Story by Fungai Jachi
UNITED Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Director General, Ms Audrey Azoulay, has made her first official visit to Zimbabwe, pledging her organisation’s continued support to national development.
The UNESCO Director General, who arrived in the country this Monday, met with the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development, Ambassador Frederick Shava, at his offices in Harare.
Emerging from a closed-door meeting, Ms Azoulay spoke on the scope of her visit.
“We work together with Zimbabwe on many of government’s priorities for inclusive education for science technology innovation artificial intelligence and of the preservation of the extraordinary cultural heritage and I am looking forward to visiting the Great Zimbabwe site and Victoria falls. We are also working with Zimbabwe on the history of the movement of the liberation in the region and we are going to start a new phase of the cooperation that will support researchers from universities young researchers from the region to continue working on this extraordinary and rich history,” she said.
Ambassador Shava said Ms Azoulay’s visit will allow her to appreciate the strides made by Zimbabwe in science education and preservation of culture.
“We have agreed and confirmed that programmes that UNESCO is running in Zimbabwe continue to be run and will do the best of their ability in terms of the heritage sites in terms of schools programmes,” he noted.
Ms Azoulay, who is on a week-long visit to the country, is set to meet President Emmerson Mnangagwa, visit the Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Site and attend the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Wetlands (COP15) in Victoria Falls.
