President ECOSF meets the Assistant Director General UNESCO in Paris and seeks her support for promotion of Science Education in ECO Region
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The President ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF) Prof. Dr. Manzoor H. Soomro
called upon the Assistant Director General (Natural Sciences) UNESCO Dr. Flavia Schlegel in her office at UNESCO Headquarters Paris on 18 November, 2014 and introduced the ECOSF. Dr. Soomro informed the ADG UNESCO that the Foundation and its mandate is pursuing promotion of Applied S&T Research, Science Education and Science Literacy in the ECO Region. He further said that as a member the Global Council of Science Education Programme (SEP) of the Inter Academy Panel (IAP), he is pursuing Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) at school level in the ECO region. The IBSE programme is planned to be launched in collaboration with SEP-IAP, La main a la pate (LAMAP) Foundation, ISTIC Malaysia and possibly government of Kazakhstan through its Science Committee. In this regard, ECOSF already has had consultations with all the partners. The other aspect emphasized by Dr. Soomro was promotion of UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB) with some Trans-boundary Biospheres Reserves. He also emphasized on the need of training workshops on science diplomacy and communication particularly for the Central Asian Member Countries of ECO.
He also shared with ADG UNESCO that ECO and UNESCO had signed an MOU for cooperation, way back in 1995 and ECOSF would like to initiate joint activities under the framework of already signed MOU.
Dr. Flavia Schlegel, ADG UNESCO on her part thanked Prof. Soomro and appreciated for his taking time to meet her and assured him of all possible support and cooperation from all the programmes of Natural Sciences Division of UNESCO including the MAB Programme, IBSE and activities on Science Diplomacy.
Subsequently, Dr. Soomro had a luncheon meeting with Dr. Qunli Han, the Director Science/Secretary, the UNESCO MAB Programme and discussed possibility of promoting trans-boundary biospheres in the ECO Region. Dr. Han strongly supported the idea and showed willingness to assist the ECOSF.
Dr. Qunl Han meeting Dr. Manzoor Soomro on 18 Nov 2014