Our Expertise

The UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago, established in 1963, has been a key player in regional cooperation, supporting Member States in improving their education systems and promoting education as a driver of development. Over time, it has expanded its scope to include science, culture, communication, and information, aligning with UNESCO’s global objectives.

Additionally, as the national representation in Chile, it participates in the Regional Collaborative Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean, contributing to the building of fairer and more sustainable societies.
About UNESCO Santiago

Coordination of SDG 4 - 2030 Agenda in LAC

UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago provides support to UNESCO Member States in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda under the principle of "leaving no one behind." As part of this commitment, we coordinate the Regional Coordination Mechanism to strengthen, deepen, and make the regional cooperation agenda more efficient to support the implementation of SDG 4. The Mechanism is composed of the Assembly of Ministers of Education from 33 Member States, the Regional Steering Committee (comprised of 9 countries from the subregions of South America, Central America, and the Caribbean with 8 regional organizations), and the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago as Executive Secretariat.
Regional coordination mechanisms
What we do?
Regional follow-up to SDG 4
What we do?

Strengthening national education systems

UNESCO exercises global and regional leadership in education through the strengthening of education systems. To this end, data collection, monitoring, dialogue and cooperation with national authorities is vital, to whom we provide information to improve learning and make public policy decisions. Our goal is to guarantee quality education for all through the development of tomorrow's citizens in order to build a more sustainable future.
Education Monitoring and Planning
What we do?
Latin-American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education (LLECE)
What we do?

Right to education and inclusive education

Education is a fundamental human right that helps lift people out of poverty, overcome inequalities and ensure human and sustainable development. But in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean there is a slowdown and, in some cases, stagnation in the progress of many of the educational achievements that were notable between 2000-2015. Compliance with the educational goals set out in SDG4 of the 2030 Agenda was not assured before the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and much less so now. That is why we are working to make education the instrument to guarantee other fundamental human rights, with a special focus on the most vulnerable.
Education of people on the move
What we do?
Education for people with disabilities and the right to difference
What we do?
Intercultural education

Gender equality in and through education

Gender equality is a global priority for UNESCO. Despite significant progress in access to different levels of education, large disparities persist that disadvantage both girls and boys. While girls are almost always the most disadvantaged, boys are also affected by gender norms that sometimes do not value academic performance and pressure them toward economic priorities. 

We work to ensure that gender-transformative education unlocks the potential of all people in all their diversity and helps to eradicate gendered social norms, attitudes and practices that limit everyone's right to a quality education. With and through education, institutions and educational systems can be transformed to build just, egalitarian and inclusive societies.

Transformative education

Education has the potential to transform lives and societies. For it to fulfill this purpose, learners need to acquire not only the knowledge, but also the skills, values, attitudes and behaviors necessary to forge more just, peaceful, inclusive, equitable and sustainable societies. UNESCO works so that, through education for global citizenship, sustainable development, health and well-being and gender equality -and their intersections with science, culture and communication-, people contribute to collective efforts to face the challenges of an increasingly interconnected world, where "learning to live together" for the respect, promotion and exercise of human rights is the fundamental pillar.
Global citizenship education (GCED)
Education for sustainable development
Education for health and well-being

Lifelong learning

In a changing world, lifelong learning is essential to meet global challenges and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. And it is for this reason that learning must be guaranteed from the earliest years and cannot result in the end of compulsory or higher education. We are working to make inclusive, quality learning, throughout a lifetime, a reality in all contexts, in all modalities, for all.
Early childhood care and education (ECCE)
Adult and youth education
Technical and vocational education and training (TVET)
Higher education

Training and the teaching profession

Teachers and educators are essential to ensure quality education for all and to achieve the educational goals of the 2030 Agenda. Achieving inclusive education that is aligned with the challenges facing humanity and the planet will depend heavily on having teachers who are professionals of excellence and leaders for learning, who are properly recruited, continuously trained and -above all- efficiently and effectively supported.

We work to raise awareness of their training and working conditions, supporting initiatives for innovative teaching.
Teacher education & training
Teacher attraction and retention
Innovation in education

Learning, innovation and digital transformation

Digital transformation can profoundly impact teaching and learning practices and traditional ways of managing education systems. However, rapid technological changes also imply numerous risks and challenges to be faced. UNESCO supports Member States in their efforts to harness the educational potential of digital technologies and AI, within the framework of the Education 2030 Agenda and the fundamental principles of inclusion and equity.
Innovation in education and ICT
Science, technology, engineering, arts, and math education (STEAM)
Artificial Intelligence and education

Reimagining education and learning

Futures of education and learning

Knowledge and learning are the greatest renewable resources available to humankind to respond to challenges and invent alternatives. Moreover, education not only responds to a changing world, it transforms the world. UNESCO’s Futures of Education inititative aims to reexamine and rethink how education and knowledge can contribute to the global common good. 

We need a new social contract for education that can redress injustices and eliminate the many existing gaps while transforming the future. We are working to rethink the role that education should play in the face of social transformations. This change requires mobilizing everyone without exception to create a more equitable, just and sustainable future today, where no one is left behind.

Culture

We work to promote cultural participation and the diversity of cultural expressions while simultaneously seeking to safeguard and transmit cultural heritage. Our focus is on the protection of tangible and intangible heritage, the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural goods, the promotion of cultural diversity, and the encouragement of culture and creativity. While these tasks are intrinsically a transcendent purpose, they also significantly and cross-sectionally contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Alongside the State of Chile and civil society organizations, we collaborate on the challenges that the country has committed to by ratifying the UNESCO Conventions.
Protection and management of tangible cultural heritage
What we do?
Illicit trafficking and protection of cultural goods
What we do?
Heritage in emergency
What we do?
Promotion and safeguarding of intangible heritage
What we do?
Diversity of cultural expressions
What we do?
Culture and education
What we do?

Communication and Information

UNESCO defends and promotes freedom of expression, media independence and pluralism, as well as the construction of inclusive knowledge societies based on universal access to information and the innovative and inclusive use of digital technologies.

Through capacity building, policy advice; campaigns against misinformation; international cooperation, monitoring and foresight in the areas of freedom of expression; and access to information and digital transformation, UNESCO will continue to empower key actors with a vision to ensuring fundamental freedoms online and offline, in accordance with international standards and human rights.
Media and Information Literacy (MIL)
Freedom of the press
Freedom of expression

Social and human sciences

UNESCO works to help Member States and all its partners to foster inclusive and resilient societies through its programs on the management of social transformations, sports, youth empowerment, combating discrimination, promoting intercultural dialogue, and the ethical approach to science, prioritizing policies that benefit historically excluded populations, with a people-centered approach that puts human dignity and prosperity at the heart of building lasting peace.
Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
Racism and discrimination
Sports
Youth

Science

We promote the strengthening of science and engineering education systems and research capacity so that countries can find solutions adapted to their own challenges, and we contribute to the safeguarding of territories, ecosystems and biodiversity for conservation, restoration and research. 

Bringing science closer and helping people to understand it better contributes to the development of societies in which everyone has the necessary knowledge to make relevant decisions and to share in the benefits of scientific research. Likewise, the study of the planet, its ecosystems and biodiversity, allows us to guide human interaction and intervention to help us understand how to manage our planet and ensure a peaceful and sustainable future for this and future generations.

Científicos manipulando elementos químicos o biológicos
Wikimedia commons/Daniel Mietchen

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