MALAYSIA-UNESCO COOPERATION PROGRAMME

Projects – Communication and Information

Safeguarding the Documentary Heritage of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Southeast Asia through the UNESCO Memory of the World (MOW) Programme

UNESCO, through this project, aims to support the safeguarding of the significant documentary heritage of Southeast Asia, particularly focusing on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) through the implementation of the UNESCO Memory of the World (MOW) programme and UNESCO’s Recommendation concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage including in Digital Form (2015). The Recommendation serves as the most up-to-date tool available to governments, museums, archives, libraries, the private sector and individuals working to preserve and provide access to the world’s documentary heritage.

The programme will also result in the creation of a Southeast Asian / ASEAN ‘action plan’ for the implementation of the new UNESCO Recommendation.

In this context, UNESCO through its office in Bangkok and Jakarta, will undertake the following actions:

  1. Organize an international seminar on the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Preservation of, Access to, Documentary Heritage including in Digital Form.
  2. Organize National Capacity Building Workshops on the MOW programme.
  3. Organize Regional and National study of significant documentary heritage in Timor Leste, Myanmar and wider Southeast Asia.
  4. Develop illustrated publication (online and hardcopy) of the results of the study of significant documentary heritage.

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Photo Credit: UNESCO Asia Pacific

Key AchievementsNews

    • Organized the International Symposium on “Preservation and Access: Southeast Asia’s Documentary Heritage in the Digital Age” in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 8 May 2017.
    • Organized a 3-day expert consultation on the implementation of the “UNESCO’s Recommendation Concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage including in the Digital Form” from 9-11 May 2017.
    • Organized a national level Memory of the World (MoW) training workshop from 4-5 May 2017 in Yangon, Myanmar.
    • Launching of the National Committee of Timor Leste for MOW and organized a two-day capacity building workshop with local stakeholders from 1-2 December 2016.

Post COP 21: Strengthening Media Capacity to Monitor and Report on Climate Change in Asia Pacific

This project seeks to build on the momentum generated by the Conference of the Parties (COP) 21, along with other activities of UNESCO to enhance media reporting on the globally interconnected issue of climate change by building capacity of media in developing countries, and most particularly in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), to provide timely and reliable access to information and knowledge on a key development issue such as climate change. More specifically, the project aims to:

  • Equip journalists with the specialized knowledge and skills necessary for authoritative reporting on climate change, taking into account the phenomenon’s social, political and economic complexities.
  • Raise public awareness of the dangers that climate change poses for Pacific islands States, Southeast Asia and African countries, as an integral part of their commitment under the Paris Agreement to implement “their nationally determined contributions, in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, in a coordinated and effective manner, including through, inter alia, mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer and capacity building” (Article 6.8).
  • Promote South-South networking among Pacific islands States, Southeast Asia journalists and schools of journalism and those from Africa, as a way of demonstrating both the global and geo-specific nature of the communication challenges inherent in climate change,

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Key AchievementsNews

  • UNESCO Jakarta, the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, and Universiti Sains Malaysia jointly organized a two-day workshop, “Telling the Story of Global Change” in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 13-14 May 2017 to discuss and explore the issue of reporting on climate change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • UNESCO Bangkok in partnership with the Cambodian Institute for Media Studies and Climate Tracker organized a regional workshop for young journalists on reporting climate change and sustainable development issues in Southeast Asia from 20-23 March in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.