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Event
  • 20.03.2024

UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education – call for nominations 2024

On International Women’s Day, UNESCO launched the call for nominations for the 2024 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education. The Prize awards US$ 50,000 annually to two laureates making outstanding efforts in favour of girls’ and women’s education.

Today, 122 million girls remain out of school and two thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women. This is despite the significant progress made in recent decades to realize girls’ and women’s right to education. 

We know that gender, combined with other factors such as cultural norms and stereotypes, wealth, ethnicity or location continue to prevent girls and women everywhere from reaching their full potential. 

At the Transforming Education Summit in 2022, countries called for actions that put gender equality at the heart of education plans, budgets and policies as part of their commitment to transform education for the world we live in today.

In practice, this means promoting gender equality in curricula and pedagogies, creating safe, inclusive and transformative learning spaces, supporting collaboration across sectors and generations and investing in the most marginalized.

Are you driving transformative change for girls’ and women’s education? 

Who?

Nominations are made by Governments of UNESCO Member States or Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in official partnership with UNESCO. They can nominate up to three individuals, institutions, or organizations making strong, innovative contributions to girls’ and women’s education. Self-nominations are not possible.

Interested candidates are invited to contact their country’s National Commission for UNESCO/Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, an NGO in official partnership with UNESCO or the Prize Secretariat for more information.

What?

Nominations must meet the eligibility and selection criteria set by the Prize. Nominated projects must be established and running for at least two years and show potential to be replicable and scalable. 

An independent International Jury of five experts will assess nominations on the basis of the project’s potential for impact, innovation and sustainability.

When?

Deadline for submissions is 24 May 2024 (midnight, Paris time).

How?

Nominations must be submitted in English or French via an online platform, accessible only to National Commissions for UNESCO/Permanent Delegations to UNESCO and NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO.

Based on the recommendations of the Jury, the Director-General of UNESCO will announce the 2024 laureates who will receive the award on or around 11 October 2024 as part of International Day of the Girl celebrations.

Event
  • 08.03.2024

Global Gateway High-Level Education Event

Co-hosted by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Global Gateway High-Level Education Event, which will take place on 11 April 2024 in Brussels, aims to highlight EU's role in transforming global education and bridging skills gaps.

The event will gather political and business leaders, decision makers, CSOs and youth representatives to showcase how EU international partnerships contribute to transforming education and addressing skills gaps across the world. The event will be co-hosted by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Explore the event page to find out about the programme and regular updates until the day of the event.

Registration: We kindly ask you to register for the event by filling in this form by the 26th of March.

Onsite attendance is limited by the venue's capacity and requires prior approval; we advise waiting for the confirmation email before making any travel arrangements. 

We will also welcome guests to attend the livestreamed event online.

Event
  • 08.03.2024

Global Gateway High-Level Education Event

Co-hosted by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Global Gateway High-Level Education Event, which will take place on 11 April 2024 in Brussels, aims to highlight EU's role in transforming global education and bridging skills gaps.

The event will gather political and business leaders, decision makers, CSOs and youth representatives to showcase how EU international partnerships contribute to transforming education and addressing skills gaps across the world. The event will be co-hosted by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Explore the event page to find out about the programme and regular updates until the day of the event.

Registration: We kindly ask you to register for the event by filling in this form by the 26th of March.

Onsite attendance is limited by the venue's capacity and requires prior approval; we advise waiting for the confirmation email before making any travel arrangements. 

We will also welcome guests to attend the livestreamed event online.

Event
  • 08.03.2024

The Teacher Task Force at the CIES 2024 - The Power of Protest

Join the Teacher Task Force and UNESCO for two panel discussions at the CIES Conference 2024. The event is open to CIES members only. Consult the official webpage here.

