Aswan Awarded UNESCO Learning Cities Award

Former Aswan Governor Ahmed Ibrahim received on Friday the 2019 UNESCO Learning Cities Award after choosing Aswan as one of the best 10 cities for learning in 2019.

The award was announced during the Fourth International Conference on Learning Cities, organized by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning(UIL), in Colombia's Medellín city.

Secretary-General of the Egyptian National Committee of UNESCO Ghada Abdel Bari said Aswan joined UNESCO's Learning Cities project after the approval of all member states, adding that the city won the award because it supports the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4)- ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education.

Meanwhile, Mervat al-Samman, a coordinator for Aswan in the UIL, noted that 150 countries partook in the competition.

Aswan developed a strategy that integrates a variety of projects, including gardening and water-conservation programs in schools, as well as perse entrepreneurial training opportunities for all groups of society.

It is worth mentioning that Aswan has 20 schools that implement the UN (SDGs).

The UNESCO Learning City Award aims at recognizing and displaying cities' good practices in introducing quality education and providing lifelong learning opportunities for all citizens at the local level.

The event was attended by Colombia's President Iván Duque Márquez, Mayor of Medellín Federico Gutiérrez, Egypt's Ambassador to Colombia Samy Salem, and representatives of 159 countries, the UN, regional and international institutions.

The other winning cities are China's Chengdu, Heraklion of Greece, Ibadan of Nigeria, Medellín, Ukraine's Melitopol, Petaling Jaya of Malaysia, Mexico's Santiago, Seodaemun-gu of Republic of Korea, and Denmark's Sønderborg.