UNESCO MGIEP's Annual Report 2019

ANNUAL 

REPORT 2019 

ANNUAL 

REPORT 

2019-20 

TRANSFORMING 

21 ST CENTURY 

LEARNING 

SPACES

Mission Driven 

Impact: 

Mainstreaming Social 

and 

Emotional Learning in 

Education Systems 

2019 

2,000+ learners trained in 

SEL in 10 countries. 

400+ teachers trained 

in SEL in 10+ countries. 

7,300+ Kindness Stories in 

120+ countries. 

4 events - close to 3,000 

participants. 

10 publications launched. 

4,000 users on 

FramerSpace, UNESCO 

MGIEP’s indigenous 

learning platform.

CONTENTS: 

1. About 

a. Manifesto 

b. Introduction - Institute 

c. An Evidence Based Approach 

d. Vision 

e. Mission 

2. Director’s Message 

3. Governing Board Members (2019-2023) 

4. Messages from the Governing Board Members 

5 UNESCO MGIEP’s Missions & Key Outputs 

a. Building Social and Emotional Skills for Learners (K-12 

school children through formal education) 

b. Building Social and Emotional Skills for 

Youth and Prevention of Violent Extremism through 

Education (PVE-E) 

c. Building Social and Emotional Skills for Educators 

d. Advancing the Science-Policy nexus for Education 

5 Financials 

6 Partners

ANNUAL REPORT 2019 

“We believe that learning to build 

peaceful and sustainable societies 

across the world should be fun, 

curiosity driven, and relevant to 

each learner for her/his human 

flourishing 

– An education for humanity. 

We believe that we are a center of research excellence 

developing disruptive innovative tools and methodologies 

to transform education to meet global challenges common 

to humanity. 

We are persistent in innovating new pedagogies that are 

dynamic and continuously assessed with a specific focus on 

digital pedagogies. 

We recognise that curriculum and pedagogy need to be dynamic 

and rooted in robust scientific evidence. We thus believe 

in providing a platform for deep collaboration across 

multiple disciplines to innovate in ways others cannot. 

We are willing to take risks because without risk we do not 

learn.”


The UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute 

of Education for Peace and Sustainable 

Development (MGIEP) is UNESCO’s first and 

only Category I Institute in the Asia-Pacific that 

contributes to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable 

Development Goals (SDGs), specifically Goal 

4, Target 7, focusing on peace and sustainable 

development through education. The Institute 

operates on a global mandate (with specific 

focus on the Asia-Pacific region) and develops 

programmes that promote social and emotional 

learning (SEL), innovate digital pedagogies and 

empower the youth. 

SDG 4.7 by 2030 ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills 

needed to promote sustainable developement, including among 

others through education for sustainable development and 

sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion 

of a culture of peace and non violence, global citizenship, and 

appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution 

to sustainable development 

AN EVIDENCE 

BASED APPROACH 

UNESCO MGIEP embraces the power 

of technology to provide analytics and 

responsive Artificial 

Intelligence (AI) based digital pedagogies 

Based on research from the neuroscience of 

learning, the Institute envisions new education 

systems that employ a ‘whole brain approach to 

education’ by focusing on building intellectual and 

emotional intelligence in learners, to equip them 

to build more peaceful and sustainable societies. 

UNESCO MGIEP’s SEL interventions draw 

on the science of learning and aim to build 

intellectual and emotional intelligence among 

learners through innovative pedagogies. 

Recent advances in neuroscience research 

have demonstrated that human well-being 

requires a ‘whole brain’ approach, that is, the 

two parts of the human brain (the rational 

and the emotional) need to be trained and 

nurtured to ensure all round development of 

human beings. Based on this understanding, 

UNESCO MGIEP has developed a framework 

that builds four competencies in learners, 

including ‘Empathy’, ‘Mindfulness’, ‘Critical 

Inquiry’, and ‘Compassion’ (EMC 2 ). The 

Framework forms the basis of the various 

projects undertaken at the Institute. Further, 

UNESCO MGIEP embraces the power 

of technology to provide analytics and 

responsive Artificial Intelligence (AI) based 

digital pedagogies that are personalised, 

relevant, learner-driven, and transformative.


AN EVIDENCE 

BASED APPROACH 

In order to build peaceful and 

sustainable societies, learning 

experiences need to be 

designed in a manner that they 

promote behavioural change, building 

both intellectual and emotional 

intelligence of learners. The seat of all 

learning is the ‘brain’. Modern brain 

imaging techniques have transformed 

our understanding of the brain function 

and demonstrated the contribution that 

biological factors have on learning. The 

most important findings from research 

in cognitive neuroscience and the 

study of human behavior include the 

following: 

• Both intellectual and emotional 

intelligence influence human learning. 

• All learning happens because of 

a neurobiological process called 

“neuroplasticity,” which is the capacity 

of the brain to change, at the levels 

of both structure and function, in 

response to change in the cognitive 

environment. 

• No two human brains are identical; 

each brain is unique, and learning 

should optimally be “personalised” 

for each learner. Education curricula 

should be aligned with this knowledge 

of the human brain and learning, 

and must celebrate the needs and 

interests of individual learners rather 

than be focused on a single curricular 

framework or instructional method. 

