The closing ceremony of the International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) takes place today in Jena, Germany.
The International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) – jointly proclaimed by the International Social Science Council (ISSC), International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH) and the International Council for Science (ICSU) – on the basis of a UNESCO resolution at the 2015 World Social Science Forum in Durban, South Africa, is today celebrating its closing ceremony. The involvement of the ISSC, ICSU and CIPSH in IYGU underwrites broad collaboration across the social and natural sciences and the humanities, from across disciplinary boundaries and from all around the world. IYGU was and is the first major common project of the three Science Councils.
2017 is a year to harvest the benefits of the IYGU. The half-day closing ceremony will wrap up this successful and event-packed international year with a showcase of the year’s highlights. At the same time, the organizers will outline possible scenarios for a fruitful continuation of all the IYGU’s important achievements. The two keynote speakers, Klaus Töpfer, former UNEP Executive Director, and Carlos Torres, UNESCO Chair on Global Learning and Global Citizenship Education at UCLA, will be joined at the closing ceremony by senior representatives of UNESCO and the three international science councils.