 2021 at 17:00 CET

Please register through this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpd-2pqTorGdBLN1P6LWw67PhPNO8pDAVo

Kindly find the link on our website, for additional information about the programme: https://www.oikoumene.org/events/book-launch-webinar-contemporary-ecotheology-climate-justice-and-environmental-stewardship-in-world-religions .

___________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit congocsd.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org

The Climate Emergency: Does Religion Matter?

You are invited to “The Climate Emergency: Does Religion Matter?”, the latest installment of the Temple of Understanding’s ECO JUSTICE FOR ALL Dialogues. These are special intimate discussions about the climate emergency with international ChangeMakers.

ECO JUSTICE FOR ALL interviews and dialogues are ongoing programs presented by the Temple of Understanding, incorporating our outreach in the area of environmental awareness and advocacy. We present a diverse range of perspectives, from scientific to spiritual views, on the climate emergency and offer a variety of solutions that we can all do easily and effectively in our everyday lives. World religious and spiritual visionaries, Indigenous leaders, scientists and social scientists, environmental activists, artists, musicians and writers, youth and elders, local and global people, all come together to address the urgency of the climate crisis through these ongoing interviews and dialogues.

Register here!

Speakers:

Rabbi Ellen Bernstein is an eco-theologian, spiritual leader, writer and creative. She founded Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, the first national Jewish environmental organization in 1988. Her books include Let the Earth Teach You Torah, Ecology and the Jewish Spirit, and The Splendor of Creation. Ellen also created the first ecologically-centered Tu B’Sh’vat (Jewish New Year of theTrees) seder in 1988 and popularized Tu B’Sh’vat as a community-wide inter-spiritual ecological arts celebration for all peoples. Her most recent book, The Promise of the Land, A Passover Haggadah is the first comprehensive, ecological haggadah (guidebook) for Passover (Behrman House, 2020). In 2020 during the pandemic, Ellen launched the Earth Seder movement, helping to organize several dozen world-wide Earth Seders on Zoom. Ellen continues to write and teach on the ecology of the Hebrew Bible, and serves on the advisory board of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. To learn more please visit ellenbernstein.org and thepromiseoftheland.com.

Theodore Hiebert writes about biblical perspectives on the environment and about biblical views of identity and difference. His book The Yahwist’s Landscape: Nature and Religion in Early Israel challenges claims that the Bible privileges humans and separates them from nature, and it shows how biblical religion is grounded in the natural world. He has made contributions about biblical perspectives on nature to such works as The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, The Oxford Companion to the Bible, Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet, and Interpretation. He is the author of the article on Genesis for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Bible and Ecology. Ted was the lead translator of the Book of Genesis and one of the editors for the recent English translation, the Common English Bible (CEB). He wrote the notes to Genesis for the CEB Study Bible and for the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, based on the New Revised Standard Version. He is the Old Testament editor for Abingdon Press’s Covenant Bible Study. Ted also writes about biblical views of identity and difference. His book The Beginning of Difference: Discovering Identity in God’s Diverse World challenges exclusivist cultural interpretations of the book of Genesis and reveals a text that embraces and celebrates ethnic identities and differences. It contains a reinterpretation of the story of Babel as positive account of the origin of the world’s cultures. God’s Big Plan, which he co-authored with Elizabeth Caldwell, is a children’s story of Babel based on this new interpretation. Ted is currently at work on a study of the book of Genesis as migration literature. Ted is a member of the Mennonite Church and has served as pastor of the Boston Mennonite Congregation. He is a frequent lecturer and teacher in adult education programs in churches in the Chicago area. He is Francis A. McGaw Professor of Old Testament and Dean of the Faculty Emeritus at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and lives in Homewood, IL.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit congocsd.wordpress.com.

The Climate Emergency: Does Religion Matter?

You are invited to “The Climate Emergency: Does Religion Matter?”, the latest installment of the Temple of Understanding’s ECO JUSTICE FOR ALL Dialogues. These are special intimate discussions about the climate emergency with international ChangeMakers.

ECO JUSTICE FOR ALL interviews and dialogues are ongoing programs presented by the Temple of Understanding, incorporating our outreach in the area of environmental awareness and advocacy. We present a diverse range of perspectives, from scientific to spiritual views, on the climate emergency and offer a variety of solutions that we can all do easily and effectively in our everyday lives. World religious and spiritual visionaries, Indigenous leaders, scientists and social scientists, environmental activists, artists, musicians and writers, youth and elders, local and global people, all come together to address the urgency of the climate crisis through these ongoing interviews and dialogues.

Register here!