Framing the future of teacher wellbeing in low-resource and crisis contexts: definitions, measures and motivations

11 March , 8:00 to 9:30am Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: Third Level, Stanford

Teacher occupational wellbeing (TWB)—“how teachers feel and function in their jobs” (Falk et al., 2019)—is a critical and urgent issue. In the best of times, teaching is a demanding profession (Greenberg, Brown and Abenavoli, 2016), but after the global school closures precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching has become one of the most stressful professions (Steiner and Woo, 2021). This stress can lead to burnout and professional attrition (Borg, Riding and Falzon, 1991; Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2018). Low levels of teacher wellbeing have been associated with higher rates of turnover in the profession, as well as absenteeism (Ingersoll, 2003; Albulescu, Tuşer and Sulea, 2018). On the other hand, high levels of wellbeing for teachers are associated with teachers staying longer in the profession because of increased self-efficacy and job satisfaction (Collie, Shapka and Perry, 2012; Zee and Koomen, 2016). This is especially important in light of global teacher shortages. By some estimates, the global education community will need to recruit about 24 million primary school teachers by 2030 to meet the growing need for classroom instruction and learning, with 14% of this recruitment being for new teaching positions and the rest needing to fill gaps being left by teachers who retire or leave the profession (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2016). This teacher shortage is especially acute in Sub-Saharan Africa where 70% of countries face current teacher shortages, a trend that will continue unless there are dramatic system-level changes to teacher hiring and retention policies and practices (Ibid).

While there has been a growing body of research on teacher wellbeing, what it means, and how it functions, there is a dearth of knowledge of what teacher wellbeing actually looks like for educators in low-resource and fragile contexts (D’Sa et al., 2023; Falk, Shephard, & Mendenhall, 2022; Kirk & Winthrop, 2013; Wolf et al., 2015). More importantly, there is a need to more fully understand how teachers in these contexts understand their own wellbeing and the factors that support or hinder it. Indeed, several recent efforts to provide a framework for TWB (Brandt & Lopes Cardozo, 2023; Falk et al., 2019; McCallum et al., 2017; Viac & Fraser, 2020) have used a multidimensional perspective that has focused on external and internal factors in the settings and systems around the teacher. But these different factors can manifest differently, and affect teachers differentially, depending on the social, cultural, and historical context within which teachers work. Indeed, factors at different levels of the ecological system “can increase a teacher’s risk for negative wellbeing outcomes or their propensity toward positive wellbeing outcomes depending on the context in which the teacher lives and works.” (Falk et al., 2019; p.10). Hence, understanding not just what factors affect teachers but how they manifest and interact with each other in different contexts is important if we are to constructively address teachers’ wellbeing in low resource and crisis contexts. This is especially important as teachers continue to be on the frontlines of delivering life-saving and sustaining knowledge and skills to children and youth in complex and uncertain times, often protesting the status quo to re-imagine a more just and inclusive future for their learners. Teachers take on this work with limited support and in increasingly politically-charged and contested environments.

This panel aims to deepen our understanding of TWB in low-resource and crisis contexts to better comprehend how teachers make meaning of TWB, how different assets and factors around teachers affect their wellbeing, and how to address TWB in a manner that respects the agency of teachers in the process. Spanning Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and South America and the Caribbean, the four papers examine how policies and practices of teacher management and teacher professional development alongside teachers’ lived experiences in their schools and communities influence their professional wellbeing. The papers draw on qualitative and quantitative methodologies to privilege teachers’ perspectives and promote their experiences as essential evidence in better understanding, and ultimately supporting, teacher wellbeing in low-resource, forced displacement, and conflict-affected contexts.

The first paper in this panel focuses on teacher management policies concerning teacher salary and benefits in South Sudan and Uganda. Drawing on nearly 200 interviews with refugee and national teachers in both countries, this paper demonstrates how low and irregular salaries exacerbate the challenges teachers’ face meeting their own and their families’ basic needs and contribute to teachers’ declining status in society. While this drives many teachers to leave the profession, others persist in the profession due to their strong vocation and desire to give back to their communities. In the second paper, we pivot our focus to examine the ways in which teachers’ work can serve as a protective factor for their wellbeing in contexts of forced displacement. Drawing from a mixed methods study with 555 refugee teachers in Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh), this paper illustrates how the support and respect teachers receive from their community due to their role as educators enhance their sense of professional wellbeing. Designing contextually-relevant measures of teacher wellbeing is the focus of the third paper, which compares teacher’s conceptions of TWB across four different contexts and discusses how these differences and similarities are incorporated in the measurement of TWB in Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, and Liberia. The last paper then focuses on the relationship between teacher professional development (TPD) and teacher wellbeing. Exploring the implementation of a TWB intervention in Uganda, this paper demonstrates how to design a TPD intervention in partnership with teachers in Uganda, including the methods used to ensure that the intervention is relevant and responsive for teachers’ needs.

