UNESCOAmmanQuarterlyNEWSLETTERJuly 2013Vol.4 - Issue 2

Dear colleagues and friends of UNESCO,

Welcome to the April-June 2013 quar-terly newsletter of the UNESCO Amman Office. It is with great pleasure that I look back on the past three months of achievements and share some of these with you.

In the Education sector, we organized a regional

Inside this issue

Minister of International Cooperation of Finland praises UNESCO´s initiatives in Za’atari

UNESCO trains Jordanian government officials in education planning to address the Syrian crisis

EU Commissioner congratulates UNES-CO education activities at Za’atari Syrian refugee camp

Building capacities in education planning and management in the Arab region

UNESCO launches second phase of teacher training project on emergency education

UNESCO climbs the Siq of Petra to make it safer

UNESCO Amman Office celebrates World Press Freedom Day 2013

“Optimal Use of Journalists’ Right to Access Information” Project receives funding from UNESCO’s IPDC

UNESCO’s Media and Elections Project reaches Jordanian journalists and blog-gers from governorates

Integrating media and information lit-eracy into Jordanian schools

Investigative journalism, a key tool to report on elections in a professional manner

Preliminary findings of the Road Map “Media challenges in elections coverage”

UNESCO launches H2Oooh cartoons on water conservation

Supporting Jordan in the development of its national strategy for science, technol-ogy and innovation (2013 – 2017)

Education

Natural Sciences

Culture

Communication & Information

workshop on education planning and management (EPM) where officials from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon Libya, Palestine, and Sudan received relevant training to strength-en their national capacities in EPM and the skills of their planners. Meanwhile, the sec-tor’s activities in providing emergency education to Syrian refugees continue with the launch of the EU-funded phase of teacher training.

In the Culture sector, a two-week mission to Petra took place to install the monitoring de-vices on the slopes of the Siq to ensure its long term safety. The mission was coordinated with a team of national and international geologists, engineers and trained climbers.

In Communications and Information, training on media and information literacy contin-ued in order to encourage its adoption into the Jordanian high school curriculum. Sev-eral workshops on various topics of enhancing elections reporting were held throughout April to June, including those on investigative journalism, the representation of minori-ties and other social groups in the media, ways to avoid propaganda and the use of social media.

In Natural Sciences, we announced the Jordanian winner of the UNESCO cartoon cam-paign “H2Oooh!” on water conservation. Winning cartoon clips from around the world, inspired by the storyboards of students in 26 different countries were aired on Jordanian television in an effort to promote water education through child-friendly means. After three years in its development, the sector also saw the completion and launch of Jordan’s 2013-2017 national policy and strategy for science, technology and innovation.

Finally, it is without a miss that we celebrate World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) every year at the UNESCO Amman Office. This year’s theme “Safe to Speak: Securing Free-dom of Expression in All Media” prompted our Office to sponsor and partake in four TV programs that included discussions, debates and interviews with media experts and professionals on issues relating to this year’s WPFD theme, as well as hosting an infor-mal but stimulating lunch with media advocates to discuss the theme and freedom of expression on the internet.

I hope you enjoy reading of some of our activities from the last three months and should you wish to learn more about the UNESCO Amman Office or partner with us, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Anna PaoliniHead of the UNESCO Office in Amman, UNESCO Representative to Jordan

Editorial

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UNESCO ran a 5-day training work-shop from June 2-6 to build the capac-ity of government officials in educa-tion planning, projection techniques and simulation models. The aim of the activity was to provide 35 govern-ment officials with methods to assess the needs of the Jordanian education-al sector, including financial needs, taking into consideration the increase in burden from the influx of Syrian refugees. The training would provide the participants with the skills to re-spond to technical and funding gaps required to sustain the quality of edu-cation in Jordan.

The workshop was organized with the support of the Bulgarian Gov-ernment in collaboration with the Ministry of Education in Jordan. The UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) based in Paris (France) and the National Cen-tre for Human Resource Develop-ment (NCHRD) in Amman were also partners of the initiative.