VISION 

Transforming Education For Humanity 

Building Emotional Learning 

for Education 2030 

MISSION 

The Institute works towards mainstreaming social and emotional learning in education 

systems to achieve behavioral change among learners, thus contributing to the 

development of peaceful and sustainable societies, in line with the SDG 4.7. UNESCO 

MGIEP’s Four Key Missions include: 

1. Building Social and Emotional Skills for Learners (K-12 school 

children through formal education) 

2. Building Social and Emotional Skills for Youth and Prevention 

of Violent Extremism through Education (PVE-E) 

3. Building Social and Emotional Skills for Educators 

4. Advancing the Science-Policy nexus for Education


Building global citizens 

by mainstreaming 

Social and 

Building Emotional global citizens Learning 

by mainstreaming 

(SEL) 

Social and 

Emotional Learning 

(SEL) 

MISSION 1: 

Building SEL 

for Learners 

MISSION 2: 

Building SEL for 

Youth and PVE-E 

- Global Citizenship 

- YESPeace 

MISSION 1: 

MISSION 2: 

MISSION 3: 

- DICE 

- #YouthWagingPeace 

Write Building SEL Building SEL for 

- Games for Learning 

- TAG e Building SEL 

for Learners - MyDream Project Youth and PVE-E- World Youth Conference for Educators 

- #KindnessMattersforSDGs 

- Global Citizenship 

DICE 

- Games for Learning 

MyDream Project 

- 21st Century teacher 

training 

- Intelligent Global Hub 

MISSION 3: 

Building SEL 

for Educators 

MISSION 4: 

Advancing the 

Science-Policy nexus 

for Education 

- 21 st Century teacher 

training MISSION 4: - ISEAA 

- Intelligent Global Advancing Hub the - TECH 

for Digital Pedagogies Science-Policy nexus - Research Publications 

- Rethinking Pedagogy: for Education & policy briefs 

Exploring the potential - Distinguished lectures 

of technology in 

achieving quality 

education 

- YESPeace 

- ISEAA 

- #YouthWagingPeace 

- TECH 

- TAG e . 

for Digital Pedagogies - Research Publications 

- World Youth UNESCO Conference MGIEP’S EMC- Rethinking 2 framework Pedagogy: I FramerSpace - Digital & policy Learning briefsPlatform 

- #KindnessMattersforSDGs 

- Distinguished lectures 

Exploring the potential 

of technology in 

achieving quality 

education 

UNESCO MGIEP’S EMC 2 framework I FramerSpace - Digital Learning Platform


The concept of 

co-creation, teacher 

and student agency 

has become a reality 

with the launch of 

this platform. 

2019 was a particularly significant year for the 

Institute. It marked the 150 th year birth anniversary of 

the Mahatma Gandhi and also the end of the First 

Operational Agreement between UNESCO and the 

Government of India (GOI). I am pleased to share that 

negotiations for the Second Operational Agreement 

were finalised in 2019 with the GOI, and a request to 

increase the annual contribution from USD 2.4 million 

to USD 3.5 million was accepted by the Government 

for the period 2020-2024. 

2019 also saw the Institute 

establish itself as one 

of the leading research 

centers in developing SEL 

competencies for Global 

Citizenship, Sustainable 

Development and Peace. 

I believe the increase in funding is a testament to the 

work undertaken by the Institute and the impact it 

has made since its operations commenced in 2014. In 

addition, the search for a permanent premise for the 

Institute reached a conclusion after a five year period. 

I am pleased to share that the Ministry of Human 

Resources Development (MHRD) under the leadership 

of Honourable Minister, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 

‘Nishank,’ allocated two-acres of land on the campus of 

the world-renowned Jawaharlal Nehru University in the 

heart of Delhi. 

This impact would not have been possible without 

the development of MGIEP’s indigenously designed 

curriculum development and learning digital platform, 

FramerSpace (framerspace.com) 

Unlike other learning platforms, FramerSpace allows 

teachers and students to develop their own curriculum 

and lesson modules. The concept of co-creation, 

teacher and student agency has become a reality 

with the launch of this platform. The dependency on 

external sources for curricula can now finally be broken. 

Curriculum that can be easily adapted and revised as 

new knowledge comes online. 

2019 also saw the Institute establish itself as one 

of the leading research centers in developing SEL 

competencies for Global Citizenship, Sustainable 

Development and Peace. The Institute’s unique issues 

based approach to SEL using the EMC 2 (Empathy, 

Mindfulness, Compassion, Critical Inquiry) framework 

gained traction with now more than 2,000 students 

using the modules and more than 400 teachers trained 

in 10 countries. The Institute through its learning 

experience and experimentation has identified three 

major SEL categories targeted at different learner age 

categories ranging from the Primer for grades 1 to 5, 

Explorer for grades 6 to 8 and Master for grades 9 

to 12. I urge and encourage you to check out these 

courses on the FramerSpace platform. 

Teacher capacity building is essential for scaling up 

digital pedagogies and SEL. This is why the Institute 

invested heavily over the past year in reviewing 

the existing teacher training material for digital 

pedagogies and in listening to teachers. Using 

this valuable information, we have initiated the 

development of a unique online training manual 

on digital pedagogy that is outcome driven. Unlike 

many existing teacher training modules, the MGIEP 

modules focus on building the skills to undertake 

essential and critical online activities. These range 

from intelligent web search tools to development of 

presentations with hyperlinks to online resources and 

development of a curriculum from the basics. We hope 

to begin rolling out this course in 2020. 

The 2019 Ahinsa lecture held in October at the 

UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, explored the use 

of a hologram of a life-sized Gandhi having a discourse 

with a panel of distinguished experts. The insights of 

Gandhi on education are as relevant today as they 

were during his time. Gandhi’s assertion was that skills 

and competencies for the workforce should only be 

secondary while developing the whole human being for 

her / his flourishing must be the key goal of education. It 

was a fitting message indeed for UNESCO as it starts its 

Futures of Education initiative. 

Further, the Institute with support from the Government of 

Quebec, organised an exploratory workshop to undertake 

an International Science and Evidence Based Education 

Assessment. I am pleased to report that the Assessment is 

now underway and we hope to have preliminary results in 

early March 2021. The results will provide the science and 

evidence component of the Futures of Education initiative. 

