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External sources (not reviewed)

During the reporting period, 343 cases of the recruitment and use of children were verified by the task force in 23 of the 32 departments throughout the country, including the Pacific coast region (Cauca, Chocó, Nariño, Valle del Cauca), the Caribbean coast region (Bolívar, Cesar, Córdoba, La Guajira, Magdalena), in border areas (Arauca, Caquetá, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, Santander, Vaupés), and in central Colombia (Antioquia, Caldas, Cundinamarca, Guaviare, Huila, Meta, Risaralda, Tolima).

Reports indicated the recruitment and threat of recruitment of children by FARC-EP in 121 municipalities of 22 departments, in the Caribbean coast region (Antioquia, Bolívar, Córdoba, Magdalena), the Pacific coast region (Cauca, Chocó, Nariño, Valle del Cauca), in border areas (Arauca, Caquetá, Norte de Santander, Putumayo), and in central Colombia (Cundinamarca, Guaviare, Meta, Tolima).

[...] bordering Compostela Valley and Agusan del Sur.

Thanks to funding from Spain, a second phase of the literacy and post-literacy project has been launched in two communes in the South-East: La Vallée de Jacmel and Marigot.

[...] Columbia’s Okanagan Valley where he began [...]

To delete "prudently assess" after "the Government to" and substitute with "make optimal use of"; to delete "additional" before "resources"; to delete "required for implementing" after "resources" and substitute with "saved due to the drop in the primary and secondary school student population to provide training for teachers on"; to delete ", weigh the commitments of both the Government and parents and, by ensuring that complementing training for teachers is available" before ", progressively implement small class teaching" and substitute with "and, through a 'by district and by grade' mode of transition"; to delete "in" after "progressively implement small class teaching" and substitute with ", starting with"; and to add "and junior secondary forms," after "primary schools".

Regarding funding support for the arts groups, members in generally considered that the Administration should (a) ensure a reasonable and fair distribution of funding resources amongst arts groups; (b) review the existing mode of subsidy for the major performing arts groups to avoid stifling the development of non-subvented commercial arts groups; (c) provide more funding for the support of small and medium sized arts groups and budding artists; (d) explore means to minimize staffing and administrative expenses in the operation of arts programmes so that the savings could be re-allocated to the use of arts development; (e) examine the effectiveness of the current funding policy in achieving the policy goals, such as encouraging diversified and balanced development of arts and culture; and (f) consider increasing its overall allocation of funding for culture and the arts, given the imminent need to achieve the vision of the West Kowloon Culture District project.

These include: a deep-sea port being constructed on the Indian Ocean near the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe, and parallel road, high-speed rail, and oil and natural gas pipelines that will create an energy and trade corridor to China’s landlocked south west; the Kaladan multi-modal project that will create a transportation corridor between the Indian Ocean and India’s eastern seaboard and its landlocked north east; and the Dawei Development Project which, if completed according to plan, would include a large industrial estate and modern deep-sea port in the south, with road and rail links for transhipment of goods to Thailand and on to Vietnam, cutting several days off the sea route through the Straits of Malacca.

For smaller agencies, geographical focus is another challenge, considering their limited representation outside the federal capital; a problem which UNESCO is addressing by furthering its already close cooperation with the federal and provincial government departments and other partners concerned.

The amount of $266,500 is proposed for travel to undertake the following technical support activities: on-site evaluations and provision of technical assistance, including for assessing progress in field operations in connection with the expansion of provincial offices and other contractual activities, the procurement solicitation process, strategic deployment stock warehouse inventory and codification issues, and review of fuel operations in the field ($166,000); improve knowledge and technical skills of staff in the field charged with aviation safety and establish a formulation of the United Nations Common Aviation Safety Standards for the use of air assets between different United Nations entities ($65,300); and implementation of the electronic rations management system and the electronic fuel management system in peacekeeping missions ($35,200).

[...] [...] training seminars (Bangkok, Riga, Dar es Salaam [...] [...]

[...] [...] on dashboards, Google maps and narrative [...] [...]

[...] [...] activities in the Jordan Valley

[...] [...] Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) and the [...] [...]

One delegate felt that further efforts should be pursued in this regard, building on the experience carried out in Asia by the UNESCO Office in Bangkok, seeking to harness the contribution of ICTs in both formal and non-formal education as well as in distance learning.