“Jordan has invested a lot in its edu-cation system to reach high achieve-ments over the past; this training is a timely initiative that will allow plan-ners to bridge the gap between the pressures of emergency and devel-opment concerns” said Dr. Abdallah Ababneh, President of NCHRD.

Representatives from the Ministry of Education, the Queen Rania Al Ab-dullah Center for Educational Tech-nology, the Department of Statistics and the Ministry of Planning and In-ternational Cooperation were among the participants of the workshop.

“Projection techniques and simulation models are at the core of educational planning as they help to translate poli-cy objectives into implementation sce-narios, which provide a sound basis for policymakers to opt for the most realistic and feasible strategies. These evidence-based advocacy tools are necessary for policy dialogue and for the formulation of better educational strategies,” said Mr. Claude Akpabie, Education Programme Specialist at UNESCO Amman Office.

UNESCO trains Jordanian govern-ment officials in education planning to address the Syr-ian crisis

In an official trip to Jordan, Ms Heidi Hautala, Minister of International Cooperation of Finland, paid a visit to UNESCO Education-led activities in Za’atari Camp. Funded by the European Union, the Programme is coordinated by UNESCO in cooperation with its partner Questcope.

In her visit, Minister Hautala had the opportunity to exchange views with the partici-pants of UNESCO Education-led activities, Syrian youngsters hosted in the Camp. Ms Hautala received gifts from the women taking part in the handicraft activities at UNES-CO-Questcope premises and congratulated their engagement. “As women, it is very important to be active in the dramatic current situation and I am glad to know that you will continue your engagement in the Programme,” said Minister Hautala.

"We are honored to have such opportunity to brief Minister Heidi Hautala about the needs and challenges we are facing in this Programme implemented in the Camp as well as the dramatic situation of the Syrian refugees; in the long-term Syrian crisis, non-humanitarian aid and Education-led initiatives are essential to improve the living condi-tions of the refugees and UNESCO has a longstanding experience in providing formal and informal educational programmes worldwide," asserted Mr Claude Akpabie, Proj-ect Manager at UNESCO Education Sector.

Insecurity and violence are some of the persistent challenges faced at Za’atari Camp. Most of the refugees lost their social context; the UNESCO-Questcope’s activities aim at restituting that, by creating spaces for community building. In this regard, relationships created between facilitators and students, mentors and mentees, Questscope staff and the Camp community are seen as a tool to engage the Camp’s most vulnerable youth as well as the foundation of security and hope.

The Mentoring Programme coordinated by UNESCO aims to identify young commu-nity leaders in Za’atari Camp. The Informal education (IFE) Programme seeks to engage a portion of the more than 20,000 youngsters disconnected from the formal education system due to the dramatic situation in Syria.

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Minister of International Cooperation of Finland praises UNESCO´s initiatives in Za’atari

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The European Union (EU) Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbour-hood Policy, Mr Štefan Füle, met with beneficiaries of UNESCO’s mentoring and informal education (IFE) programmes targeting at-risk Syrian youth in Za’atari Camp, home to more than 120,000 Syrian refugees. Guided by Dr. Anna Paolini, Director of UNESCO’s Office in Amman and UNESCO Repre-sentative in Jordan, the EU Commissioner had the opportunity to exchange experiences with the children and youth taking part in the UNESCO activities in the Camp.

When asked by the Commissioner, “What do you enjoy most about the (IFE) programme?” the children expressed their enthusiasm for Math and Arabic. “The best thing about the programme are the relationships we build with the mentors, and actually, we need more mentors,” one of the youth participants said to the Commissioner. In a conversation with the mentors of Questscope, UNESCO’s partner in Za’atari Camp, they commented on how the UNESCO-led activities in IFE help the children escape from the tense situation and the hard living conditions in the Camp.

“In addressing the impact of the Syrian crisis you are not alone. You have us--the international community-- at your side,” said Commissioner Füle after his visit to the UNESCO Project in Za’atari camp. “We have a particular responsi-bility vis-a-vis the young generation to make sure it is not a lost generation but a generation that is going to build a new future,” he concluded.