Last but not least, our annual TECH conference attracted 

well over 1,000 participants with over 45 experts sharing 

their experiences, views and insights on topics ranging 

from AI in education to gaming and SEL in classrooms. 

TECH is beginning to be recognised as the “go to” place 

for training on digital pedagogies and SEL. Capacity 

building workshops were held over two days, attracting 

over 300 teachers. The annual one day policy forum with 

invited representatives from Member States started to take 

a more formal structure with the agreement to establish 

a policy forum group which would work together to share 

best experiences, challenges and ways to move forward in 

the area of digital pedagogies and SEL. 

I am confident that the Institute will scale its impact in 

the future and continue to contribute to the SDG 4.7 as it 

commences its Second Operational Agreement. I would 

like to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to 

the MHRD, Government of India and in particular to the 

Honourable Minister Shri Pokhriyal for the continued 

support extended to the Institute.


Richard Davidson 

William James and Vilas Research Professor 

of Psychology and Psychiatry and Founder 

& Director of the Center for Healthy Minds, 

University of Wisconsin-Madison 

Aiko Doden 

NHK World Senior Editor / Special Affairs 

Commentator 

Kristian Berg Harpviken 

Research Professor, Peace Research Institute 

Oslo (PRIO), Norway 

Jagmohan Singh Rajput 

India’s Representative to Executive Board of 

UNESCO and Chairperson, Governing Board, 

UNESCO MGIEP 

Peter Rhee 

Deputy Managing Director & Corporate 

Vice President Chief Relations Office (CRO) 

Samsung India Electronics (SIEL) 

The unique blend of cutting-edge science and practical 

orientation that characterizes MGIEP is more needed than 

ever. Still a youngster, MGIEP has established itself as a global 

leader in promoting education for sustainable, peaceful 

and tolerant societies. Its contributions to renewing are 

remarkable, yet there is reason to expect even more in the 

years ahead. I am humbled by the achievements of the MGIEP 

team, and I feel privileged to be serving on the MGIEP board. 

- Kristian Berg Harpviken 

MGIEP has made commendable progress in promoting social 

and emotional learning through innovative digital pedagogy. 

The year 2019 has been especially significant as the 150 th birth 

anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi. Through events like 

the ‘First World Youth Conference on Kindness’ in New Delhi 

and the Ahinsa Lecture in Paris, MGIEP has worked to reinforce 

the values of love and compassion that Gandhi stood for. 

And now, as the world faces one of the gravest pandemics 

of recent times, there is no denying the importance of these 

values in achieving goals of development, peace and well 

being. As MGIEP enters into its second term of five years from 

2020, the Ministry of Human Resource Development takes 

this opportunity to wish the institute every success in its future 

endeavours. 

- Amit Khare 

Sonia Bashir Kabir 

Advisor for the Federation of Bangladesh 

Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) 

Founder & Chairman SBK Tech Ventures and 

SBK Foundation 

Mohan Munasinghe 

Former Vice-Chair of Intergovernmental 

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and 

Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute for 

Development, Sri Lanka 

Sangay Zam 

Former Secretary to the Ministry of 

Education, Bhutan 

Amit Khare (Ex-officio Member) 

Secretary, MHRD; 

Secretary General, Indian National 

Commission for cooperation with UNESCO 

I am impressed with the activities launched successfully by 

MGIEP, under the able leadership of the Director, Dr. Anantha 

Duraiappah. Our goals and work programme are timely and 

relevant. Key activities of the Institute focusing on social and 

emotional learning are even more important to bring about 

the ethical and community-supportive behaviours needed 

to meet the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Good teamwork will 

ensure success. It is my privilege to contribute, through MGIEP, 

to prosperity, peace and sustainable development along a 

balanced inclusive green growth (BIGG) path. 

- Mohan Munasinghe 

ASEAN has adopted, in November 2017, the ASEAN 

Declaration on Culture of Prevention for a Peaceful, Inclusive, 

Resilient, Healthy and Harmonious Society focusing on a 

preventive approach and inculcating shared values of peace, 

intercultural understanding, inclusiveness and diversity, to 

name some. The works of MGIEP, especially through online 

platforms targeting youths, are of great importance to 

contribute to such efforts not only in ASEAN but around the 

globe. I am honored to be part of MGIEP. 

- Sriprapha Petcharamesree 

Roza Otunbayeva 

Former President, Kyrgyzstan 

Sriprapha Petcharamesree 

Senior lecturer and chair of PhD studies in 

Human Rights and Peace Studies at Institute 

of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Mahidol 

University 

N.V. Varghese (Ex-officio Member) 

Vice Chancellor, NIEPA 

Anantha K. Duraiappah (Secretary to the 

Board) 

Director, UNESCO MGIEP 

The world-wide pandemic that we are now facing has 

made it abundantly clear that the Institute’s bold vision 

of transforming education through social and emotional 

learning and through innovative digital pedagogies - is what 

will be required to emerge in the post-COVID-19 world as a 

stronger, more resilient and sustainable global society. With 

every crisis, there is an opportunity and MGIEP’s vision for 

transforming education for humanity, will take on higher 

precedence on the global agenda. I am proud to be a part of 

this movement. 

- Peter Rhee 

Globally, Academia is focusing on building cognitive strengths 

and leveraging technology in tandem. The fact that recent 

neuroscience research shows students need to be aware and 

emotionally connected before they can learn, gives MGIEP 

the opportunity to redefine the traditional education system. 

Under the competent leadership of Dr. Anantha Duraiappah, 

I am confident MGIEP will not only successfully address 

SDG 4.7, but will also bring about a major paradigm shift in 

learning protocols, mindfulness, and encourage the practice of 

compassion. 