Speakers:

Rabbi Ellen Bernstein is an eco-theologian, spiritual leader, writer and creative. She founded Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, the first national Jewish environmental organization in 1988. Her books include Let the Earth Teach You Torah, Ecology and the Jewish Spirit, and The Splendor of Creation. Ellen also created the first ecologically-centered Tu B’Sh’vat (Jewish New Year of theTrees) seder in 1988 and popularized Tu B’Sh’vat as a community-wide inter-spiritual ecological arts celebration for all peoples. Her most recent book, The Promise of the Land, A Passover Haggadah is the first comprehensive, ecological haggadah (guidebook) for Passover (Behrman House, 2020). In 2020 during the pandemic, Ellen launched the Earth Seder movement, helping to organize several dozen world-wide Earth Seders on Zoom. Ellen continues to write and teach on the ecology of the Hebrew Bible, and serves on the advisory board of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. To learn more please visit ellenbernstein.org and thepromiseoftheland.com.

Theodore Hiebert writes about biblical perspectives on the environment and about biblical views of identity and difference. His book The Yahwist’s Landscape: Nature and Religion in Early Israel challenges claims that the Bible privileges humans and separates them from nature, and it shows how biblical religion is grounded in the natural world. He has made contributions about biblical perspectives on nature to such works as The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, The Oxford Companion to the Bible, Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet, and Interpretation. He is the author of the article on Genesis for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Bible and Ecology. Ted was the lead translator of the Book of Genesis and one of the editors for the recent English translation, the Common English Bible (CEB). He wrote the notes to Genesis for the CEB Study Bible and for the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, based on the New Revised Standard Version. He is the Old Testament editor for Abingdon Press’s Covenant Bible Study. Ted also writes about biblical views of identity and difference. His book The Beginning of Difference: Discovering Identity in God’s Diverse World challenges exclusivist cultural interpretations of the book of Genesis and reveals a text that embraces and celebrates ethnic identities and differences. It contains a reinterpretation of the story of Babel as positive account of the origin of the world’s cultures. God’s Big Plan, which he co-authored with Elizabeth Caldwell, is a children’s story of Babel based on this new interpretation. Ted is currently at work on a study of the book of Genesis as migration literature. Ted is a member of the Mennonite Church and has served as pastor of the Boston Mennonite Congregation. He is a frequent lecturer and teacher in adult education programs in churches in the Chicago area. He is Francis A. McGaw Professor of Old Testament and Dean of the Faculty Emeritus at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and lives in Homewood, IL.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit congocsd.wordpress.com.

Making equitable education and decent jobs work for the marginalized: Pathway to a gender-just recovery

In this side event with GCE, ASPBAE will be doing a soft launch of the 2021 Spotlight Reports. In ASPBAE, the national education coalitions in Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Japan have produced country reports. These Spotlight Reports emphasize the role of education as a driver towards sustained recovery and resiliency. 

There will be interpretation for sign language, Hindi, Indonesia and Russian.

Register here: https://unwomen.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IWPVF2MNRPiiyk7tF_8ehw

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women-NY, please visit ngocsw.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 the Status of Women-Vienna, please visit ngocswvienna.org

Making equitable education and decent jobs work for the marginalized: Pathway to a gender-just recovery

In this side event with GCE, ASPBAE will be doing a soft launch of the 2021 Spotlight Reports. In ASPBAE, the national education coalitions in Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Japan have produced country reports. These Spotlight Reports emphasize the role of education as a driver towards sustained recovery and resiliency. 

There will be interpretation for sign language, Hindi, Indonesia and Russian.

Register here: https://unwomen.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IWPVF2MNRPiiyk7tF_8ehw

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women-NY, please visit ngocsw.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 the Status of Women-Vienna, please visit ngocswvienna.org

Dialogue on Education: Meeting New Challenges

Education at all levels faced unforeseen challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic in communities, globally impacting students and educators along with their families.  Every aspect of education adjusted to ensure inclusive quality learning continued to be experienced by students with curriculums via virtual engagement which highlighted the importance of digital connectivity for all students. Education is covered in the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is key to the success of the UN2030 Sustainable Development Agenda to “Leave No One Behind.” Our panel will share their reflections and innovative solutions in response to this global crisis. In addition, we will share an overview of our UN75 People’s Declaration for the UN We Need.

RSVP here

Welcome & Moderator

  • Ms. Margo LaZaro, President and Chair of the NGOCSD-NY; Co-Founder/CSO of the SDG Impact Awards Community, Director of UN Relations-Global Family, Coalition Partner of C4UNWN

Opening Address

  • H.E. Dr. Michal Mlynar, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Slovakia to the United Nations

Keynote Address

  • Mr. Ramu Damodaran, Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) Outreach Division, United Nations Department of Global Communications

