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Fostering Collaboration between UNESCO Cairo and NARSS
The Heads of NARSS divisions prepared comprehensive presentations on their areas of competence to facilitate discussions on the theme and modalities of mutual collaboration from 2023 onwards. In addition, the NARSS technical teams made briefings on their roles, projects, and technical contributions per the NARSS strategic scope.
The exchanges allowed to set up of a preliminary list of priority areas, namely: the possibility that NARSS could take the lead on the national consultation and survey of the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science with the ambition to set up a national diagnosis and the consequent action plan under the edges of the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. Discussions focused on the use of remote sensing, as a cross-cutting technology, for projects and initiatives in the field of Culture, Ecological and Earth Sciences and Hydrological Sciences and the interest in applying innovation to assess the state of conservation of Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage sites and sites on the Tentative List, mainly focused on the Delta and Oasis.
As an additional area of cooperation, both parties agreed on the importance of using sequences of remote sensing images as an outreach tool to enroll the large public in combat against the consequences of climate change. NARSS has counted on valuable sources since the 1970s to showcase the evolution of sites and landscapes over the last decades.
UNESCO Cairo representatives informed and invited NARSS colleagues to participate in the UNESCO events related to Egyptian food systems as an expression of cultural diversity to seek possible synergies in the framework of the current smart agriculture programmes. Moreover, UNESCO Cairo informed on the work of the Office on the .
Dr Sanz presented the UNESCO initiative Priority Africa and encouraged future regional collaboration with the African Space Agency, hosted at NARSS.
A series of meetings will follow to prepare an integrated action plan between the two institutions.