- Sonia Bashir Kabir


Mission 1: 

Building Social and Emotional Skills for 

Learners (K-12 school children through 

formal education) 

Mission 2: 

Building Social and Emotional Skills for 

Youth and Prevention of Violent 

Extremism through Education (PVE-E) 

Mission 3: 

Building Social and 

Emotional Skills 

for Educators 

Mission 4: 

Advancing the Science - Policy Nexus 

for Education


MISSION 

1 

BUILDING SOCIAL AND 

EMOTIONAL SKILLS FOR 

LEARNERS (K-12 SCHOOL 

CHILDREN THROUGH FORMAL 

EDUCATION)


Grand Challenge: 

Using evidence 

from the science of 

learning to enable 

1.8 billion young 

learners to catalyse 

transformative 

shifts in how to 

learn in the digital 

age to be able to live 

together peacefully 

and sustainably 

on a planet under 

pressure. 

MISSION 

ACHIEVED: 2019 

AREAS OF 

INTEREST AND 

CROSS-SECTORAL 

COLLABORATIONS 

INITIATIVES/ 

PROJECTS 

Mainstream Social and Emotional Skills in 

education systems by building capacities 

of 5,000 Master Trainers across Member 

States by 2025 

Conducted pilots in 10 Member States, training 2,000 learners 

TECHNOLOGY 

Ed-Tech: Selfpaced, 

immersive, 

multimodal 

Industry partners 

Global 

Citizenship 

Curriculum 

DICE 

DIGITISATION 

Maturity of 

e-schools 

MyDream 

Project 

ON-LINE LEARNING 

Digital skills 

Capacity building 

Games for 

Learning 

INTELLIGENT DIGITAL 

LEARNING PLATFORM 

Adoption of MGIEP’s 

Digital platform by Member 

States 

FramerSpace


APPROACH 

Cognitive neuroscience 

research has shown that a 

significant part of our learning 

occurs due to a neurobiological 

process called ‘neuroplasticity’, 

which is the capacity of the 

brain to rewire in response 

to the environment. Scientific 

research also establishes 

that since no two brains are 

identical, learning needs to 

‘individualised’ as much as 

possible. 

It is in light of these findings that 

UNESCO MGIEP has designed its 

approach for learners. The Institute works 

on the premise that education needs 

to include the learning of skills through 

which individuals recognize and regulate 

emotions, identify a positive purpose, 

demonstrate empathy for others, and 

take constructive action to promote 

human flourishing.


KEY INITIATIVES 

& OUTPUTS 

DICE: DIGITAL 

CULTURAL EXCHANGE 

In 2019, DICE was implemented in 6 countries for 900 

children. Further, 165 teachers in 7 countries were 

trained in the dialogic approach. 

GLOBAL 

CITIZENSHIP 

DICE is UNESCO MGIEP’s digital 

cultural exchange project that connects 

students (between the ages of 12-15) 

and teachers across the world and 

facilitates engagement between them 

on issues of global importance related 

to peace and sustainable development. 

The project is designed to promote 

peer-to-peer dialogue based learning 

as an alternative pedagogical tool 

at the school level. By fostering 

collaborative learning and facilitating 

interactions amongst a culturally 

diverse group of learners, DICE helps 

build key social and emotional learning 

skills amongst students. 

The ‘Global Citizenship’ curriculum 

aims to achieve the goal of sustainable 

and peaceful societies as outlined in 

SDG 4.7 through a digital curriculum 

on Global Citizenship Education, with a 

focus on development of key SEL skills. 

The curriculum has been specifically 

designed for adolescents in the age 

group of 12-14 years, understanding 

the neuroscience and psychology 

of how an adolescent brain learns. 

Further, the course adopts Freire’s 

“problem-posing” approach in the 

classroom, which allows learning to 

be driven by the learner’s inquiry and 

guided through everyday words that 

have a direct connection to students’ 

lives. The curriculum comprises five 

modules and integrates the following 

five pedagogies: 1) storytelling; 2) 

gamification; 3) inquiry; 4) reflection; 

and 5) dialogue to create a multisensory, 

rewarding, interactive, and engaging 

learning experience. 

o In 2019, the curriculum was developed and implemented 

on the Institute’s indigenously developed learning platform, 

FramerSpace, in three countries (Bhutan, South Africa and 

India) for 750 students. 

o Further, 230+ teachers from seven countries (Afghanistan, 

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka and South 

Africa) were trained to guide students to undertake the 

GC course

GAMES 

FOR LEARNING 

Increasingly, studies indicate the strong 

pedagogical properties games have 

for learning. The use of games for 

teaching mathematics, sciences and 

the humanities is becoming part of the 

educational landscape. In parallel, there 

has been a surge in game development 

for teaching social and emotional learning 

skills. Further, games are being used in 

assessments and evaluation of student 

learning. UNESCO MGIEP, through its 

Games for Learning project seeks to 

embed social and emotional learning skills 

in learners (13+) through digital games in 

formal and informal education systems, in 

order to achieve the UN SDG 4.7. 

• In 2019, the Institute designed a digital SEL curriculum for its 

indigenously developed game, World Rescue. Additionally, SEL 

Learning Modules were designed for four existing “commercialoff-the-shelf” 

games, titled Bury Me My Love, Gris, This War Of 

Mine And Florence, all of which are available on FramerSpace. 

• Teachers from 8 universities in 6 countries (India, Bangladesh, 

Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Japan) were trained to implement 

and pilot test Cantor’s World, a game designed to educate 

teachers and learners about the Inclusive Wealth Index. 

