The GHFP has been partner for The Ethics Education Fellowship programme (EEF).
EEF seeks to strengthen the sustainable delivery of ethics education programs for children in formal education settings to advance global citizenship and build more peaceful and inclusive societies. Teachers who took part in our program report stronger competencies and an improved ability to build inclusive, respectful, and engaging classrooms, leading to better learning outcomes and students’ engagement.
On Tuesday, 11 November 2025, we invite policymakers, teacher educators, and partners to join us in an international webinar: We Are Transforming Education: National Examples to Promote and Integrate Ethics Education – Successes, Challenges and Opportunities.
📅 Tuesday, 11 November 2025 🕚 11:00 – 13:00 UTC 📍 Via Zoom 👉 Register here: https://lnkd.in/ePGAHykb
Despite global commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), persistent barriers have continued to hinder meaningful progress. Amongst these barriers, are transgenerational trauma, gender-based inequality, limited opportunities for youth engagement, and fragmented community responses. The UNESCO Collective Healing Initiative, through its pioneering Intergenerational Dialogue and Inquiry (IDI) approach, uniquely tackles these barriers by harnessing cultural wisdom, fostering communal resilience, and strengthening youth leadership.
To discern the impact of the IDI approach, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation and Global Humanity for Peace (GHfP) Institute at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David have undertaken a three-year research study in 9 countries, investigating the processes and outcomes of intergenerational approaches in achieving the SDGs. This study engaged youth and elders, who are participants in the UNESCO Collective Healing programmes. In addition, the Institute also sought the perspectives of global youth on their needs for leadership development and changemaking.
Emergent insights from both studies were presented in New York during the 2025 UN ECOSOC Youth Forum as a Side Event. The questions explored include:
What concrete evidence demonstrates that intergenerational approaches significantly contribute to SDGs?
How can international, national, and community-level policymakers effectively integrate intergenerational approaches in sustainable development strategies?
What specific policy commitments can stakeholders (governments, NGOs, researchers, politicians, youth leaders) make today to ensure that intergenerational approaches become integral to achieving the 2030 Agenda?
Led by Prof Scherto Gill and our young co-researcher, Casey Overton, this interactive event brought together voices from UNESCO, academia, policy, and youth to examine evidence from the research projects, and highlighted opportunities for policy integration, such as scalable intergenerational strategies to bolster community resilience and social inclusion towards well-being futures.
Amongst the findings presented are that today’s youth navigate a world shaped by global disturbance, climate crises, and rapid technological change, often experiencing fragmentation and alienation. Intergenerational processes and approaches can enable elders to better understand youth perspectives while supporting youth to reconnect with traditional wisdom, cultural resources, and collective resilience — key to overcoming obstacles to sustainable development.
These studies underscore the transformative potential of intergenerational strategies in fostering long-term positive change, bridge historical divisions, and promote youth-led collective action for the SDGs. It is precisely such insights that can inform policy development, by stressing the critical need for practical implementation of IDI and for ensuring intergenerational accountability.
Casey further reflected on the potential and limitation of intergenerational approach. In particular, she pointed out that whilst dialogue can serve as connective tissue, aimed at building bridges, enabling understanding and collaboration, power disparity can inhibit dialogue. For instance, IDI in some contexts doesn’t always take place amongst equals. Therefore it requires institutional structures and processes to systematically integrate intergenerational approach to social transformation.
The session received enthusiastic responses from the participants who both recognised the significance of these research studies and echoed the importance of IDI in their own national and local contexts, in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
The GHFP is delighted to be joining UNESCO 2024 Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination to be held in Barcelona on 10th-11th December. The Forum will bring together technical and policy experts to advance the international movement for structural justice and social equality.
In particular, the GHFP has been planning and designing, with the Global Humanity for Peace Institute, and our community partners, an experiential workshop on intergenerational dialogue & inquiry (IDI). IDI aims to examine and address the legacies of dehumanisation, including slavery, colonialism, racism and discrimination. IDI has been a main process of the Collective Healing Circles (CHCs) currently being piloted in communities in 14 countries around the Atlantic shores.