EU Commissioner congratulates UNESCO education activities at Za’atari Syrian refugee camp

A Syrian refugee mentor explains to EU Commissioner Štefan Füle the critical need for UNESCO’s youth mentoring program during his visit to Za’atri refugee camp

“In a long-term crisis as the one we are wit-nessing in Syria, education is a powerful tool to prevent conflict and to build peace and di-alogue; UNESCO has an active role in these fields and is committed to palliating the trag-edy of Syrian civilians, particularly the refu-gee community,” stated Dr. Paolini during the official visit of the EU Commissioner.

Dr. Paolini also had the opportunity to hold a meeting with Questscope staff in Za’atari Camp, who briefed her about the latest achievements of the UNESCO-supported ac-tivities. “So far we have trained 16 case man-agers and 52 mentors, who have reached 200 Syrian youths. By the end of the project, we will have reached 1,050 youths through 28 case managers and 140 mentors,” explained Ms. Dana Karsou, Questscope Youth Coor-dinator.

UNESCO’s activities in the Education field are part of a country-wide 4.3 million Euro project funded by the EU and coordinated by the UNESCO Amman Office aiming to sustain quality education and promote skills development opportunities for young Syr-ian refugees and young Jordanians impact-ed by the humanitarian crisis. With Syrian refugees reaching almost half a million (ei-ther registered or awaiting registration with UNHCR) in June 2013 – 55% of which are children under the age of 18 – educational opportunities for conflict-affected youth are needed to enable them to develop resilient attitudes, catch up with school, or acquire new skills that would enhance their future employment prospects.

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Following the successful first phase of the project with the Queen Rania Teacher Academy (QRTA) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) to develop a teacher training pack-age and train the first batch of MoE trainers, UNESCO launched the second phase in June 2013 to train an addi-tional 450 trainers who will be deployed for cascade train-ing of over 2,000 teachers across the country with funding from the European Union.

The first five-day training workshop was held in the north-ern governorate of Irbid and saw the participation of 40 teacher trainers from the MoE. Given that northern Jordan is hosting the majority of Syrian refugee students, these local MoE teachers received critical training on pedagogi-cal skills, including skills to deal with children affected by trauma, which teachers need when teaching in emergency situations.

When asked about his thoughts on the training, partici-pant Dr. Saleh Al-Omari said, “the training is wholesome and comprehensive, and offers activities that go hand in hand with the training objectives.” Other participants such as Nisreen Obeidat, commented on the timeliness of the trainings. “The training workshop is very beneficial and opens teachers to new horizons. It was indeed punctual, and trainers showed their trainees respect and gave them space to speak their minds,” she said. Echoing her com-ments, Ra’ed Hijazi stated, “this training could not have come at a better time because it serves our Syrian refugee students in these exceptional circumstances, which should be handled with utmost care.”

The cascade training approach will be supplemented by visits to trained teachers in their schools by the QRTA staff and MoE trainers. These site visits aim to support teach-ers as they implement new practices and encourage con-tinuous improvement. During each visit, the trainers will conduct classroom observations and provide constructive feedback to the teachers to enhance the quality of class-room instruction and further counseling to support refu-gee students showing signs of psychological distress.

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n Building capacities in education planning and management in the Arab regionSenior Ministry of Education officials from Egypt, Iraq, Jor-dan, Lebanon Libya, Palestine, and Sudan last week attend-ed a three-day Education Planning and Management (EPM) workshop in Amman in April 2013 organized by the UNES-CO Amman Office. The workshop aimed to contextualize the six standard modules of EPM – developed by the UNESCO International Institute for Education Planning in Paris, France – according to the specificities of the Arab region.

A recent regional review conducted by UNESCO in the Arab States on educational policy development needs revealed that governments in the region must strengthen their national ca-pacities in EPM by enhancing the skills of their planners. Part-nering with the National Centre for Human Resources Devel-opment (NCHRD), the UNESCO Amman Office is providing relevant, sustainable, efficient and cost-effective training to education planners in the region.