• In collaboration with the Communication and Information 

and Education sectors of UNESCO, the Permanent Delegation 

of Finland, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, 

Government of India and its key technology partners, Samsung, 

India and Hatch Entertainment Global, the Institute set up 

a Gaming Zone at the 40 th 2019 UNESCO General Conference 

in Paris, France for 11 days. This initiative was a part of 

Media Information Literacy and Digital Gaming side event 

at the General Conference and saw attendance and hands on 

experience by over 200 participants. 

• At the 40 th 2019 UNESCO General Conference, the Draft 

Guidelines for Digital Learning Applications were launched by 

the Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of 

India, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’. The Draft Guidelines 

were developed to identify digital learning experiences that 

would support and assist developers, designers, students, 

teachers, parents and administrators—in their efforts to 

develop or select high-quality, credible, and appropriate gaming 

and digital learning applications. 


MYDREAM PROJECT 

In response to the Ministry of Human Resource 

Development, Government of India’s request 

to reduce stress and depression among young 

learners, in 2018, UNESCO MGIEP designed 

a two year research pilot to use project based 

and social emotional leaning interventions, 

facilitated by digital pedagogies. This project 

was conducted in collaboration with a unique 

network of over 500 residential, regional 

government schools for grades 6-12. Further, 

Samsung India provided the technology 

and funding through a grant to support the 

study. A final report assessing whether these 

interventions significantly achieved reduction 

of curriculum stress and improved learning 

outcomes will be made available at the end of 

the two year pilot, in 2020.


MISSION 

2 


EMOTIONAL SKILLS FOR 

YOUTH AND PREVENTION OF 

VIOLENT EXTREMISM THROUGH 

EDUCATION (PVE-E)



In recent years, 

the world has been 

facing the rise of 

intolerance, hate, 

and extremism 

– and, these 

attacks cut across 

religions, race, 

politics and other 

social or economic 

demographics. The 

youth needs critical 

solutions and 

coping mechanisms 

to address such 

grave issues. 

MISSION 


AREAS OF 

INTEREST AND 



INITIATIVES/ 

PROJECTS 

Build Social and Emotional skills in 10,000 

youth in 27 Member States by 2025 

1,000+ Youth trained in SEL in 27 Member States; 7,300+ 

#KindnessMatters stories from 120+ countries collected; 

PVE-E whole community approach implemented in 4 

Member States 

Informal Education; 

Youth and 

Community led 

initiatives 

#YouthWaging 

Peace 

YESPEace 

Curated Online and 

face to face dialogue 

between youth and 

experts 

TAG e 

World Youth 

Conference 

#KindnessMatters 

Tertiary Education, 

Partnership 

Life University 

QUALITY; EDTECH 

Digital SEL++ 

curriculum 

FUNDING 

Governments and 

sector wise support 

Capacity 

Building 

workshops


APPROACH 

Research reveals that humans 

are both kind and generous 

as a species. Accumulating 

evidence now supports the 

hypothesis that the roots 

of kindness are embedded 

in biological evolution and 

prosocial behavior or actions 

that benefit others have been 

reported not only in humans 

but in other species as well. 

The evolutionary basis for 

cooperation, compassion and 

kindness is predicated on 

reciprocity. 

Neuroscience research investigating 

primary reasons for engaging in pro 

social behavior indicates deliberate or 

intentional acts of kindness, including 

acting generously not only activates 

“reward circuits” in the brain but also 

offers the promise of happier societies 

and human flourishing. 

UNESCO MGIEP firmly believes the youth 

are capable agents of change, social 

transformation, peace and sustainable 

development. The UNESCO MGIEP Youth 

Programme in 2019 worked towards 

amplifying youth voices by providing them 

with a global platform and by empowering 

youth through training in SEL skills to effect 

behavioral change.



& OUTPUTS 

• In 2019, the YESPeace network 

(focused on building partnerships 

to equip youth with SEL skills 

through campaigns, policy dialogues 

and capacity-building dialogues), 

developed a comprehensive 

online SEL course for youth. The 

Institute entered into a partnership 

agreement with the Life University 

Center for Compassion, Integrity 

and Secular Ethics (USA) to adapt 

the Compassionate Integrity Training 

(CIT) course for FramerSpace. A 

training of trainers was conducted 

through a 3-day workshop for 60 

youth organisation representatives 

from 27 countries on CIT on Social 

and Emotional skills. 

• The Institute launched the 

#KindnessMatters global campaign 

that aims to mobilise young 

people to carry out transformative 

acts of kindness to tackle the SDGs 

and create a positive culture of 

kindness. In 2019, more than 7,300 

stories from 120+ countries were 

collected of youth undertaking 

courageous and transformative acts 

of kindness to achieve the SDGs 

• In partnership with O.P. 

Jindal and Darshan Samiti, the 

first World Youth Conference 

on Kindness for the SDGs was 

organised in New Delhi, India, on the 

theme of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: 

Gandhi for the Contemporary World’. 

The Conference celebrated the 150 th 

birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi 

and was held from August 20 – 23, 

2019, seeing over 1,000 youth in 

attendance. 

• The #YouthWagingPeace project 

aims to build capacities of youth 

(particularly in the Asia-Pacific region) 

to implement Prevention of Violent 

Extremism through education (PVE-E) 

activities in their respective countries. 

Through the #YouthWagingPeace 

project, in 2019, 200+ youth leaders 

were trained from 35+ countries. 

The Whole Community Approach to 

PVE-E was implemented in Canada 

through The Centre for Prevention of 

Radicalization Leading to Violence 

(CPRLV); Sri Lanka (with Sri Lanka 

Unites NGO); India (youth-led); and 

Jordan/MENA Region (ActionAid 

Arab Region). 

The Institute launched the 

#KindnessMatters global 

campaign that aims to mobilise 

young people to carry out 

transformative acts of kindness 

to tackle the SDGs and create 

a positive culture of kindness. 

In 2019, more than 7,300 stories 

from 120+ countries were 

collected of youth undertaking 

courageous and transformative 

acts of kindness to achieve the 

SDGs.


MISSION 

3 


EMOTIONAL SKILLS 

FOR EDUCATORS



MISSION 

Provide learning opportunities to develop 

foundation, intermediate and advanced 

digital skills for 500 21 st Century teachers 

Build capacity 

and equip both inservice 

and new 

teachers on the 

usage of digital 

resources as a key 

learning tool in the 

education systems 

of Member States 


AREAS OF 

INTEREST AND 



Trained 400 teachers as Digital Instructional Designers 

Curricula / Skills sets 

Research and 

development 

Regional associations 

and networks 

IMPLEMENTATION 

PARTNERS 

Strengthening Digital 

Ecosystems 

Institutional 

Development 

Intelligent Digital 

Learning Platform 

TECHNOLOGY TO 

NETWORK 

21 st 

Century 

Teacher Training 

Curriculum 

Programmes 

for Digital 

Instruction for 

teachers 

Intelligent 

Global Hub 

for Digital 

Pedagogies 

FramerSpace 

INITIATIVES/ 

PROJECTS


APPROACH 

Teachers are increasingly 

expected to employ integrated 

technology practices in their 

classrooms to help students 

learn better. Furthermore, 

teachers act as planners, 

initiators, climate builders, 

facilitators and guides, and 

are central to interpreting and 

implementing any curriculum. 

Investing in teacher training 

and development becomes 

imperative. 

In 2019, MGIEP worked on projects 

to integrate digital dimensions to 

educational materials to impart 

effective teacher training experiences. 

The Institute’s aim is to prepare 

teachers for the 21 st century and 

to provide a precursor to facilitate 

meaningful change towards integrated 

digital education media (techbook), 

which allow interactive and 

multisensory learning.



& OUTPUTS 

• Launched ”Rethinking 

Pedagogy: Exploring the potential 

of Technology in Achieving 

Quality Education” at the 2019 

40 th UNESCO General Conference 

in Paris, France. Based on the 

literature review, mapping of digital 

education resources in circulation, 

and examples of implementation 

of digital education initiatives from 

around the world, this report aims to 

provide insights that would help lead 

to the wise, innovative and ethical use 

of digital technology in education as 

a new dimension in achieving SDG 

4 — inclusive and equitable quality 

education and lifelong learning 

opportunities for all. The report can 

be accessed at 

https://mgiep.unesco.org 

• UNESCO MGIEP provided 

thought leadership in helping 

to set up and bring together 

stakeholders for the Intelligent Global 

Hub for Digital Pedagogies (IGHDP) 

under its strategic collaboration with 

the State Government of Andhra 

Pradesh. IGHDP seeks to create a 

global research driven ecosystem to 

build quality education technology 

learning resources that can contribute 

to mainstreaming SEL in education 

systems. The Government of Andhra 

Pradesh allocated land and agreed 

to a grant of USD 40 million for the 

creation of this Hub by passing a 

legislative Act. 

• In line with its 21 st Century 

Teacher Training initiative, a 

teacher training curriculum is being 

designed to prepare educators 

for 21 st century digital skills and 

enable them to integrate digital 

technologies for new age classrooms. 

As part of the this initiative, 200 hours 

of digital teaching learning modules 

will be available by December 

2020 on FramerSpace. The State 

Government of Andhra Pradesh 

in India has agreed to make this 

curriculum mandatory for its Bachelor 

of Education course.


MISSION 

4 

ADVANCING SCIENCE-POLICY 

NEXUS FOR EDUCATION


Existing education 

systems do not 

take into account 

the whole brain 

approach to 

learning that allows 

for the emotional 

and intellectual 

brain to be trained 

for deeper learning. 

Educational policies 

need to emphasize 

on the critical need 

to include training 

of the emotional 

as well as the 

intellectual brain. 

MISSION 


AREAS OF 

INTEREST AND 



INITIATIVES/ 

PROJECTS 

Ensure that education policy based on 

evidence from the science of learning 

becomes the bedrock of designing learning 

experiences in 3 Member States 

In process of negotiation with several Member States to 

incorporate digital pedagogies for SEL in 

mainstream education. 

SEL Frameworks 

and Policy Guidance 

through evidence 

based science 

ISEEA 

Regional associations 

and networks 

TECH 

Distinguished 

Lecturess 

Building communities 

and outreach 

Governments and 

Sector-wide support 

FramerSpace 


Research and Foresight 

Institute 

Publications


APPROACH 

As the intellectual agency 

of the United Nations, 

UNESCO champions a 

humanistic vision of 

education – a principle 

captured in SDG 4.7 

The Institute plays an 

important advisory 

role to Member States 

by formulating policy 

recommendations and 

actions emanating 

from our project-based 

interventions and 

research. 

UNESCO MGIEP believes that if the 

world has to achieve the SDGs by 

2030, then a drastic shift is required 

in our approach to global issues. This 

transformation can only come about 

with a new kind of education, one that 

is rooted in critical inquiry, compassion, 

mindfulness and emotional well-being 

of individuals.



& OUTPUTS 

As a Category 1 research 

institute focusing on education 

for peace and sustainable 

development, MGIEP 

contributes to redefining the 

purpose of education through 

the review and assessment 

of education policy and 

practice in the context of 

SDG 4.7 implementation. The 

Institute coordinates with 

Member States for policy 

recommendations based 

on research and reviews to 

advance progress on SDG 4.7. 

Key Initiatives include (1) ISEEA 

(2) Rethinking Learning: A 

review of Social and Emotional 

Learning for Education 

Systems (3) Outreach events 

(4) FramerSpace (5) Institute 

Publications 

• Rethinking Learning: A review 

of Social and Emotional Learning 

for Education Systems MGIEP 

conducted an assessment of the state 

of SEL frameworks to provide the latest 

scientifically credible insights in order 

to support the explicit addition of SEL 

in school curricula. The proliferation 

of SEL frameworks required a critical 

science and evidence-based review of 

the literature as SEL frameworks are 

increasingly being adopted by Member 

States within their education systems. 

Towards this, MGIEP completed the SEL 

Thematic Review in December 2019. 

The publication will be launched on 

Nelson Mandela Day, 2020. 

• ISEEA: UNESCO MGIEP contributes to 

UNESCO’s Future of Education initiative, 

launched at the UN General Assembly 

in October 2019, by undertaking a 

scientifically robust and evidence-based 

assessment that can inform education 

policy at all levels. The International 

Science and Evidence based Education 

Assessment (ISEEA) held its first drafting 

meeting with 30 scientists from 15 

countries in September 2019 in Quebec. 

The assessment is expected to be 

released at the 2021 UNESCO General 

Conference. 

• TECH: The Institute organised its flagship 

annual event, titled the Transforming 

Education Conference for Humanity (TECH) 

with the State Government of Andhra 

Pradesh and MHRD, GOI. The international 

conference on digital pedagogies was held 

in Visakhapatnam City, State of Andhra 

Pradesh, India and has over the years made 

its mark as a digital content rich, pedagogy 

driven conference that brings together over 

1,000 educators, students, policy makers, 

researchers from 50 different countries to 

share research and best practices. 

• FramerSpace: UNESCO MGIEP’s 

indigenously developed intelligent digital 

platform, FramerSpace, enables creation of 

innovative digital pedagogies that promote 

SEL and empower the youth. FramerSpace 

is an AI-powered digital platform that helps 

draw learnings from tasks that Artificial 

Intelligence does well, to ‘HOW’ to teach 

& consequently learn. It helps Curriculum 

Designers, Policymakers, Content Developers, 

Teachers, and Students rethink how 

knowledge and intelligence can be imparted 

in the 21 st century. FramerSpace was launched 

as an Open-source platform in November 

2019 at the AI & Blockchain Developer 

Summit in Malta. The platform was rolled out 

as a pilot in 12 countries and currently has 

more than 4,000 registered users. Further, 

the platform is General Data Protection 

Regulation (GDPR) and Children’s Online 

Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) compliant. 

The Institute is now in advanced stages of 

negotiating the adoption of FramerSpace as 

the National Digital Learning Platform with 

several Member States.


• Academic Publications and Policy Briefs: 

UNESCO MGIEP publishes policy briefs 

to present a concise summary or relevant 

research interventions to assist researchers, 

policy makers and educators in making 

informed decisions about education policies 

and practice. 

• In 2019, two Policy Briefs were 

published, including: 

o Rethinking Schooling for the 21 st century: 

Analysing how far the ideals of SDG 4.7 are 

embodied in policies and curricula across 

22 Asian countries, this study establishes 

benchmarks against which future progress can be 

assessed. It also argues forcefully that we must 

redefine the purposes of schooling, addressing 

the fundamental challenges to efforts to promote 

peace, sustainability and global citizenship 

through education. 

o #YouthWagingPeace: Youth should take 

centre on PVE-E: Based on UNESCO MGIEP’s 

#YouthWagingPeace (2017), an entirely youthled 

guide on Prevention of Violent Extremism 

through Education (PVE-E), built on uncensored 

voices and reflections of global youth on 

PVE-E, the Policy Brief on #YouthWagingPeace 

comprises a set of actionable guidelines for 

policymakers and other key stakeholders. 

• Further, four peer reviewed publications 

were released, including: 

-Sen and Freire Re-examined. A. Gupta, N.C. Singh 

and A.K. Duraiappah (2019). Education for Humanity , 

edited by Carlos Torres, published by Springer 

-Libre-Nourish the Brain So the Future Can Flourish, 

R. Rautela and N.C Singh (2019). Childhood Education, 

95:5 34-43 

-Games-based Socio-Emotional Skills Assessment: 

A comparison across three cultures Irava, V.Pathak, 

A., DeRosier, M. and Singh, N.C., (2019) Journal of 

Education Technology Systems Vol. 48(1), 51071, 2019 

-On the design of a youth led, issue-based, 

crowdsourced Global Monitoring Framework for the 

SDGs, Mohanty S.P., Ramaswamy, R., Duraiappah, A.k., 

(219). Sustainability (accepted) 

• Distinguished Lectures: UNESCO 

MGIEP invites leading intellectuals and 

policymakers as part of its Distinguished & 

Ahinsa Lectures Series to spark discussions 

about how transformative education can 

contribute to a peaceful and sustainable 

future, inclusive spaces and global citizens. 

