Collaborative Meeting with UNESCO Institute for Water Education

Collaborative Meeting with UNESCO Institute for Water Education, 23 March 2016, Delft

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UNESCO Institute for Water Education – is the prestigious and largest international postgraduate water education facility in the world. Since 1957 the Institute has provided postgraduate education to more than 14,500 water professionals from over 160 countries. UNESCO-IHE is instrumental in the strengthening of efforts by other universities and research centers in increasing knowledge and skills of professionals working in the water sector. UNESCO-IHE carries out three types of activities that complement and reinforces each other in the broad field of water engineering, water management, environment, sanitation, and governance. Its core activities are education, research, and capacity building.

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On 23 March 2016, the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) has met with the representatives of the UNESCO Institute for Water Education in their global headquarters located in Delft, The Netherlands. The IDUM has been introduced to the Institute, its infrastructure, and has briefly met few of its students.

In great discussion with the representative of the Liaison Office of the UNESCO Institute, IDUM agreed upon mutual cooperation in development of a scientific course for focused professionals. In a Tailor-Made type of Training program that designed for clients whose staff require training on specific topics, or seek to develop a common knowledge base to address challenges ahead such as underwater munitions.

In the upcoming projects of the UNESCO Institute for Water Education, and the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) are planning to create many training and educational courses that are organized for groups of various sizes, and as large as industry sectors and regions. The IDUM will be responsible to design a program to upgrade knowledge and skills, introduce new technologies, and strengthen sector performance for people interested in the underwater munitions and their impact.

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For IDUM, it is not the first educational project, as for many years the organization has already conducted similar training courses during the Summer School in Halifax, where the project ‘Towards the Monitoring of Dumped Munitions Threat’ (MODUM) together with many international partners, organizations, and agencies is highly thought after for its sharing and knowledge transfer on underwater munitions.

In a similar manner of the Science for Peace and Security Program Summer School, the courses will include an overview on global dumping of underwater weapons in national and international waters from 1920s’ to 1970’, as well as the introduction of possible solutions to the issues related to underwater munitions.

The work on the upcoming projects of the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions and the UNESCO Institute for Water Education will begin in 2016-2017.