The IDI workshop will form a part of the UNESCO’s flagship Master Class Against Racism and Discrimination programme on 10th Dec. during the UNESCO Global Forum.
The Handbook is intended to support the efforts of facilitators and other professionals who are interested in hosting Collective Healing Circles (CHCs) in their local community. The intellectual insights underpinning the CHC Programme proposed in this Handbook are drawn from contemporary research on historical atrocities, such as the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans, colonialisation, and mass killing and violent displacement of Indigenous peoples, as well as the legacies of dehumanisation, such as racism and structural injustice.
The practical ideas for implementing the CHC Programme featured throughout the Handbook are inspired by existing proven approaches of similar programmes, and those which have emerged from a one-year pilot of the Programme in five countries (Kenya, Nigeria, the UK, the USA and Colombia) on four continents.
The Handbook was presented by Mrs Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO Assistant Director General, during the 30th Anniversary of UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Programme on 10th October 2024.
The presentation was followed by reports from community partners and participants of the UNESCO Collective Healing Initiative on the process and impact of our CHC activities on four continents.
Amongst those in the audience at UNESCO HQ were global leaders, national delegations, and civil society representatives.
Join us at Geneva Peace Week 2024 A Must-Attend Workshop for Educators and Change-Makers!
In an increasingly globalised world, where schools and communities are facing rising tensions, discrimination and xenophobia, it is essential that education empowers children with peace-building awareness and skills and nurtures ethical values.
Join us during Geneva Peace Week 2024 for a dynamic, interactive workshop “Addressing discrimination and xenophobia in schools through ethics education,” designed for all those passionate about transforming education into a positive force for peace. The workshop particularly engages teachers, policy makers, as well as education practitioners, and students.
Whether you attend in person in Geneva or online from anywhere in the world, this session is an unmissable opportunity to explore how transformative pedagogy can help foster peaceful and inclusive societies through ethics education and dialogic classrooms.
Why Attend?
Explore ethics education: Discover how ethics education and transformative pedagogy help create safe learning environments, build trust, and facilitate mutual understanding across diverse backgrounds.
Gain practical skills: Learn how to transform your school into a peace champion through interactive whole-school approaches, inclusive inclusive learning environments, dialogic classrooms, children-led curriculum, teachers’ professional development and community engagement.
Hands-on learning: Experience peer-to-peer learning with colleagues from all around the world, and engage on a narrative analysis about structural and cultural violence in schools.
Event Details:🗓️ 15 October 2024⌛ 15:00 – 16:30 CET📍 Participate on-site in Geneva or online🌐 Interpretation services available through Wordly AI
Speakers
Prof Scherto Gill, Director, Global Humanity for Peace Institute, University of Wales Trinity St David / Senior Fellow, Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace
Mary Kangethe, Director, Education Programs, Kenya National Commission for UNESCO
Itje Chodidjah, Chairperson, Indonesia National Commission for UNESCO
Maria Lucia Uribe, Executive Director, Arigatou International Geneva
G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20) has convened diverse interfaith actors inspired by the G20 agendas since 2014. Through dialogue, and analytic work, IF20 aims to enrich the G20 process by bringing the wisdom, experience, and voice of diverse faith communities alongside other global constituencies. IF20 Education Working Group (Edu WG), chaired by Prof Scherto Gill, has been actively contributing to policy recommendations relevant to the annual G20 themes.
For 2024, the IF20 Edu WG hosts an international symposium on The Centrality of Harmony in Education in the Global Retreat Centre, Oxford on 1-3 July. It focuses on comprehensive analysis in terms of how Harmony in Education may enhance interfaith/intercultural collaboration, positive peace, inclusive citizenship, climate awareness, and co-flourishing with Nature.
Harmony, in this context, is a philosophy advanced by His Majesty King Charles in his 2010 seminal book entitled: Harmony: A New Way of Looking at our World. The notion of harmony is extremely potent as it allows us to recognise that separation from each other and exploitation of Nature have resulted in present social and ecological catastrophe impacting all. Harmony in Education is thus an imperative for the present and future generations to learn to embrace our interconnection and interdependence and return us to a just world and sustainable planet.