“As a part of UNESCO’s Capacity Development for Education for All (CapEFA) initiative, the achievements of this workshop contribute towards equipping the NCHRD with the necessary technical tools and training materials so that it can become the newly established Centre of Excellence for the Middle East in Education Planning and Management” said Mr. Claude Ak-pabie, the Education Programme Specialist of the UNESCO Amman Office.

NHRCD has been designated as the pioneer of this contextu-alization exercise, which will now benefit the two other sub-regional centers of the UNESCO’s CapEFA initiative. These centers are the Regional Center for Education Planning in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates for the Gulf countries and the Centre de Planification et d’Orientation de l’Education in Ra-bat, Morocco for the Maghreb countries.

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UNESCO launches second phase of teacher training proj-ect on emergency education

“ “As a part of UNESCO’s Capacity Develop-ment for Education for All initiative, the

achievements of this workshop contribute towards equipping the NCHRD with the nec-essary technical tools and training materials so that it can become the newly established Centre of Excellence for the Middle East in

Education Planning and Management Jordanian government officials gain knowledge in education planning projection techniques and simulation models at a UNESCO workshop held in Amman

Representatives from the Ministries of Education in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine and Sudan gathered to strengthen their national capacities in EPM in a UNESCO workshop held in Amman.

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ture The UNESCO Siq Stability project moved into an exciting phase

when a team of trained climbers climbed the rock face of the Siq at the World Heritage site of Petra every day between 27 May and 6 June 2013 to install monitoring devices in coordination with a team of geologists and engineers. The data received from these devices will help make Jordan’s most visited site safer for all.

“The project addresses the peculiar geological structure of the Siq while preserving the overall integrity of the landscape. By documenting, monitoring and identifying the unstable areas in the Siq, the project is establishing the necessary foundations for long-term safety monitoring,” explained Dr. Anna Paolini, Direc-tor of UNESCO Amman Office and Representative to UNESCO in Jordan.

The data received from the monitoring devices will help detect unstable areas in the Siq and assist in formulating guidelines for site management, conservation and protection policies, and land-slide mitigation strategies. In addition, the project will develop a Geographic Information System platform for the storing, analysis and management of data, a 3D computerized model of the Siq and other selected structures, and a comprehensive interactive virtual tour of the Siq based on panorama photographs.

Funded by the Italian Government, the UNESCO Amman Office, in partnership with the Italian Institute for Environmental Protec-tion and Research (ISPRA), Zamani Research Group (University of Cape Town), Petra National Trust (PNT), Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority (PDTRA) and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan first launched the 2.5 year project “SIQ STABILITY - Sustainable Monitoring Techniques for Assessing Instability of Slopes in the Siq of Petra, Jordan” in July 2012.

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UNESCO climbs the Siq of Petra to make it safer

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Every year, May 3rd is a date which celebrates the funda-mental principles of press freedom, to evaluate press free-dom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession. This year, UNESCO celebrated the twentieth year of World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) since it was first established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991.

In a Joint Message from Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-Gen-eral of the United Nations and Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, “World Press Freedom Day is an op-portunity to renew our commitment in challenging times… Too many media workers suffer from intimidation, threats and violence…we call on Governments, societies and indi-viduals to do their utmost to protect the safety of all jour-nalists, offline and online. Everyone has a voice; all must be able to speak freely and in safety.”

Securing the safety of journalists continues to be a challenge as the world witnesses an upward trend in the killings of journalists, media workers, and social media producers. Re-sponding to this overall context of press freedom, this year’s WPFD focused on the theme “Safe to Speak: Securing Free-dom of Expression in All Media”, putting the spotlight on the issues of safety of journalists, combating impunity for crimes against freedom of expression, and securing a free and open Internet as the precondition for online safety.

