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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the rethinking of priorities of many aspects of society. A time of profound upheaval in the face of the crisis resonates deeply at the heart of the mission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. COVID-19 tells us that scientific cooperation, continuing education, the importance of reliable information based on scientific and undisputable facts, the need to fight disinformation, fake news and xenophobia on Internet, the power of culture and reliable knowledge are essential to address unprecedented challenges, to strengthen fabric of society, to strengthen solidarity in this critical moment and to build a better future in the post-COVID-19 era.

For the UNESCO Tashkent Office, the year 2020 has been marked by a number of successful initiatives and results of four programmatic sectors of the Office: Education, Culture, Communication and Information, Natural Sciences.

Ensuring quality coverage and building the capacity of journalists

Since the beginning of the pandemic outbreak, 91�鶹������Ʒ���� responded to the COVID-19 disinformation, fake news and baseless rumors with a series of initiatives aimed at ensuring truth and supporting reliable and quality information.

The UNESCO Tashkent Office, in close co-operation with the National Association of Electronic Mass Media (NAEMM), in Uzbek and Russian to raise people's awareness of the existence and dangers of fake news and to show to people the importance of understanding its threat by providing real stories.

To counter disinformation on COVID-19 and to promote healthy behaviours, 91�鶹������Ʒ���� produced a series of audio messages for radio stations from around the world. these messages into Uzbek and disseminated thеm through local radio stations.

Within the framework of the project “Enhancing the Capacity of Uzbek Media to Serve the Public Interest – Phase II*”, funded generously by the UK Government, 15 capacity-building trainings for local journalists, media specialists, bloggers, journalism students and journalism teachers were conducted. As a result, more than 300 people from Tashkent, the Republic of Karakalpakstan, as well as Bukhara, Fergana, Jizzakh, Kashkadarya, Khorezm Samarkand, and Surkhandarya regions had the opportunity to improve their professional knowledge and skills in media and information literacy, fact-checking and data journalism.

Reaching gender balance among trainers and participants during the organization of trainings was a priority of the project. Therefore, at all trainings at least half of the participants were women.

Learning never stops

Given the increasing role of distance learning, in 2020 UNESCO continued to develop the previously created online training platform – (MOOCs) – to make education open and free.

The platform currently provides MOOCs on Media and Information Literacy, Safety of Journalists, Hate Speech in Media, Gender in Journalism, Data journalism, Fake news as well as several other courses in Uzbek, Russian and Karakalpak.

Responding to the fact that many countries had to close their schools as part of COVID-19 prevention in 2020, 91�鶹������Ʒ���� paid particular attention to promoting distance-learning solutions and disseminating practical recommendations for learning at home.

With the support of the UNICEF Office in Uzbekistan, the with recommendations for parents to support children in learning at home in Uzbek and Russian were created.

Moreover, based on UNESCO's graphic messages on Media and Information Literate (MIL) Parenting, the UNESCO Tashkent Office into Russian and Uzbek. These cards are aimed at improving MIL skills, building more media literate and tolerant societies, and sharing verified information during the current crisis.

Vocational education and training in the time of COVID-19

The global Coronavirus outbreak has affected not only our health, lives and economies but also the labour market and education sector.

In 2020, the 9.6 million euro programme to support the agriculture sector in Uzbekistan through the development of vocational education and training system. The “Skills Development in Rural Areas of Uzbekistan” programme aims to enhance the living standards in rural areas (the Republic of Karakalpakstan, Bukhara, Surkhandarya, Khorezm regions) through better employability. The specific objective of this four-year project (2020-2024) is to equip women and men in Uzbekistan with relevant skills for sustainable, diversified and modernized agriculture.

Emphasizing the value of natural sciences

Having a specific mandate in natural sciences, UNESCO is responding to global challenges and crisis, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic by advocating for open science, international scientific collaborations, and sustainable investments in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).

In 2020, as a result of the implementation of the UNESCO-Islamic Development Bank project in cooperation with the Ministry of Innovative Development of Uzbekistan, GO-SPIN (Global Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Instruments) Country Profile of Uzbekistan in Science, Technology and Innovation was prepared.

Furthermore, the UNESCO Tashkent Office in collaboration with the Almaty Cluster UNESCO Office and other regional offices organized a number of regional and sub-regional online ministerial dialogues, webinars and events in the topic of COVID-19 and Open Science engaging high-level officials from the ministries, academies and other related stakeholders.

Culture for sustainable development

Culture has also suffered from the COVID-19 outbreak. Thus, mobilizing the international community to increase online access to culture and heritage as well as supporting the resilience of cultural professionals are particularly important this year.

The UNESCO Tashkent Office continues supporting the protection of cultural and natural heritage and fostering the development of creative and cultural industry (CCI) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many activities were converted into online format, such as capacity-building and awareness-raising activities, researches and assessments.

The UNESCO Tashkent Office supports the development of the sustainable tourism in Karakalpakstan through the implementation of the project “Addressing the urgent human insecurities in the Aral Sea region through promoting sustainable rural development” jointly with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Uzbekistan. In particular, this is achieved through building local capacities, conducting researches and raising awareness about the diversity of the Karakalpak cultural and natural heritage that leads to the income-generating opportunities for the local communities.

Implementation of the project focuses on two key areas in 2020: development of sustainable heritage-based tourism in Karakalpakstan and development of hospitality management.

Also this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the quarantine measures that it has caused, many craftspeople, especially the youth, have been cut off from practice and deprived of opportunities to improve their skills and knowledge. To ensure that the learning process does not stop, 91�鶹������Ʒ���� organized a series of trainings and online courses for craftspeople and designers. The trainings were launched in Margilan on 6 October and ended on 14 November 2020. The programme of trainings included online theoretical and practical on-site trainings on traditional embroidery, ethno-design, natural dyeing and handicraft entrepreneurship.

Share knowledge, share information

To raise people’s awareness about the COVID-19 Response 91�鶹������Ʒ���� systematically involved people in various campaigns, webinars and initiatives, organized by the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, the Almaty Cluster UNESCO Office, and other UN agencies and national partners.

UNESCO engages young people and the general public to celebrate the World Press Freedom Day, the International Day for Universal Access to Information, the World Teachers’ Day, the International Day for Disaster Reduction and other important dates and events online.

Moreover, in order to provide interesting activities for people, UNESCO promoted free access to a wide choice of UNESCO’s resources, including MOOCs, movies, publications, interactive online exhibitions etc.