The Symposium gathers IF20 Education Working Group partners, such as ADYAN Foundation, Guerrand-Hermès Foundation, Scholas Occurentes, Salzberg Global Seminar, and other international educational organisations, including King’s Foundation, Harmony Institute, the Harmony Project, Education Policy & Administration, Government of NCT of Delhi, India, and WES Networks Brazil, to explore how Harmony in Education can contribute to 2024 G20’s theme of Just World Sustainable Planet.
During the Symposium, each participant/contributor will make a presentation on their relevant work under the G20 2024’s theme. Then the participants will dialogue and discuss policy ideas around integrating Harmony Education in public schooling.
Questions to be considered during the Symposium:
What are our understandings of harmony in the context of global challenges? How might we integrate harmony in our ways of being?
In what ways does the notion of harmony contribute to the G20 2024 theme – Just Society Sustainable Planet?
How might education help advance harmony?
What policy ideas should we propose to G20 leaders?
What case studies might demonstrate the imperative of harmony in education?
Confirmed Contributors:
Sister Jayanti
Additional Administrative Head, The Brahma Kumaris
Maureen Goodman
UK Director, World Spiritual University
Nick Campion
Director, The Harmony Institute, UWTSD
Isodora Canela
Founder/Director, WEBS Association, Brazil
Richard Dunne
Director, The Harmony Project, UK
Jacqueline Farrell
Director of Education, King’s Foundation, UK
Scherto Gill
Director, Global Humanity for Peace Institute, UK
Medwin Hughes
Former Vice Chancellor, UWTSD Chair, Wales Church, Wales
Mayssam Imad
Director of Education, Adyan Foundation, Lebanon
Maria Paz Jurado
International Director, Pontifical Foundation Scholas Occurrentes, Italy
Robin Keshaw
Project Lead, Education Policy & Administration, Government of NCT of Delhi, India
Xiaoan Li
Senior Programme Officer, Fetzer Institute, USA
Corinna Nawatzky
Center for Education Transformation, Salzberg Global Seminar, Austria
Shailendra Sharma
Former Advisor, Ministry of Education, Delhi, India
Alice Sommerville
Education & Research Coordinator, Guerrand-Hermes Foundation, UK
The Ethics Education Fellowship Programme (EEFP) concludes its first phase with strong country commitments. Held on 23-25 April 2024, the ‘Convening of Champions’ meeting marked a significant milestone in the Ethics Education Fellowship Programme collaboration. The gathering was attended by 70 participants from 17 countries, including senior representatives from Ministries of Education, UNESCO offices, and partner organizations, as well as religious leaders. The event served as a bustling hub for discussing the importance of prioritizing and investing in Ethics Education. Children’s testimonials lit up the room, while participating countries made promising commitments.
During the April convening, the EEFP launched a Report capturing the one-year effort to monitor and evaluate the programme.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Report
The GHFP has led the MEL of EEFP in six countries. Supported by the partners, our research team collected comprehensive country-based data for thematic analysis and meaning-making. The MEL Report outlines the key findings from the first phase of the EEFP, and significant learnings emerging from the experiences of the EEFP fellows, participating teachers and children in the classrooms.
In April 2024, the GHfP Institute and Scholasco-piloted a Young Changemakers Programme (YCP) on the UWTSD’s Lampeter Campus.
Young Changemakers Programme (YCP) offers inspirational and transformative learning opportunities that combines encounter, experience, inquiry and action in a circular itinerary. It aims to enhance young people’s self-awareness, mutual appreciation, and understanding of local-global challenges.
Youth from around the planet came together for a one-week experiential learning, arts-based learning, intergenerational dialogue, integrating hands, heart and head into holistic learning experiences. More importantly, Young Changemakers Programme offered these young people an opportunity to bring embodied learning to meaningful actions back in their communities.
