Spotlight on education events during UNESCO’s General Conference

The UNESCO General Conference, which takes place in Paris from 9 to 24 November 2021, features a rich array of education events, including the launch of the much-anticipated Report on the Futures of Education and the Global Education Meeting on 10 November.

In alignment with the UN’s call for meaningful youth engagement, UNESCO has released the *Meaningful youth engagement handbook: Empowering schools to foster active participation and leadership*. This 48-page resource provides teachers and school leaders with evidence-based strategies, reflection tools, and case studies to embed youth voice into school governance and pedagogy. To scale the impact of this handbook and train educators globally, UNESCO is seeking to develop a short, self-paced online course to translate the handbook’s philosophy – that student engagement is not an “add-on” but a core element of quality education – into actionable learning.

13 March 2026

Call for Participants: Global Competition on Design for Futures (GCD4F 2026)

The Global Competition on Design for Futures (GCD4F), initiated by Beijing Normal University (BNU) in 2018 and co-organized with UNESCO IITE, is an annual flagship event of the World Digital Education Alliance. Formerly focused on education, this year's competition expands its scope to harness the power of design and artificial intelligence (AI) in accelerating progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

11 March 2026

Invest in Human Agency: UNESCO IITE at Mobile World Congress 2026

In a compelling keynote address, Ms Shafika Isaacs, Interim Director of UNESCO IITE and Chief of Section for Technology and AI in Education, challenged global leaders to re-examine the “AI talent ecosystem. Her message was clear: as AI infrastructure expands at breakneck speed, we need renewed and urgent commitment to invest in human capacity and human agency".

9 March 2026