 

Let’s talk about transforming teaching through social justice: insights from the UN High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession

13 March, 1:30 to 2:30pm, Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: Third Level, Ashe Auditorium

Speakers: Carlos Vargas - Chief, UNESCO’s Section for Teacher Development and Teacher Task Force Secretariat, David Edwards (Education International), Amita Chudgar, Martial Dembele, Beatrice Avalos and Jordan Naidoo.

Around the globe, education systems are facing major challenges regarding the recruitment and retention of teachers. This Dialogue panel discusses the nature of this global crisis in education, focusing attention specifically on the Transforming Education Summit (TES) convened by the United Nations Secretary-General, in September 2022. The Secretary-General’s vision statement at the TES made clear that a fundamental change was needed regarding the role and the treatment of teachers. It is in this context that a High-Level Panel (HLP) on the Teaching Profession was established to produce a new vision and a set of recommendations on the teaching profession for the benefit of teachers, students, parents, and education systems worldwide. This Dialogue IV panel brings together colleagues who were closely involved with the HLP since its inception, and members of the expert group whose knowledge and expertise informed the HLP deliberations. These groups of colleagues will each share unique insights emerging from the process of convening the HLP, the deliberations of HLP, and the resultant report and recommendations.

News
  • 04.03.2024

14th Policy Dialogue Forum - Addressing global teacher shortages

This article has been jointly authored by the Teacher Task Force and the Department of Basic Education of South Africa, following the 14th Policy Dialogue Forum which took place on 26-29 February 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa.


On behalf of the South African Government, the Department of Basic Education, UNESCO and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (Teacher Task Force) jointly hosted approximately 400 participants from across the globe, attending the 14th Policy Dialogue Forum (PDF) from 26 to 28 February.

Education stakeholders from around the world gathered in Johannesburg for the Teacher Task Force's 14th Policy Dialogue Forum, themed; "Addressing teacher shortages: Dignifying, diversifying, and valorizing the profession."  The Forum brought together policymakers, educators, and renowned experts to tackle one of the most urgent challenges facing education systems worldwide.
 

Acknowledging the crucial role of educators

During the official opening address, Deputy President of South Africa, Mr. Paul Mashatile expressed gratitude to the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, “for recognising South Africa as a key player in the journey to achieving quality education for all by the year 2030.” Furthermore, he expressed the need for the crucial role of educators to be acknowledged.

“We need to acknowledge the inherent worth of teachers and the crucial role they play in shaping the future of our nations. Beside teaching and imparting knowledge to the future generation, teachers play a crucial role in nurturing, fostering critical thinking, inspiring dreams, and pushing the limits of human potential. We thus owe it to these titans of our society to recognise, honour, empower, and value them, as well as the job that they do.

Mashatile
Deputy President of South Africa, H.E. Mr. Paul Mashatile, delivers opening remarks on the first day of the Forum

"Most importantly, significant consideration must be made on how we should improve their working conditions and remuneration as a way of appreciating their hard work, so that they can be able to fulfil their important task without getting discouraged," said Deputy President, Mr. Paul Mashatile.

In her address to the Forum, Ms. Stefania Giannini, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education spoke on the importance of the Forum achieving its goals of making learning and teaching accessing and appealing for both educators and learners.

"The 14th Policy Dialogue Forum represents a pivotal moment for collaborative action in tackling global teacher shortages. As we gather to exchange knowledge and drive impactful solutions, this forum underscores our collective commitment to strengthening education systems worldwide, ensuring every learner has access to a qualified, motivated, and well-supported teacher," said Ms. Stefania Giannini, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education.

