United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization - Böcker

The water resources we receive from mountains are literally melting away before our eyes. Mountains and alpine glaciers – often referred to as the world’s ‘water towers’ – are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change and unsustainable human activities, threatening the water resources upon which billions of people and countless ecosystems depend. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2025 – Mountains and glaciers: Water towers, calls attention to the essential services and benefits mountain waters and alpine glaciers provide to societies, economies and the environment. With a focus on the technical and policy responses required to improve water management in mountains, the report covers critical issues such as water supply and sanitation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, food and energy security, industry, disaster risk reduction and ecosystem protection. Addressing the global water crisis begins at the top.

Water is a finite and non-substitutable resource. As the foundation of life, societies and economies, it carries multiple values and benefits. But unlike most other natural resources, it has proven extremely difficult to determine its true 'value'. The 2021 edition of The United Nations World Water Development Report, titled Valuing Water assesses the current status of and challenges to the valuation of water across different sectors and perspectives and identifies ways in which valuation can be promoted as a tool to help improve its management and achieve global sustainable development.

This publication highlights the crucial role of engineering in achieving each of the 17 SDGs by presenting case studies and approaches of the innovations that are shaping our world. Providing a snapshot of these emerging technologies, the report demonstrates how engineering solutions can address pressing human and planetary needs, including poverty alleviation, clean water and energy, natural disaster response, and resilient infrastructure. It further analyses the transformation of engineering education and capacitybuilding at the dawn of a Fourth Industrial Revolution. It also demonstrates how equal opportunities for all is key to ensuring an inclusive and genderbalanced profession that can better respond to the shortage of engineers prepared to implement the SDGs. Summarizing global engineering trends while noting the widespread effort needed to address specific regional disparities, the report aims to promote global partnerships and catalyze collaboration in engineering with the ultimate goal of delivering on the SDGs.

Throughout UNESCO's 75 years of existence, never before has the Courier, UNESCO's flagship magazine, published an anthology, in book form, with such scope and scale. These two volumes bring together some of the great thinkers and pioneering minds of recent times who have led important discussions on society's pressing challenges. UNESCO Courier: Transforming Ideas will lead you through an exciting, magical and thought-provoking adventure into UNESCO's past, present and future.

Throughout UNESCO's 75 years of existence, never before has the Courier, UNESCO's flagship magazine, published an anthology, in book form, with such scope and scale. These two volumes bring together some of the great thinkers and pioneering minds of recent times who have led important discussions on society's pressing challenges. UNESCO Courier: Transforming Ideas will lead you through an exciting, magical and thought-provoking adventure into UNESCO's past, present and future.

The interwoven futures of humanity and our planet are under threat. Urgent action, taken together, is needed to change course and reimagine our futures. Education, long acknowledged as a powerful force for positive change, has new, urgent and important work to do. This report, two years in the making, invites governments, institutions, organizations, and citizens around the world to forge a new social contract for education that will help us build peaceful, just, and sustainable futures.

Non-state actors' role extends beyond provision of schooling to interventions at various education levels and influence spheres. Alongside its review of progress towards SDG 4, including emerging evidence on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact, the 2021/2 Global Education Monitoring Report urges governments to see all institutions, students and teachers as part of a single system. Standards, information, incentives and accountability should help governments protect, respect and fulfil the right to education of all, without turning their eyes away from privilege or exploitation. Publicly funded education does not have to be publicly provided but disparity in education processes, student outcomes and teacher working conditions must be addressed. Efficiency and innovation, rather than being commercial secrets, should be diffused and practised by all. To that end, transparency and integrity in the public education policy process need to be maintained to block vested interests. The report's rallying call – Who chooses? Who loses? – invites policymakers to question relationships with non-state actors in terms of fundamental choices: between equity and freedom of choice; between encouraging initiative and setting standards; between groups of varying means and needs; between immediate commitments under SDG 4 and those to be progressively realized (e.g. post-secondary education); and between education and other social sectors.

Accounting for approximately 99% of all liquid freshwater on Earth, groundwater has the potential to provide societies with tremendous social, economic and environmental benefits and opportunities. However, this natural resource is often poorly understood, and consequently undervalued, mismanaged and even abused. In spite of its overall abundance, groundwater remains vulnerable to over-exploitation and pollution, both of which can have devastating effects on the resource and its availability. In the context of growing water scarcity across many parts of the world, the enormous potential of groundwater and the need to manage it sustainably can no longer be overlooked. The 2022 edition of The United Nations World Water Development Report describes the challenges and opportunities associated with the development, management and governance of groundwater across the world.

This publication describes how building partnerships and enhancing cooperation across every dimension of sustainable development are essential components to accelerating progress towards realizing the human rights to water and sanitation. Partnerships and cooperation take place in almost any water-related endeavour and water resources management has a long history of experience with partnerships, both good and bad. This report reviews this experience, highlighting how enhancing positive and meaningful cooperation amongst the water, sanitation and broader 'development' communities is required to accelerate progress.