‘UNESCO Bridge Africa’ is a project run by Korean National Commission for UNESCO (KNCU) with the goal of cultivating strong ties between Republic of Korea and developing countries. 
Under the slogan, ‘Spreading Hope through Education,’ KNCU plans to provide literacy education to 120 000 people by establishing 200 community learning centres in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2025. 

Main objectives of the programme is to provide literacy education to vulnerable illiterates, initiate local-driven activities to eradicate extreme poverty and foster sustainable development, and promoting economic, social and cultural development in marginalised areas. 

In Zambia the Bridge Project exists since 3^rd November, 2016, and through the work of the Korean Project Manager it was possible to carry out some important projects.

Vocational Training and Community Empowerment – The Nega-Nega Community Learning Centre Case

In the middle of 2015, Zambian and Korean National Commission for UNESCO initiated one Community Learning Centre construction under the Bridge Africa Programme in Nega-nega Village, Mazabuka District of Zambia to reduce the gap of input and outcomes stemming from inequality of distribution and ineffectiveness of procedures.

With aims of vocational training and community empowerment, the joint project funded by Korean Ministry of Education, proceeded with three more co-partners, Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA), UNESCO BEAR (Better Education for Africa’s Rise) project, local NGO People’s Action Forum (PAF), to make maximum synergy on vocational training system and its high quality of education.

In many rural areas in Zambia it is difficult for people to access good quality training. Problems are that there are no tuition fee.

Based on this situation, Zambian and Korean National Commission for UNESCO decided to build up 1×2 community learning centre for literacy and life skill programmes within boundaries that protect local people’s ownership and provide construction training opportunities at the same time. In the line of the programme, in brief, there are three main keys to enable trainees to receive formal certificate by TEVETA as follows;

• To hire Nega-nega local people who have construction skills without certificate.
• To provide theoretical lesson for trainees on plastering and bricklaying.
• To evaluate all trainees’ daily activities by the construction leader.

In the end of construction, 19 trainees were awarded formal trade certificate by TEVETA. SinceAs of 2016, January, Nega-nega Community Learning centre had prepared to provide literacy and life skill programmes for local people in the new building built up by themselves. We would like to believe that the participatory project between central, district government and local community promote community empowerment of people’s competencies and their sustainable future as UNESCO mentioned.

Natural Sciences Sector

UNESCO works to advance and promote science in the interests of peace, sustainable development and human security and well-being, in close collaboration with its Member States and a wide variety of partners. It is the only United Nations specialized agency, symbolized by the ‘S’ in the acronym, with a specific mandate for science.

Since its foundation in 1945 UNESCO has acted as a catalyst for the establishment of many, now leading, scientific unions and bodies such as CERN; and initiatives with far-reaching implications for sustainable human security and well-being, such as the Man and the Biosphere Programme, the International Hydrological Programme, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, were launched in UNESCO’s first decades.

UNESCO hosts major international programmes in the freshwater, marine, ecological, earth and basic sciences. Science policy at the national and sectoral levels is a key part of UNESCO’s work in science. Cross-cutting themes include natural disaster reduction, biodiversity, engineering, science education, climate change and sustainable development.

In order to achieve these objectives, the Zambia National Commission for UNESCO assists the cluster countries to implement the following programmes on which you can find more information here.

SC Zambia Projects

Designation of Kafue Flats Biosphere Reserve

In 2020, UNESCO designated the Kafue Flats as the Biosphere Reserve in Zambia. Covering more than 2,600,000 ha, Kafue Flats Biosphere Reserve cuts across various districts of archaeological and historical significance, as well as a Ramsar site and an Important Bird Area. It hosts over 400 species of birds and several mammals, such as zebra, buffalo, hippo and the endemic Kafue lechwe. It is inhabited mostly by Ila/Balundwe, transhumant pastoralists who also practice fishing and agriculture. The area has the largest population of livestock in the country with herds of up to 4,000 cattle grazing in its floodplains during the dry season. In the wet season, most communities retreat from the Kafue Flats to permanent villages on the edge and outside the biosphere reserve. This traditional ‘kuwila’ method of livestock production is practiced on customary land as the floods recede from July to November.

UNESCO and Safe Clean Water

UNESCO supports improved management and governance of water resources with region-specific educational activities and capacity-building. The aim of UNESCO’s water programmes is to tackle discrimination and unequal access to water resources and to decision-making processes. In 2015 UNESCO supported a project in Zambia to strengthen freshwater security systems in two Provinces of Zambia. The main aim of the Project is to improve health through provision of sustainable water supply, sanitation and hygiene. Activities under this Project focused on sensitizing rural communities on the importance and use of safe water. As is usually the case in all sectors, the UNESCO through the National Commission implements projects in collaboration with relevant established institutions for continuity and visibility purposes. As such, this project was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, Ministry of Energy and Water Development and the Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Health.

This Project targeted water stressed communities in Southern and Eastern Provinces, identified with the guidance of the Department of Water Affairs which operates in the Ministry of Energy and Water Development. Limitation of project funds necessitated a cost saving measure of complementing efforts of Projects already on the ground and consideration of implementing the Project in rural areas where there was more need as opposed to focusing on urban water provision.

The Project was carried out in two Districts in Eastern Province i.e Chipata rural and Petauke rural Districts and two Districts in Southern Province namely Sinazongwe and Gwembe Districts. The places were chosen because the Department of Water Affairs and the Ministry of Local Government and Housing had Projects of sinking boreholes in the two areas. There were also other Private institutions operating in the mentioned areas. The UNESCO supported Projects of sensitizing rural communities on the importance of fresh water thus supplemented efforts that were currently on the ground in the Districts.

