Frederick Philander
11 November 2008
Windhoek — This three-day workshop is an important milestone because it marks the first public engagement of a memorandum of understanding signed between UNAM and UNESCO earlier this year, particularly for execution by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
So said the director of UNESCO, Dr Claudia Harvey, yesterday at the opening of a workshop by experts in the Social and Human Sciences sector from countries in Southern Africa.
"Often decisions affecting the future of countries and the very lives and livelihoods of citizens can be taken on hunch;feeling or convenience. The Social and Human Sciences sector underscores that such decisions are too important to be left to chance and so should be based on evidence thus requiring research," Dr Harvey said.
This particular workshop falls within the article of the MOH referring to intellectual forums for discussing national, regional and global challenges.
"We hope that it will subsequently contribute to exchanges among social science academics and university students. This brings us to the second very significant milestone that is being marked by the workshop, the bringing together of deans of related faculties of the five countries and senior policy makers of those countries.Thus, those having to make the decisions are interacting directly with those having to do the research. There can be both informed and practical discourse on the way forward for both parties," she said.
According to her UNESCO Windhoek has consciously attempted since its formation as a Cluster Office to base its programmes on on-going consultations with member states.
"The conduct of a needs assessment exercise before contracting the incumbent to the SHS post was a decision of the February UNESCO Windhoek Cluster Consultation.
We are pleased therefore that this needs assessment in the form of an engagement between deans and policy makers is taking place today," Harvey concluded.
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