Meeting New Challenges

  • Dr. Miriam Westheimer, Chief Program Officer of HIPPY International
  • Ms. Carolina Andueza, Executive Director of CMPC Foundation & Director of HIPPY Chile
  • Ms. Judith Cunningham, Founder and CSO of Youth for a Better World-Montessori Model UN and Youth Impact Forum
  • Ms. Daria Kimuli, Co-Founder of the St. Philip Neri Primary School, Nairobi, Kenya
  • Mr. Steven Aiello, Founder and Director of Debate for Peace, Tel Aviv, Israel
  • Mr. Ameen Agbaria, 16 year-old, Youth Delegate of Debate for Peace, Palestinian citizen of Israel
  • Dr. Carrie Pemberton Ford, Executive Director CCARHT. Senior Fellow of Ethics and Public Life, Margaret Beaufort Institute,   University of Cambridge, UK
  • Ms. Marija Marinovic, Graduate Student of Criminology from the University of Cambridge, UK

Closing Reflections

  • Dr. Andrea Mlynarova, Lecturer of Mathematics at CUNY Baruch & Hunter College and President of the UN Delegations’ Women’s Club

C4UNWN & the UN75 People’s Declaration

  • Mr. Jeffery Huffines, Senior Advisor of the Coalition for the UN We Need and Together First

Interactive Dialogue Exchange

Special Student Greeting

  • Mr. Desderio Njiru, is the Head Teacher of St. Philip Neri Primary School, Nairobi, Kenya

Our Partners:

NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, Coalition for the UN We Need, SDG Relief Fund, Together First, SDG Impact Awards Community, HIPPY International, Global Family, Soroptimist International, World Federalist Movement-Canada, Humanitarian Focus Foundation, Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission, Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, COVIDxNOW, Empower a Billion Women-EBW, Debate for Peace, Huairou Commission, Youth for a Better World:/Montessori Model UN, Youth Impact! Forum, General Assembly of Partners, NGO Major Group Urban Cluster, Global Family for Love & Peace, ICW, CoNGO, and UNA-USA Council of Organizations

________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights, please visit childrightsny.org.

Dialogue on Education: Meeting New Challenges

Education at all levels faced unforeseen challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic in communities, globally impacting students and educators along with their families.  Every aspect of education adjusted to ensure inclusive quality learning continued to be experienced by students with curriculums via virtual engagement which highlighted the importance of digital connectivity for all students. Education is covered in the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is key to the success of the UN2030 Sustainable Development Agenda to “Leave No One Behind.” Our panel will share their reflections and innovative solutions in response to this global crisis. In addition, we will share an overview of our UN75 People’s Declaration for the UN We Need.

RSVP here

Welcome & Moderator

  • Ms. Margo LaZaro, President and Chair of the NGOCSD-NY; Co-Founder/CSO of the SDG Impact Awards Community, Director of UN Relations-Global Family, Coalition Partner of C4UNWN

Opening Address

  • H.E. Dr. Michal Mlynar, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Slovakia to the United Nations

Keynote Address

  • Mr. Ramu Damodaran, Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) Outreach Division, United Nations Department of Global Communications

Meeting New Challenges

  • Dr. Miriam Westheimer, Chief Program Officer of HIPPY International
  • Ms. Carolina Andueza, Executive Director of CMPC Foundation & Director of HIPPY Chile
  • Ms. Judith Cunningham, Founder and CSO of Youth for a Better World-Montessori Model UN and Youth Impact Forum
  • Ms. Daria Kimuli, Co-Founder of the St. Philip Neri Primary School, Nairobi, Kenya
  • Mr. Steven Aiello, Founder and Director of Debate for Peace, Tel Aviv, Israel
  • Mr. Ameen Agbaria, 16 year-old, Youth Delegate of Debate for Peace, Palestinian citizen of Israel
  • Dr. Carrie Pemberton Ford, Executive Director CCARHT. Senior Fellow of Ethics and Public Life, Margaret Beaufort Institute,   University of Cambridge, UK
  • Ms. Marija Marinovic, Graduate Student of Criminology from the University of Cambridge, UK

Closing Reflections

  • Dr. Andrea Mlynarova, Lecturer of Mathematics at CUNY Baruch & Hunter College and President of the UN Delegations’ Women’s Club

C4UNWN & the UN75 People’s Declaration

  • Mr. Jeffery Huffines, Senior Advisor of the Coalition for the UN We Need and Together First

Interactive Dialogue Exchange

Special Student Greeting

  • Mr. Desderio Njiru, is the Head Teacher of St. Philip Neri Primary School, Nairobi, Kenya

Our Partners:

NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, Coalition for the UN We Need, SDG Relief Fund, Together First, SDG Impact Awards Community, HIPPY International, Global Family, Soroptimist International, World Federalist Movement-Canada, Humanitarian Focus Foundation, Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission, Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, COVIDxNOW, Empower a Billion Women-EBW, Debate for Peace, Huairou Commission, Youth for a Better World:/Montessori Model UN, Youth Impact! Forum, General Assembly of Partners, NGO Major Group Urban Cluster, Global Family for Love & Peace, ICW, CoNGO, and UNA-USA Council of Organizations

________________________________________________________________________________________

CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights, please visit childrightsny.org.

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