International Symposium

 The UNESCO Workshops were organized by the Gender Equality Office, Kobe University, Japan on March 26-27, 2012. The Workshops' objectives were 1. Explore integration of Sciences and gender and 2. Learn about related UNESCO programs.

 On March 27, the UNESCO Workshop "Towards Sustainable Society," was held. The program included four lectures.

 The first speaker was Professor Kaoru Hounoki, Dean of Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, the former Director of the Gender Equality Office, Kobe University. Within her talk entitled "Kobe University’s Promoting of Gender Equality", a brief history of Kobe University's gender equality projects was presented. The next speaker, Professor Roumiana Tsenkova, Director of Gender Equality Office, Kobe University, explained about the current gender equality projects, especially "Acceleration Program" under the title of "Towards Sustainable Society". From UNESCO, Ms. Diana Malpede, Programme Specialist, Natural Sciences Sector delivered a lecture on "Science towards Sustainable Societies: The Transformative Vision, Perspectives and Role of Women". The last speaker was Ms. Sara Callegari, Associate Expert, Division for Gender Equality and she gave the audience the talk, "UNESCO’s Priority Gender Equality: Empowering Women for Sustainable Society"

 The second UNESCO Workshop was held on the following morning and it consisted of two talks and a discussion. The first talk was entitled "EU Institute in Japan, Kansai" and was delivered by Prof. Dr. Hiromasa Kubo, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University. The next was Ms. Sara Callegari who spoke about "Institutes under the Auspices of UNESCO: Requirements and Opportunities".

 At the end of each Workshop, there were active discussions focused on the role of sciences and women towards sustainable society.