The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in 1945 after the Second World War to help create lasting peace based on the “intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.” Its goal is to strengthen our shared humanity by promoting education, science, culture, and communication. UNESCO works to achieve this by developing educational tools, preserving cultural heritage, promoting equal dignity among cultures, addressing social and ethical challenges, and running scientific programs and policies. UNESCO plays an important role in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education. Over the years, UNESCO has carried out projects with themes like science for sustainable development initiatives, education for a brighter future, 3D technology to digitally preserve heritage sites, and bolstering cultural industries (e.g., African film programs). The organization helps shape policies, set international standards, encourage cooperation, and build the capacities of member states in education. UNESCO is committed to building peace, ending poverty, and promoting intercultural dialogue through education, science, and culture.

UNESCO created the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) in 1975 to address both current and future water challenges. As the world faces floods, droughts, and other environmental threats that limit stable access to clean drinking water, there is a growing need to address inequalities in access to clean water. There are large disparities in water infrastructure by geography (e.g., deserts vs. rainforests) and by socioeconomic access (e.g., impoverished people may have to travel farther for clean water, if available at all). As the UN body concerned with education, science, and culture, UNESCO is concerned with water education and public awareness, international scientific cooperation, and Indigenous and local knowledge related to water. Community education programs, as well as WASH education that especially targets youth, can help communities. Data sharing, better forecasting, and other scientific innovations can help manage available water resources. However, a greater global effort is needed to provide the tools and training needed to apply these innovations to improving people’s lives.

The global teaching profession faces growing challenges that threaten the quality of education worldwide. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, there is a shortage of 44 million teachers to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030. The most notable gaps are present in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. The shortage is driven by a combination of low pay, poor working conditions, inadequate professional development, and decreasing social recognition. Altogether, these factors produce the gradual reduction of the workforce and discourage new talent from entering the teaching sector. The challenge extends beyond recruitment to include unequal resource allocation and poor working conditions. Teachers are placed in overcrowded classrooms without access to basic materials, which makes it difficult to provide effective instruction to the students. Furthermore, the rapid digital transformation of education demands that teachers acquire new technological and pedagogical skills, but training programs are unable to follow the pace of these developments. In crisis-affected and displaced populations, teachers work in unsafe environments with minimal mental health support, also leaving them responsible for the mental well-being of their students.