Giannini
Stefania Giannini, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education, addresses the Forum during the opening session


A roadmap for transforming the teaching profession

The first day of the Forum featured the official launch of the Recommendations of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession, which sets out the roadmap for transforming the teaching profession and meeting the needs of the future.

Following the opening remarks by the Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, H.E. Mr. Paul Mashatile, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ms. Amina Mohammed, South Africa’s Minister of Basic Education, H.E. Ms. Matsie Angelina Motshekga, and UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education, Ms. Stefania Giannini, the Forum assembled into breakaway sessions for further deliberations.


A milestone report on addressing teacher shortages

Central to the Forum's agenda was the launch of the Global Report on Teachers produced by UNESCO and the Teacher Task Force. Revealing the need for an additional 44 million teachers to reach universal primary and secondary education by 2030, the report underscores the urgency of the teacher shortage crisis. This landmark report with new data, including on financing the profession, not only sheds light on the subject but also proposes actionable strategies to enhance the teaching profession.
 

A ministerial panel on dignifying, diversifying, and valorizing the teaching profession

A highlight of the day was a ministerial panel moderated by distinguished speakers from various Member States, including from South Africa, China, Ecuador, Ghana, and Finland, as well as the African Union. The panel delved into strategies for dignifying, diversifying, and valorizing the teaching profession.
 

A unique opportonity for collaboration and knowledge-sharing on effective teacher policy-making

Across three days of plenaries and discussions, this unique global Forum on effective teacher policy-making is also providing a platform for networking and side events of the world’s most prominent actors on teachers and teaching. Fostering collaboration and exchange of best practices, and promoting international cooperation to address global teacher shortages and to make the teaching profession more attractive, the Forum is a pivotal event which highlights the key role of South Africa in the region. 

A full summary report on the outcomes of the Forum will be published here shortly.

A resource pack will also be available here soon, featuring, among other assets, the presentations given during the Forum.
 

For more information:
For media inquiries:

Teacher Task Force: Anna Ruszkiewicz, ae.ruszkiewicz@unesco.org

South Africa Department of Basic Education: Elijah Mhlanga, Chief Director Communications, Mhlanga.e@dbe.gov.za

News
  • 28.02.2024

UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession puts forward recommendations to allow teachers to become drivers of change in education

This is the UN press release released on 26 February 2024 on the occasion of the launch of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession during the Teacher Task Force 14th Policy Dialogue Forum.


Recommendations from the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession, aimed at transforming the future of the teaching profession, were launched today at the 14th Policy Dialogue Forum of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (TTF).

Teachers are central to nurturing every country’s greatest resource: the minds of its people. Yet today, we face a dramatic shortage of teachers worldwide, and millions of teachers who lack the support, skills and continuing training they need to meet the demands of rapidly changing education systems,: said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Building on the landmark UN Summit on Transforming Education in 2022 and supported jointly by the ILO and UNESCO, the High-Level Panel’s recommendations are based on six core imperatives, covering dignity, humanity, diversity, equity and inclusion, quality, innovation and leadership and sustainability.

The High-Level Panel’s wide-ranging recommendations are premised on the need to value and respect the teaching profession – this requires decent working conditions, competitive wages, space for teacher voice in decision-making and opportunities for development and innovation,” said Paula Mae Weekes, Co-Chair of the Panel and former President of Trinidad and Tobago.

The recommendations are intended to create an enabling environment that allows teachers to become drivers of change in education, who can help learners critically navigate knowledge and gain the skills and competencies needed in today’s world. Teachers should not be simple conveyers of information but active and collaborative partners for learners, the Panel noted. Adequate financing of education systems and effective integration of technology for learning were cross-cutting themes in the development of the recommendations.

Technology holds tremendous potential for both teaching and learning so long as it is put to use in ways that are supportive of teacher inputs over its pedagogical use, the integrity of the profession and is equitably integrated,” said Kersti Kaljulaid, Co-Chair of the Panel and former President of Estonia.

