The Emergency support Japan is providing to UNESCO within the 2022 yearly Supplementary Budget adopted by the Japanese National Diet on December 2nd reaches a record this year. The sum of nearly $16.1 million is to be invested in projects in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Mozambique, Nigeria, Thailand and Yemen.
Most recently, Japan has agreed to donate almost $10 million to finance UNESCO's emergency measures in Ukraine and neighboring countries, in the fields of education, culture and the protection of journalists. This contribution makes Japan the leading partner in UNESCO's Ukraine response.
I thank Japan for its commitment to UNESCO, which touches on all areas of our mandate and benefits many parts of the world. Japan's support has reached a record level this year: I see this as a strong testimony to the confidence in our Organization.Audrey Azoulay UNESCO's Director General
The Director-General of UNESCO, and Ambassador Atsuyuki Oike, Permanent Delegate of Japan to UNESCO, signed this new agreement during a ceremony at the Organization's headquarters in Paris (France), on 31 January 2023.
From February, the funds will enable UNESCO to carry out the following projects:
- Education: Post-traumatic support for pupils and teachers. In coordination with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, UNESCO will deploy professionals from the medico-social sector to schools and train 20,000 Ukrainian teachers and educators to better identify trauma and to discuss these issues with children and their families, to make school a place of resilience.
- Culture: The protection and restoration of sites from the World Heritage List and the National Tentative List - for which the authorities may submit a World Heritage nomination. In coordination with the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, four of these sites will be restored, including the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, and ten sites will be provided with an emergency preparedness plan, which will include their full digitization in 3D. These funds will also finance the continuation of the satellite monitoring system and the delivery of additional equipment to protect cultural buildings. About fifty professionals will be trained in urgent stabilization work.