UNESCO Amman Office organized a variety of activities to promote press freedom and freedom of expression in-cluding sponsoring four TV programs on Roy’a TV under

UNESCO Amman Office celebrates World Press Freedom Day 2013

“ “UNESCO Amman Office organized a variety of activities to promote press freedom and freedom of ex-pression including sponsoring TV programs on Roy’a TV, a closed

debate for a group of media advo-cates, and a visibility campaign

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SIDA funding where UNESCO staff and partners took part in interviews and discussions on issues relating to this year’s WPFD theme. Another activity implemented by the Amman Office included a closed debate for a group of media advo-cates including law experts, journalists, decisions makers and renowned media activists to discuss this year’s theme with emphasis on freedom of expression on the internet. The debate

was held over an informal lunch which was also a chance to thank them for their continuous efforts in promoting freedom of expression in Jordan. A selection of visibility products bear-ing this year’s theme and slogan, in addition to two of UNES-CO’s recently translated publications into Arabic: 1) Freedom of Connection, Freedom of Expression 2) Global Survey on Internet Privacy and Freedom of Expression, were distributed to participants and delivered to selected media stakeholders, partners and decision makers to promote World Press Free-dom Day 2013.

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In line with IPDC’s support to projects pro-moting media independence and pluralism, development of community media, and radio

“Optimal Use of Journalists’ Right to Access Information” Projectreceives funding from UNESCO’s International Programme for the

Development of Communication (IPDC)

and television organizations, the IPDC Bureau has accept-ed the project proposal on “Optimal Use of the Journalists’ Right to Access Information” submitted by Da3em – Cen-tre for Training and Freedom of Media, through UNESCO Amman office. The project targets website owners, website publishers, editors-in-chief, journalists, reporters and Au-dio Visual Sector, and aims at increasing the awareness of media professionals and developing their skills to search for information and documentation in addition to dealing with privacy legislation.

Under the project, Da3m center will organize a training session for media professionals in Amman and Aqaba

that is each followed by an in-house training and coaching. Further-more, an awareness newsletter will be published and distributed on a monthly basis.

The International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) is the only multilateral forum in the UN system designed to mobilize the international community to discuss and promote media development in developing countries. The Programme not only pro-vides support for media projects but also seeks an accord to secure a healthy environment for the growth of free and pluralistic media in developing countries. IPDC carries out its mandate through the funding and implementation of media development projects which are approved annu-ally by the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Council.

15 journalists from Amman and the governorates of Karak, Zarqa, Irbid, Ajloun and Tafile participated in an intensive 4-day training workshop on elections report-ing during the month of May. Facilitated by Albany As-sociates as part of UNESCO’s EU-funded project on "En-hancing Professional and Accurate Media in the Electoral Process", the workshop focused on the representation of minorities and other social groups in the media, ways to avoid propaganda and the use of social media.

"Elections reporting is not just a news story as it involves particular skills such as disseminating figures and statistics, monitoring the voting process and raising the voices of all dif-ferent groups of society. UNESCO’s commitment to accurate and holistic elections coverage is firmly based on our belief that professional media is a key component of any transparent and democratic electoral process," said Dr. Anna Paolini, Head of UNESCO Amman Office and UNESCO Representa-tive in Jordan.

"The workshop looks at the role of journalists in covering elec-tions, recognizing that we serve all the people, including mi-norities, so that citizens' concerns can be reflected and their voices be heard. The discussions have been passionate and the level of engagement has been high" commented Mr. An-drew Boyd, facilitator of the workshop who brings more than 30 years of experience as a journalist, trainer and professor.

Parallel to this activity an itinerary series of trainings was held at youth centers based in the governorates of Wadi Musa, Aqaba, Mafraq and Madaba. The workshops were conducted by Jordan Media Institute in partnership with JOHUD, Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Devel-opment and built on the relevance of citizen journalism in the coverage of elections.

UNESCO’s Media and Elections Project reaches Jordanian journalists and bloggers from governorates

In cooperation with the Jordan National Commission for UNESCO and Arab Women Media Center, UNESCO has been working to incorporate media and information literacy (MIL) into the Jordanian school curriculum by providing high school teachers and students the training to gather, an-alyze and utilize information through new and traditional media, and to develop debating skills so that they are able to express themselves in a professional manner.