The Project on safe water which focused on raising awareness and sensitising community members involved working with local partners at District Level for follow up activities to succeed. Prior to Project implementation, the Project team identified local organisations on the ground. It was observed the three partner organisations: the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and the Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Health all had a presence in the rural areas and as such District representatives were involved in the Project planning and implementation. Whereas the Planning Committee in Lusaka were in charge of the overall planning of the Project, the District Officers were responsible for getting in touch with the local authorities to inform them of the sensitisation programme as well as mobilising local communities to be part of the programme. Community media and the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) facilities in the villages were utilised to inform the people.

It was discovered that the Districts were unique in terms of the environment or the way villages were set up in the areas. This in turn saw a difference in project planning and implementation. Notwithstanding the variations, project activities were standardised in the four places. The activities included the following:

• Identifying the water and sanitation issues aimed at enhancing safe drinking water and sanitation in the area
• Identifying a suitable place to share information and ideas
• Mobilising of community members using available modes of communication
• Communicating with the communities through the traditional leaders
• Identifying and designing messages to be used to sensitise communities
• Utilisation of local partners to sensitise the communities on the importance of fresh water
• Provision of information materials to sensitise on safe water and sanitation

In order to be more effective in the sharing of information with the communities, the information was first shared with the local representatives who were expected to sensitise the communities at larger gatherings. The gatherings comprised local and village authorities, key local partners and the identified communities. Different awareness raising strategies such as drama performances, dances and plenary sessions were used. These cartered for the children, youth and adults. The messages were grouped in three themes namely “importance of safe water and sanitation”; effects of inadequate safe water and sanitation”; and “ownership and responsibility of water incomes” and were printed in local languages i.e Chichewa and Tonga for Southern and Eastern Provinces respectively.

The Project was a success as there was a cry for more sensitisations from the local chiefs and authorities in the areas visited. At the end of the Project it was realised that there is need for more sensitisations on the importance of safe clean water as most partners dealing in Water Projects usually focus more on putting up water points and not on sensitising the communities on their role in the maintenance of the water points and the importance of the safe water.

Social and Human Sciences Sector

UNESCO’s role in the field of Social and Human sciences is to promote knowledge, development of standards and intellectual cooperation in order to facilitate social transformation based on the values of justice, freedom and human dignity. To this end, a number of tasks that should help reduce the gap between what is and what should be are carried out under this sector:

• Promotion of Inclusive Social Development Policies that manage contemporary social transformation by (i) fostering the production of in-depth and innovative research and facilitating policy uptake (ii) Reinforce national and regional capacities to enhance national policies regarding social inclusion, gender equality, youth and sport policy, and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable (iii) promoting dialogues and sharing of good practices in building inclusive societies
• Promoting Rights and a Culture of Peace in two main ways. First, through the mobilisation of knowledge on the rights of the vulnerable groups, the nature of exclusion, the underlying causes of conflict and violence from values-oriented lenses. Second through the promotion of the use of intercultural dialogue as a tool for inclusion and peace building at the community and national level.
• Support and Empowerment of Young People based on the UNESCO’s Operational Strategy on Youth 2014-21 including (i) capacity building for youth networks and organisations to mobilise youth in responding to development challenges and (ii) creating civic spaces for civic engagement, democratic participation and social innovation.
• Combating gender inequality and violence against woman.

In order to achieve these objectives, the Zambia National Commission for UNESCO assists the Government and relevant stakeholders as a think tank with the aim of associating all those concerned by the actions of UNESCO in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes that “enable people to create and use knowledge for just and inclusive societies”.

SHS Zambia Projects

Quality Physical Education Policy

Zambia benefited from the UNESCO funded QPE Policy Project that was implemented between 2016 and 2018 using the QPE resource package, to practically support the country to revise the national physical education (PE) policies to be inclusive and child-centered. A National Stakeholders Workshop was held targeting national media engagement in the project, as well as a broad cross-section of other stakeholder groups. This resulted in an inclusive QPE Policy Implementation framework in Zambia. Participating in the Quality Physical Education Policy Project gave Zambia a strategic opportunity to strengthen and systematize cooperation between national sport, education and health ministries. This was the first time these inter-connections between sport, education and health policies have featured explicitly in a national policy document.

Anti-Doping in Sport

In 2022, Zambia through the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Art has received funds amounting to US$35,000 from the UNESCO Fund for Elimination of Doping in Sport to carry out an anti-doping project in the country. Through the project, capacity will be built in 27 National Sports Federations in the implementation of anti-doping National Rules which the country adopted and approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2021. Key personnel from strategic line Ministries and institutions who are expected to help in drafting an anti-doping piece of legislation towards forming an independent National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) were oriented for the purpose.

Culture Sector

In today’s interconnected world, the power that culture has to transform societies is clear. Its diverse manifestations – from our cherished historic monuments and museums to traditional practices and contemporary art forms enrich our everyday lives in countless ways. Heritage constitutes a source of identity and cohesion for communities disrupted by bewildering change and economic instability. Creativity contributes to building open, inclusive and pluralistic societies

UNESCO is convinced that no development can be sustainable without a strong component on culture. To ensure that culture takes its rightful place in development strategies and processes, UNESCO has adopted a three-pronged approach: it spearheads worldwide advocacy for culture and development, while engaging with the international community to set clear policies and legal frameworks and working on the ground to support governments and local stakeholders to safeguard heritage, strengthen creative industries and encourage cultural pluralism.

UNESCO renowned cultural conventions provide a unique global platform for international cooperation and establish a holistic cultural governance system based on human rights and shared values. These international treaties endeavour to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage.