GRÓ participated in the annual UNESCO Day 2023
Representatives from GRÓ participated in the UNESCO Day, held for the fourth time on September 22nd. The UNESCO Day is an annual event where different entities working with UNESCO in Iceland get together to share ideas and perspectives. This year the meeting was held in the recently inaugurated building Edda - House of Icelandic.
The keynote speaker this year was James Bridge, Chief Executive and Secretary General at the UK National Commission for UNESCO. At Edda, he presented the recently published map of UNESCO sites in the UK and further discussed the National Commission’s assessment of the value and impact of UNESCO in the UK. With this precedence, UNESCO partners in Iceland have shown great interest in having similar mapping done in Iceland.
Furthermore, the agenda included presentations from both Reykjanes and Katla Geoparks, a talk on the cooperation between Nordic world heritage sites and news of the preparation of Snæfellsjökull National Park becoming the first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Iceland. Preparations for the nomination of swimming pool culture in Iceland on UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage were also presented, and an introduction of the United Nations' global goals cooperation in UNESCO schools in Iceland. Representatives from the Permanent Delegation of Iceland to UNESCO then discussed UNESCO’s international platform and Iceland’s seat on the Executive Board of UNESCO for the period of 2021-2025.
Finally, a new exhibition about Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former president of Iceland and UNESCO's goodwill ambassador, was presented and plans for exhibiting in Edda the manuscripts of Árni Magnússon, whose manuscript collection is on UNESCO's Memory of the World list, were introduced.
See also coverage from the UNESCO Day 2022, where the Director General of the GRÓ Centre, together with Directors of the GRÓ Gender Equality and Studies Programme and GRÓ Land Restoration and Training Programme, presented their ongoing work and recent cooperation projects. GRÓ operates under the auspices of UNESCO as a Category 2 Centre.