A closing event was held on the May 12, 2013 under the pa-tronage of His Excellency the Minister of Education, Dr. Mo-hammed Al-Wahsh, at Al Hussein Cultural Center to mark the achievements of this pilot project. The students practiced their newly developed debating skills and took part in a de-bating competition on the topic of “Freedom of Expression via Modern Tools”. Electronic newsletters produced as a part of the project that highlighted vital issues in their com-munities – with a special focus on youth and gender – were displayed at the event, while students gave testimonies of their experience and learning from the MIL training.

“MIL is one of the essential capacities that enable people to interpret and make informed decisions as users of informa-tion and media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information and media messages in their own right,” said Dr. Anna Paolini, Head of UNESCO Amman Office and Representative of UNESCO in Jordan.

Implemented throughout the second scholastic semes-ter of 2012-2013, the project targeted 40 male and female students aged 16 and 17 from four UNESCO Associated Schools in Amman, Ajloun and Aqaba. The schools – Prin-cess Taghreed School and Modern Systems Schools in Am-man; Prince Faisal the First School in Aqaba; and Kufranja Secondary School in Ajloun – represented the southern, northern, and central areas of Jordan.

Officially titled “Integrating Media and Information Lit-eracy into Jordanian Schools”, the project consisted of two phases. The first was training the teachers that would be

Integrating media and information literacy into Jordanian schools

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involved in the project, followed by the second phase where specialists and teachers provided hands-on train-ing to the students on journalistic writing skills, debating techniques, web search, website development, and man-agement and dissemination of information through mod-ern media tools. By introducing MIL and demonstrating its importance in education, the project aims for MIL to be adopted into the Jordanian curriculum so that it can be taught on a sustainable and impactful basis.

This project was funded by the Swedish International De-velopment Cooperation Agency (SIDA) in its goal to pro-mote an enabling environment for freedom of expression, with a special focus on the Arab Region.

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The members of the Steering Committee of the UNESCO Media and Elections Project met last 16th May to review the activities already conducted and the forthcoming ones. The meeting was also attended by Dr. Anna Paolini, UNESCO Representative in Jordan and Mr Mogens Schmidt, Director at the Bureau of Field Coordination at UNESCO, in official visit in Jordan.

The Steering Committee of the Media and Elections Project is constituted by the Project partners –JMI, ARIJ, CMN and Albany Associates- together with the donor of the initiative, the European Union and the Independent Electoral Commission.

The Steering Committee of the Media and Elections Project held its first meeting

In the framework of the UNESCO's Media and Elections Project, funded by the European Union, a 5-day work-shop on Investigative Journalism was delivered to Jorda-nian media professionals. The activity was conducted by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), one of the partners in this initiative.

"As municipal elections in Jordan are approaching, this activity is of high relevance since investigative journal-ism serves to increase professionalism in elections cover-age. UNESCO's commitment in media capacity develop-ment on different topics and on elections in particular is manifested through such initiatives", stated Dr. Anna Paolini, Director of UNESCO Office in Amman and Rep-resentative of the Organization in Jordan.

Investigative journalism, a key tool to report on elections in a professional manner

UNESCO launched its Media and Elections Proj-ect in Jordan in anticipation of the recent Parlia-mentary elections which took place in January 2013. Training, awareness raising activities, and consultations, in which media professionals were the main actors, have been held since then.

"Investigative journalism is a new phenomenon in the Arab World and it plays a huge role in ex-posing hidden issues. Before, during and after elections investigative journalism exposes any flaws in the electoral procedures and sheds light on these", commented Jihed Mansi, ARIJ trainer. Electoral processes constitute a rich subject for investigative journalism as they relate to proce-dures, laws, representation of minorities, and they require fairness and integrity. In this regard, in-vestigative journalism appears as a useful took to cover elections as well as to hold accountability.

The workshop reached consensus on the above and emphasized the relevance of investigative journalism particularly during municipal elec-tions, as topics of concern are closer to people and civil society.

