The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and the U.N.
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Thursday
signed an agreement for enhanced collaboration to support mainstreaming
services for Afghans in Pakistan in joint programs under One U.N. in
Pakistan.
The collaboration between the two U.N. agencies, as set under the
new partnership specifies that UNESCO will collaborate for the
inclusion of rights and services for Afghans in Pakistan and the
internally displaced people (IDPs) in areas of school education,
literacy, non-formal education, special (inclusive) education, natural
science, culture, communication and information, and other social
service sectors in the agency's broad mandates.
At present, UNHCR is providing free elementary education to more
than 74,000 Afghan students through 176 schools in 81 refugee villages.
Under the signed initiative, the UNESCO will include Afghan children,
youth, women and other vulnerable groups in the agency's programmes to
achieve sustainable and long-lasting solutions to ensure their rights
to have access to education, science, free flow of information,
cultural activities and social services.
This new initiative among the U.N. agencies is in line with the
government of Pakistan's new approach for better management and
repatriation of Afghans who will remain to stay in Pakistan.
The exchange of letters of intent among various U.N. offices in
Pakistan is a joint commitment to include Afghans in Pakistan in the
vulnerable groups in school education, non-formal education, literacy,
gender equality issues and other relevant social service programmes.
At the occasion of the exchange of the letters, the heads of the
relevant U.N. agencies Kozue Kay Nagata, Representative UNESCO and
Mengesha Kebede, Country Representative of UNHCR, agreed that the
collaboration among the two agencies will contribute to building social
equity, human development and promote social cohesion in the host
Pakistani communities.
The UNHCR's entering into new cooperation with sister U.N. agencies
aims at strengthening partnership in finding durable solutions for the
protracted Afghan refugee situation in Pakistan. The UNHCR recently
signed similar agreements with WHO and UNICEF in the sectors of heath
and education. Xinhua