With new data from UNESCO showing that some 44 million primary and secondary teachers will be needed by 2030 to reach Sustainable Development Goal targets on education, issues of teacher working conditions, wages, autonomy, initial training and continuous professional development all featured heavily on discussions of teacher recruitment and retention. Panellists condemned the use of precarious teaching contracts and austerity policies that undermine teacher working conditions and the quality of education. Further recommendations relate to ensuring gender equity, promoting sustainable development and supporting teacher leadership. A push for greater diversity and inclusion in the teaching workforce, as well as greater social dialogue among partners on both the national and international levels were highlighted.

The full report of the High-Level Panel can be found here.

About:

The High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession was established by the UN Secretary-General in response to challenges facing the teaching profession and education systems worldwide, and as a key follow-up to the UN Transforming Education Summit of 2022.  The panel was supported jointly by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The 18 panel members include government ministers of education and labour, representatives of teacher trade unions, academics, civil society leaders and teachers and students representing every continent.

More information is available here: www.ilo.org/global/industries-and-sectors/education/teaching-profession

Media Contacts (interviews available upon request)

ILO: newsroom@ilo.org

UNESCO: Clare O’Hagan, c.o-hagan@unesco.org , +33145681729

News
  • 26.02.2024

Transforming the teaching career to better address global teacher shortages

This blog was authored by David Childress, a senior consultant to the first Global Report on Teachers, launched during the 14th Policy Dialogue Forum, on 26 February 2024.


Teachers are at the heart of providing a quality education for all students. And yet, systems around the world continue to face shortages and struggle to attract and retain enough teachers. New projections show that 44 million additional teachers are needed globally to reach the goal of attaining universal primary and secondary education by 2030. Encouragingly, this number marks a significant decrease from the 69 million teachers projected by UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics in 2016. However, the ongoing gap remains about half the size of the existing teaching workforce. Some regions also continue to face large shortages, with sub-Saharan Africa requiring 15 million additional teachers by 2030 – or about one out of three of all teachers needed globally.

To help address the worldwide challenge of shortages, the Global Report on Teachers aims to support the international community in making progress towards SDG 4’s aim of providing inclusive and equitable quality education for all. Initially, the report presents new projections and in-depth analysis to clearly place context around global teacher shortages. Based on this analysis, the report then offers policy solutions and implementation strategies to reverse these trends.

Overall, the Global Report on Teachers aligns with the High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession’s recommendations and six imperatives for the future of teaching: Humanity, Sustainability, Dignity, Teacher Quality, Innovation and leadership, and Equity. It also joins calls from the International Commission on the Future of Education and the 2022 Transforming Education Summit to valorise and diversify teaching, turning it into a more collaborative and innovative profession.

Putting teacher shortages into global context

Global teacher shortages stem from a combination of teacher attrition and the need to fill newly created teaching posts. Teacher attrition, or the number of personnel leaving the profession in a single year, accounts for 58 per cent of the projected teachers needed by 2030. Recent estimates have also shown that teacher attrition rates are on the rise, with global averages among primary teachers nearly doubling from 2015 to 2022, jumping from 4.62 to 9.06 per cent.

On the other hand, regions with rapidly growing populations have the highest rates of projected shortages due to newly created teaching positions (see Table 1). Systems with growing school age populations must then work to both retain the teachers they have while also increasing recruitment to meet growing need. This is especially vital for secondary schools, as 31 million teachers– or about 7 in 10– are needed at this level by 2030.

Table 1. Total teacher recruitment needs by region for 2030, by level (in thousands)

table
Source: UIS, 2024; UNESCO and Teacher Task Force, 2023
Note: m = missing data; Teacher numbers reflect 2022, except for South-Eastern Asia which reflect 2021, and Oceania, which reflect 2017.
 