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n Preliminary findings of the Road Map “Media challenges in elections coverage” In the framework of the UNESCO Media in Elections Project, funded by the European Union, UNESCO presented the initial results of a research aimed at addressing the obstacles of the journalistic coverage of elections in Jordan. The exercise, conducted by Albany Associates, partners in the initiative, took place during the past months and included a wide array of methodologies, ranking from questionnaires, interviews, and discussions.

“Today we present the preliminary findings of a very unique and innovative exercise. For the first time, the media community in Jordan identifies concerns related to elections coverage with the aim of improving them for future elec-tions, as professional coverage is basic in any participative society,” said Rut Gomez Sobrino, Project Manager of the initiative at UNESCO.

The aforementioned research will help build a Road Map to serve as an ac-tion plan to improve elections’ coverage not only by media but also by citizen journalists who have showed high interest in the recent electoral process in the country.

Among the topics raised in the research, the issue of access to information was mentioned by most of the participants taking part in this consultative exercise. Yehia Shokair, trainer at Albany Associates and moderator of the session, com-mented “one of the most important conclusions of the survey we distributed was the difficulty in accessing information on time, in addition to another rel-evant finding which is the lack of awareness on the elections law and the pro-cess in general”.

Representing the European Union Observation Mission in Jordan, Ms Rula Awwad, highlighted the Mission’s work on monitoring Jordanian media during

the recent Parliamentary elections held in January 2013. Ms Awwad welcomed journalists to comment on the findings of the report and took note of their remarks.

The session was also attended by Mr Hussein Bani Hani, representing the Independent Electoral Commis-sion, who explained that "problems occurring during elections were caused by the electoral law and not related to the IEC's performance". Mr Bani Hani also referred to the distance between the politicians and the society: "there's a common perception among people working at the IEC and elsewhere that offi-cials don't respond to questions," he said.

Different activities under the Media in Elections Project are planned for the coming months. The final re-sults of the research and the Road Map will be published during Sep-tember 2013.

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UNESCO launches H2Oooh cartoons on water conservationOn the occasion of World Water Day, UNESCO office in Amman launched a cartoon series on water conservation and saving. The production of the series, titled “H2Ooooh!”, is part of an innovative water awareness campaign part of which was a cartoon drawing competition for students on water issues in part-nership with the H2Ooooh! Initiative of the UNESCO Venice Office together with Alcuni Group (Italy).

A total of 5,600 students (grade 8 and 9) from 28 schools in 14 participating directorates from Amman, Irbid, Zarqa, Ramtha, Rusayfeh, Ajloun, Salt and Madaba took part in the competition and submitted storyboards in July 2012. The winner story was awarded to Amera Salem from Princess Taghrid High School.

The winner was selected through a committee that evaluated each storyboard. The three best stories were submitted to UNESCO Amman Office which, together with the Jordan Ministry of Water and Irrigation and the National Commission for UNESCO, chose the winning story and submitted it to Alcuni Group for production.

Jordan is the world’s fourth most water-scarce country in terms of availability of water resources per capita. The aim of the initiative is to raise awareness among adolescents and youth on related themes such as the limited availabil-

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s ity, sustainable use and conserva-tion of water through the partici-patory tool of awareness raising cartoons on water. UNESCO is convinced that the only practi-cable way to reach youngsters is through involving them directly into education activities.

The Jordan H2oooh! cartoon epi-sode along with the new series of 26 cartoons from all five UNESCO regions was produced by Gruppo Alcuni’s animation staff and aired on Roya Tv during May and June 2013.

This activity was organized by the UNESCO Office in Amman as part of the joint UN programme “Ad-aptation to Climate Change to Sus-tain Jordan’s MDG Achievement” of the MDG Achievement Fund. The MDG Achievement Fund is an international cooperation mecha-nism with the aim to accelerate the progress on the Millennium De-velopment Goals (MDGs) world-wide. Under this fund, UNESCO in Jordan together with UNDP, the Food and Agricultural Organiza-tion (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) is enhancing Jordan’s capacity to adapt to the climate change.

