IOM_ANNUAL _HIGHLIGHTS_2017

AFGHANISTAN: BUILDING A BRIDGE THROUGH
DISTANCE LEARNING
The security situation in Afghanistan and the busy schedule of health
professionals in both Afghanistan and the Netherlands are important
constraints to organizing physical meetings between the two countries. IOM
has explored options to overcome such constraints through distance learning
and networking.
In October 2017, IOM the Netherlands and IOM Afghanistan piloted a bilateral
teleconference on public health management in Afghanistan. The event was
well attended by all project stakeholders in Afghanistan including the Kabul
Medical University, the Khair Khwa Medical Complex, the Ministry of Public
Health, the Sardar Daud Khan Hospital, the Ministry of Labour and Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, and also two important Afghan diaspora organizations, MCAN
and the KEIHAN Foundation. The teleconference paved the way towards the
creation of a platform on which health professionals in Afghanistan could
present and discuss their issues and concerns with counterpart professionals
in the Netherlands and beyond.
The Netherlands-Afghanistan teleconference
paved the way towards the creation of a
knowledge-transfer platform
IOM the Netherlands is working on creating more online opportunities for knowledge
transfer as an alternative to physical assignments. © IOM 2017
The Moroccan delegates visit the virtual lab of the University of Leiden.© IOM 2017
MOROCCAN STUDY VISIT TO THE NETHERLANDS
In 2017, IOM organized a visit to the Netherlands of a delegation from the Moroccan High
Council for Education. The purpose was to learn from the Dutch experience and establish an
open network for online learning, distant learning, hybrid learning and virtual reality learning.
Vision Reform Education 2030, which is Morocco’s national strategy plan for education, sees
ICT innovation in education as the main means to enhance the quality of education, to close
the quality gap between public and private schools and to facilitate access to education for
rural and female populations.
The Moroccan delegation visited the University of Leiden for an interactive workshop on the
design of an online curriculum, change management and the role of future teachers. During
the exchange, relationships were forged that may lead to further cooperation in the coming
years, such as the contribution by the Dutch to two Moroccan conferences on innovation and
education coming up in 2018.
The second part of the visit was dedicated to a 2-day workshop at the European Association
of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) in Maastricht.
20_IOM THE NETHERLANDS HIGHLIGHTS 2017