In 2019, UNESCO MGIEP organised a 

Distinguished Lecture in New Delhi, India and 

an Ahinsa dialogue in Paris, France. 

o In UNESCO MGIEP’s ninth Distinguished 

Lecture held at The Auditorium, India 

International Centre, New Delhi, India, 

Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, Applied 

Developmental Psychologist and a Professor in 

the Human Development, Learning, and Culture 

area in the Department of Educational and 

Counselling Psychology, and Special Education 

in the Faculty of Education at the University of 

British Columbia (UBC), discussed how children’s 

social and emotional well-being can be cultivated 

through evidence-based programs and practical 

approaches. The lecture was attended by almost 

two-hundred participants, including teachers, 

educators, students / researchers and academics 

of early childhood education, practitioners 

of social and emotional learning (SEL) and 

psychologists, amongst others. 

o In celebration of the 150 th birth anniversary 

of Mahatma Gandhi, the Institute organised 

a unique intervention by creating a life size 

hologram of Gandhi at UNESCO Headquarters, 

Paris, France on October 1, 2019. The hologram 

conducted conversation with scientists and policy 

makers and engaged in a dialogue on what 

constitutes true education, the role of teachers, 

and how education should be made relevant 

and fun. Gandhi’s hologram exchanged views 

with Gregoire Borst, Professor of Developmental 

Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience of 

Education, CNRS and Vera El Khoury Lacoeuilhe, 

Member of Advisory Board of UNESCO MGIEP’s 

TECH 2019. Anantha Duraiappah, Director, 

UNESCO MGIEP, moderated the discussion 

about the importance of Gandhi’s philosophy 

of education for human flourishing. The event 

attracted various stakeholders, including 

youth, educators, academics, policy-makers, 

and delegates from several member states of 

UNESCO. The talk was livestreamed and saw 

participation by over 10,000 viewers. 

• The Blue DOT: THE Blue DOT features 

articles showcasing UNESCO MGIEP’s 

activities and areas of interest. The magazine’s 

overarching theme is the relationship 

between education, peace, sustainable 

development and global citizenship. THE Blue 

DOT’s role is to engage with readers on these 

issues in a fun and interactive manner. The 

magazine is designed to address audiences 

across generations and walks of life, thereby 

taking the discourse on education for 

peace, sustainable development and global 

citizenship beyond academia, civil society 

organisations and governments, to the actual 

stakeholders. THE Blue DOT is published 

biannually and the e-publications are available 

for download / reading: 

https://mgiep.unesco.org/the-bluedot 

- In 2019, the tenth issue of the publication 

was released officially at the first World Youth 

Conference on Kindness for the SDGs by the 

President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind. The 

tenth issue focused on Social and Emotional 

Learning and included expert perspectives 

and youth voices on SEL and the importance of 

introducing these skills in our education systems. 

- The year also saw the launch of Issue Eleven, 

focused on the power of Kindness – as the 

force that will help us achieve the Sustainable 

Development Goals.


REVENUE 

EXPENSE 

18% 

C 

4% 

D 

E 

11% 

Revenues by sources 

A 

Voluntary contributions- Government of India 

11.31% 

C 

Cost Element Wise Cash 

Expenditure Utilisation 

B 

Voluntary contributions- Others 

A 

Programme 

10% 

B 

A 

C 

D 

In kind contribution 

Other revenues 

B 

A 

53.93% 

B 

C 

Staffing 

Support 

E 

UNESCO financial allocation 

34.76% 

58% 

The main financial contributors to the Institute over 

the years have been the Government of India and 

UNESCO. In 2019, the primary contributor to the Institute 

was the Government of India, providing 58% of the total 

revenue. Additionally, the Institute received voluntary and 

In-kind contributions, representing 28% 

of the total revenue. 

During the year, the Institute also received contributions 

from UNESCO, representing 11% 

of the total revenue. 

Further, in 2019, the Institute received the last tranche (i.e. 

balance contribution under the First Operational 

Agreement) from the Government of India, which was 

only 56% of regular yearly contribution. This resulted in an 

overall decrease in revenue by 30% as against 2018 result. 

During the year, the Institute 

also received contributions 

from UNESCO, representing 

11% of the total revenue. 

Total expenditure increased by 

3% compared to the year 2018. 

This was mainly on account of 

an increase in employee benefit 

expenses as additional employees 

were appointed during the year 

2019.


GOVERNMENTS 

• Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India 

• Ministry of Culture, Government of India 

• Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sport, Government of India 

• The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government of Australia 

• State Government of Sikkim, India 

• State Government of Andhra Pradesh, India 

• The Government of Quebec 

CONTENT & KNOWLEDGE PARTNERS 

• ThinQ 

• Hatch Games 

• Lagori games 

• School Skies 

• Learning Curve 

• Makers Empire 

• Chimple 

• BiBox Labs 

• Leadership for Equity 

• AIMXCEL Innovative Solutions 

• Happy Adda Kettle Mind 

• Neet Prep 

• Learner.In 

• Life University 

• CCISE 

• GITAM 

• LAPsyDE 

• Center for Healthy Minds 

• iThrive 

• Games for Change 

• Pi Jam Foundation 

• LXL Ideas 

• Anisha Global School 

• Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti 

TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS 

• Headai 

• Touchdown Gurus 

• Digital Legends 

• Rapyder 

• Amazon Web Services 

• Samsung India Pvt. Ltd 

CORPORATES 

• Grant Thornton India 

• Microsoft India Pvt Ltd 

• HP India Pvt Ltd 

• Dell India Pvt Ltd 

• Adobe India Pvt Ltd 

FOUNDATIONS 

• Engagement Global gGmbH 

• SEAMEO RECSAM (South East Asian Ministers of 

Education Organisation Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics) 

• Orkids Foundation 

YOUTH ORGANISATIONS 

• Activate Change Drivers 

• Africa Unite 

• Jaago Foundation 

• Standing Together to Enable Peace (STEP) 

• Untouched World New Zealand 

• Vijana Assembly 

• Free the Mind 

• Africa Unite 

• Pravaah 

• Commutiny Youth Collectiive 

• Centre for Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence 

• ActionAid Arab Region 

• Words Heal The World 

UNIVERSITIES 

• Rhodes University 

• Nagoya University Japan 

• Life University 

• OP Jindal University 

• Rubika India University 

• University of British Columbia 

• University of Wisconsin 

• University of Montreal Quebec

design: pmdindia.in

UNESCO MGIEP's Annual Report 2019

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