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Following three years of support in the development of Jordan’s 2013-2017 national policy and strategy for science, technology and innovation (STI), the Higher Council of Science and Technology (HCST) launched the strategy in conjunction with UNESCO on the 13th of May 2013 under the patronage of his Excellency Dr. Khaled Elshuraydeh, Secretary General of HCST. In attendance were more than 130 participants from other relevant ministries.Jordan was one of 18 countries worldwide assisted by UNESCO in formulating their STI policies, strategies and plans, as well as in the reform of their science systems through the provision of guidelines, methodologies, techni-cal advice on formulation, implementation and monitoring, and through a review of policies and plans concerning national STI activities.

Funded by the Japanese Fund in Trust, the UNESCO Amman Office has been supporting the Government of Jordan over the last three years to develop a medium-term, needs-and-results-based Master Plan for 2013-2017 in STI. The Plan is to serve as a guide for the Government, businesses and public organizations to join in the effort to develop the STI sector in Jordan.

Recognizing the importance of STI as a key driver in national economic development, the project also provided training on policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation tools and science and technology statistics in cooperation with the UNESCO Institute of Statistics in Montreal.

Supporting Jordan in the development of its national strat-egy for science, technology and innovation (2013 – 2017)

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UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the UN and works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values. UNESCO’s mission in Jordan is to work with the government of Jordan to provide effective high qual-ity educational, scientific, cultural and communica-tions programmes.

For more information about the work of UNESCO in Jordan, please visit unesco.org/amman

Contact InformationMailing Address:P.O. Box 2270 Amman 11181 Jordan

Office Email Address: amman@unesco.org

Phone Number: +962-6 5340891

Anna PaoliniHead of Office +962 6 5340891 Ext.1-444

Lydia LuoAssistant to the Head of Officel.luo@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-135

Randa MorcosSenior Secretaryr.morcos@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-444

Henrietta SukhunAdministrative Officerh.sukhun@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-118

Rana Salem Finance Assistantr.salem@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-121

William Nemehw.nemeh@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-120

Claude AkpabieEducation Specialistc.akpabie@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-132

Hadeel TalliEducation Officerh.talli@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-123

Sharhabeel HamdanIT Specialists.hamdan@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext. 136

Priscilla Yoon Programme Assistant p.yoon@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext. 1-149

Our Team

Director’s Office

Administrative Unit

Education

Science

Culture

IT Sector

Ma’aly HazzazProgramme Specialist m.hazzaz@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 ext 1-137

Rut Gomez-Sobrino Project Managerr.gomez-sobrino@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext. 1-174

Shaden Abu Al-Haijaa Project Assistant Officers.abu-al-haijaa@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-174

Wencke MuellerProgramme Assistantw.mueller@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext. 1-143

Giorgia CesaroAssistant Project Officer g.cesaro@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-147

Valentina GambaCulture Programme Assistant v.gamba@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext. 148

Andrea Richards Project Officera.richards@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.146

Lama Al MasalhaScience Officerl.almasalha@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-150

Sa'id Al SaaidahIT Managers.alsaaidah@unesco.org+962 6 5340891 Ext.1-111

Communication & Information

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The UNESCO Office in Amman Newsletter is published quarterly by the UNESCO Office in Amman. Articles may be freely reproduced, with credit to the UNESCO Office in Amman.

Editing, layout and design by Ms. Maaly Hazzaz. For com-ments and suggestions, contact m.hazzaz@unesco.org

Since the distribution of our last newsletter in April, the UNESCO Amman Office has wel-comed three new interns:

- Laura Mcadams as an intern in the Education Sector. - Nuria Roca Ruiz as an intern in the Culture Sector. - Reem Lababidi as an intern in the Culture Sector.

UNESCO Office in Amman welcomes new colleagues

Fax Number: +962-6 5340896

Nuria Roca RuizLaura Mcadams Reem Lababidi