The IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science in Dundee, UK (under the auspices of UNESCO) is pleased to announce the launch of a new interactive learning website for the UN Watercourses Convention.

What are possible models for Nepal’s education system in the future federal state structure? This question is at the center of the new two year project “Planning effective delivery of education in a federal state” that UNESCO will present at a meeting on 30 May 2013.

Funded with a budget of USD 378,000 by the United Nations Peace Fund for Nepal (UNPFN), the project contributes to Nepal’s peace and development process by fostering constructive dialogue and planning leading to progress in constitution making.

Nanotechnology may offer promising solutions to address water problems in developing countries, but challenges should not be underestimated.

UNESCO was heavily involved in the 4th session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which was hosted by the UNISDR in Geneva on 19-23 May 2013. The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction is a key event in the Disaster Risk Reduction calendar and brought together disaster risk reduction, recovery and reconstruction experts from all over the world.

Over recent decades the concept of flood risk management has been cultivated across the globe. Implementation however remains stubbornly difficult to achieve. In part this reflects the perception that a risk management paradigm is more complex than a more traditional standard-based approach as it involves "whole systems" and "whole life" thinking; yet this is its main strength and a prerequisite for more integrated and informed decision making.

On the occasion of her official visit to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, met President Hamid Karzai on 18 May 2013 at the Presidential Palace in Kabul.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova will visit Afghanistan from 17 to 20 May, where she will pledge UNESCO’s support to the country’s peace building and development process, during planned meetings with President Hamid Karzai, senior government ministers, parliamentarians, journalists, educators and students.

Thirty-nine nation States, territories, and commonwealths* are taking part in an exercise that will test Pacific Rim countries’ reactivity in the event of a tsunami from 1 to 14 May. Organized by the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/PTWS), created under the aegis of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), the simulation aims to validate proposed new tsunami forecasting products of the U.S.A.’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC).

UNESCO today signed an agreement with the Educate A Child (EAC) programme that was launched in November 2012 to support bringing quality primary education to millions of out-of-school children.

The partnership, which is cofounded by the two organisations, is focused on supporting the Secretariat of the Global Education First Initiative, (GEFI), launched by the UN Secretary-General last September. It will support the Initiative in a range of ways to facilitate coordination and coherent action among the GEFI partners.