Governor of Damietta, Dr. Manal Awad, announced the joining of Damietta Governorate to the regional network of Arab Learning Cities, following its participation in the first regional conference of the Arab Learning Cities Network, held in Yanbu Industrial City, Saudi Arabia, in partnership between the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States.
The Governor of Damietta indicated that the conference dealt with several development aspects put forward by the participants and representatives of Arab learning cities, and the tangible progress achieved in various fields, as well as the activities of learning cities in the Arab world, as well as reviewing proposals for facing the challenges they face.
She further added that the declaration addressed recommendations related to the importance of enhancing cooperation and exchanging experiences with other regional networks of UNESCO cities through establishing joint coordination mechanisms that ensure continuity, documenting and evaluating successful experiences regularly, developing regional and national mechanisms to implement those policies, and establishing a regional mechanism to increase resource mobilization and use and the establishment of community learning spaces and the provision of learning resources for families and local communities, while doubling attention to the vulnerable and most needy groups, pointing out that it was agreed to establish an organizational framework for the Arab Network of Learning Cities within three months.
Moreover, Awad confirmed that the Yanbu Industrial Declaration to establish a regional network of learning cities, to which the Damietta governorate joined, had prepared many recommendations, the most important of which was that a wide range of lifelong learning opportunities should be made available in the Arab region, contributing to building better and more sustainable societies and helping them to face various challenges, represented by challenges that come at the regional and international levels, such as increasing population growth, dynamic migration patterns, climate change, and other challenges.
