UNITAR Partners with Leading Public Universities to Promote Sustainable Development Goals in Curriculum and Research

Nikhil Seth, Executive Director of UNITAR and Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO (center)24 September 2018, New York, United States - The Executive Director of UNITAR and United Nation's Assistant Secretary-General, Mr. Nikhil Seth attended a special meeting during U.N. General Assembly week, hosted by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York, gathering university leaders to discuss and lay out an action plan.

Close to 50 leading public universities in the United States, Canada and Mexico as well as higher education associations committed to raising awareness and align its curricula and research with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a new partnership, launched by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). The joint Declaration on University Global Engagement issued by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and UNITAR provides an opportunity for higher education institutions worldwide to publicly affirm their commitment to global engagement for solving the world’s most pressing problems, as articulated through the SDGs.

Participants at the meeting hosted by IIE  Following the meeting, there was a strategy and planning session, moderated by George Mason University President, Mr. Angel Cabrera, with UNITAR Executive Director Mr. Nikhil Seth and UNESCO’s Assistant Director General Ms. Stefania Giannini and other senior delegates from the U.N. to discuss how to mobilize the declaration to action and how the U.N. and higher education institutions can further collaborate.

Several APLU member universities have adopted the SDGs as a framework for organizing their global education and engagement activities to address complex global problems, including George Mason University (US), University of California Davis (US), Rutgers University (US), Western University (Canada) and University of Guadalajara (Mexico). In addition, the partnership has received the support by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the American Council on Education (ACE).


Related link

To learn more about the APLU-UNITAR Declaration, visit www.globallyengageduniversities.org or contact Jonas Haertle, Project Leader, UNITAR, at jonas.haertle@unitar.org.


Photo 1: Mr. Nikhil Seth, Executive Director of UNITAR and Ms. Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO (center)

Photo 2: Participants at the meeting hosted by IIE

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