SDG 4 remains an aspirational goal, but countries have also set national benchmarks to define their own targets based on context, starting point and pace of progress. These benchmarks project teacher need based on the estimated 84 million children (or about 5 per cent) that will remain out of school in 2030. Projections based off national benchmarks reduce the number of teachers needed globally by about 5 per cent at the primary level (12.3 million vs. nearly 13 million) and about 12 per cent at the secondary level (27.5 million vs. 31.1 million). While still ambitious, these benchmarks may offer some countries more achievable goals.

The multiple challenges associated with teacher shortages

The causes of teacher shortages are complex, due to a combination of factors such as motivation, recruitment, training, working conditions and even social status. Unattractive salaries and difficult working conditions can make teaching unappealing to both future and current teachers, leading to shortages in countries across all income levels. For example, results from TALIS 2018 showed that in participating countries, only 67 per cent of teachers reported that teaching was their primary career choice.

Teacher shortages can have wide-ranging consequences. High rates of attrition can directly impact students, as research has found that experience improves teacher performance relating to student test scores, absences and classroom behaviour. Schools experiencing high levels of shortages also face ongoing disruption and added demands throughout the year as they seek to recruit and train new colleagues. Vicious cycles can emerge in systems with lots of departures where systems struggle to keep up with constantly training and deploying new teachers.

Strategies to transform teaching and reduce shortages

Effective policies to address teacher shortages should form parts of a holistic strategy to improve the status and attractiveness of the profession. Initially, systems need to pay teachers an adequate salary. Globally, half of all countries pay primary teachers less than professions requiring similar qualifications while this reduces to 3 in 10 countries in Europe and North America. Systems should also strive to improve working conditions through policies that regulate working hours or involve teachers in more decision-making processes.

To continue to raise the prestige of teaching, systems need to find and recruit the right candidates that are drawn to teaching as a vocation or a calling. Workforces should also reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. Developing gender equality is especially important, as women are often underrepresented in leadership roles while fewer men tend to work at lower levels of education.

Professionalizing a career in teaching can further raise its prestige and improve teacher motivation. This process may start by ensuring proper qualification frameworks and opportunities for all teachers, especially those working on temporary contracts. For example, efforts in Mexico and Indonesia have integrated large numbers of contract teachers into civil service positions. By providing attractive career pathways and access to quality professional development, systems can also better motivate teachers throughout their professional life.

Developing a new social contract for education could serve as the lynchpin to further raise the prestige of teaching moving forward. This process involves creating opportunities for collaboration, incorporating social dialogue, and promoting teacher innovation. These strategies allow teachers a larger voice in their profession, while also creating more communities of practice across local, national or even international levels.

Financing the teaching profession and fostering international cooperation

Adequately funding education is vital to combat teacher shortages, as the largest share of education budgets typically goes towards teacher salaries. Spending on teachers can reach up to 75 per cent of budgets in low-income countries. The Education 2030 Framework for Action established financing targets for governments of 4 to 6 per cent of GDP and 15 to 20 per cent of public expenditure allocated to education. Global averages for education spending were 4.2 per cent of GDP in 2021. However, there remain significant gaps in funding between country income groups, ranging from 5.0 in high-income countries in 2021 (latest year with data available) to 3.1 per cent in low-income countries in 2022.

International cooperation can play a key role in combatting spending disparities and work towards reducing global teacher shortages more generally. International aid partners can support teacher policies in collaboration with governments by providing financing, training or advocacy. Cooperation is also occurring more frequently through South-South or triangular cooperation, where Global South countries can pool and share resources to build capacities and develop self-reliance.

Based on its analyses and new findings, the Report proposes key six recommendations to address global teacher shortages and transform the profession, ensure sufficient teachers for universal education goals, accelerate SDG4 and target 4.c achievement, and advance the Education 2030 Agenda.

Links:

  • Read the Global Report on Teachers: Addressing teacher shortages and transforming the profession
  • Visit the event page of the 14th Policy Dialogue Forum

Report front cover credits:

© UNESCO/Ilan Godfrey; © UNESCO/Santiago Serrano; © UNESCO/Erika Piñeros; © UNESCO/Nadège Mazars; © UNESCO/Rehab Eldalil; © UNESCO/Anatolii Stepanov