AIT-UNITAR and ASEAN Regional Round Table on MDGs
In follow-up to discussions between the AIT administration and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), through Mr. Nico Barito, Senior Fellow, UNITAR (who is also a member of the AIT Center in Indonesia Steering Committee, and AIT Institute-level Advisory Board), UNITAR expressed very positive feedback regarding AIT's proposal to establish the Institute as a Center of Excellence for ASEAN countries regarding Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Education and Training.
AIT's offer to host a Regional Round Table for ASEAN countries was welcomed by the Executive Director of UNITAR, the Secretary General of AICESIS, the UN-NGO Coordinators and other key advisors of this project, and is planned to be held during the last part of October 2007.
Some of the proposed agenda items for the Round Table may include: (a) Genesis of the MDGs education and training project, and of the MDGs Centers of Excellence; (b) Recent initiatives and achievements of MDGs Centers of Excellence (Rabat, Morocco; Monaco; Sciences Po, Paris, France; Kung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Mumbai-Educational Institute, Mumbai, India; (c) Validation of the new pedagogic and training materials; (d) Current MDGs educational and training modules (health, education, physical education, women, etc); (e) Development of new MDGs training modules for ASEAN priorities; (f) Project proposals to ASEAN; (g) Creation of National Centers of Excellence, or an ASEAN Regional MDGs Center of Excellence (conditions, modalities, models, operational aspects, budget); (h) Establishment of a regional MDGs data bank, list of experts, websites, and compendium of ASEAN-Projects, among others.
AIT and UNITAR plan to host this Round Table in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand, which is being pursued by Professor Vilas Wuwongse, Vice President for External Relations.