The Government of Japan signed a project agreement to provide new assistance, which is worth over 14 Million Birr to promote peace education in Ethiopia and in the rest of Africa through its partnership with the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA).
The agreement was signed by Mr. Daisuke Matsunaga, Ambassador of Japan to Ethiopia, and Dr. Yumiko Yokozeki, Director of the UNESCO-IICBA. Ambassador Mr. Matsunaga explained that the “project targets teachers involved in educating young people in Africa and they are expected to advocate peace and inspire young people with values and attitudes to prevent violent extremism”.
Ambassador Matsunaga added that “this assistance is part of Japan’s New Approach for Peace and Stability, a programme agreed upon at Tokyo International Conference on African Development 7, that will implemented in collaboration with the African Union and regional economic communities on the continent”.
“The Government of Japan is pleased to support this project, which is aligned with the 2020 African Union theme “Silencing the Guns”, once again in partnership with UNESCO-IICBA, following the successful implementation of the peace education project in the Horn of Africa as well as the Sahel region over the previous three years,” he said.
He noted his remarks by stating as: “We do hope that this project will further strengthen peace education and conflict prevention” and the “seeds thus sown in the hearts and minds on African youth will grow up to be tall trees of peace and stability on the continent”.
This initiated by the UNESCO-IICBA, the project intends to formulate teaching materials working closely with the Ministry of Education, universities and teacher training institutions in Ethiopia and 25 other African countries and support the integration of peace education into current tertiary education and teacher education curricula and programs.
The project capitalizes upon lessons learned from the teacher training and development for peacebuilding in the Horn of Africa including Ethiopia, and the Sahel region that was carried out from 2017 to 2019 with the support of Japan. Through this project, about 5,000 teachers in 26 African countries will be trained in transformative pedagogy for peace education.
Japan has been one of the key donors for African Development particularly through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development Initiative. Based on the commitments made at Tokyo International Conference on African Development Initiative 7, which was held in Yokohama, Japanese humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia to be implemented in Japanese Fiscal Year of 2019/2020 has been scaled up threefold over the previous period to over 32.5 million USD up from 11.1 million USD. The project agreed upon with the UNESCO-IICBA, focusing on conflict prevention, is part of a new humanitarian assistance package to be implemented with various UN organizations.
The Ethiopian Herald March 1/2020
BY MEHARI BEYENE