Young Changemakers Programme is extremely effective in expanding youth’s horizons, helping youth connect learning with their life’s purpose, recognising that learning is a whole person endeavour and learning contributes to one’s own and one’s community’s well-being.
This high-level event marks a milestone of the Ethics Education Fellowship programme, a unique collaborative effort to promote Ethics Education, essential for fostering global citizenship, and building more inclusive and peaceful societies.
The Fellowship program is made possible through a partnership between the Ministries of Education of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Mauritius, Nepal, and Seychelles, with Arigatou International, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace, KAICIID International Dialogue Centre, the Muslim Council of Elders, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, the UNESCO New Delhi Cluster Office, and the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, in collaboration with the National Commissions for UNESCO of the participating countries.
In this event, we will reflect on the importance of ethics education, and its contribution to enriching social cohesion, promoting human fraternity, and empowering children and young people to make a difference in their societies.
This event will provide a space to share challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to transform education, as well as commitments to strengthen national teacher training, policies, and investment in ethics education programs.
Welcome Remarks 09.30 – 10.00 (UAE Time)
H.E. Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi (Video Message)
Minister of Education, United Arab Emirates
Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz Al Haddad
Grand Mufti and head of the Fatwa Department at the Dubai Fatwa Centre, Member of Muslim Council of Elders
H.E. Dr. Khalid Al Ghaith
Secretary General of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity
Mr. Hironari Miyamoto (Video Message)
On behalf of Rev. Keishi Miyamoto, President Arigatou International
Children Representatives (Video Message)
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mauritius, Nepal, Kenya and Seychelles
Keynote Speech 10.00 – 10.20 (UAE Time)
H. E. Afra Al Saabri (TBC)
Director General, Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence, Ministry of Tolerance
Ethics Education Fellowship: Insights from the Implementation 10.20 – 10.40 (UAE Time)
Mrs. Mary Kangethe
Director Education, Kenya National Commission for UNESCO
Dr. Itje Chodidjha
Chairperson, Indonesia National Commission for UNESCO
Understanding & Healing Relational & Spiritual Harm of Dehumanisation
Collective Healing, Social Justice and Global Well-Being is a UNESCO initiative aimed at addressing the legacies of dehumanisation, including the harms of transoceanic enslavement of Africans, colonialism, continued racism, and other forms of structural discrimination. An important aspect of this initiative is to investigate the plethora of harms from multiple dimensions. Partners supporting this initiative include Guerrand-Hermès Foundation, Global Humanity for Peace (GHfP) Institute at University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), Fetzer Institute, AfroSpectives, and Virginia Union University (VUU).
Through the UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project’s (REP) 30 years’ endeavours, there have been research, documentation, recognising the destruction of afore-mentioned legacies, especially in terms of physical, cultural, and economic harms. To these efforts, during the 2nd session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent 2023, delegates of African and indigenous descent added a call for more research and better understanding of the relational and spiritual dimensions of these harms, which can serve as the basis for more concerted action towards healing and systemic transformation.
VUU President welcoming participants
Indeed, without acknowledging relational and spiritual harms, collective efforts to confront the legacies of transoceanic enslavement and continued injustices against people of African and indigenous descent may fall short. Mere materialistic repairs, such as reducing economic disparity, leveling public services, and providing equal access to health, education, housing, finance, and employment, are not enough. While economic and social justice is important, the Afro and indigenous communities directly impacted by the dehumanising legacies insist that addressing the relational and spiritual dimensions of the harms and the connected trauma are equally, if not even more, critical. The characterisation of relational and spiritual harm should help bring to light the complex layers of harm, offering a more holistic conception of dehumanising harm. This will enable us to better recognise how both those who were violently enslaved and their descendants, and those who performed inhumane acts upon the enslaved, and their descendants, suffer from a same harm that can be described as relational and spiritual.
To this end, the partners supporting the collective healing initiative, have jointly launched two processes: the first was a conceptual exploration aimed at understanding what constitutes relational and spiritual harm; and the second was a pilot programme that engaged global communities in intergenerational dialogue and inquiries (IDI) to reflect on people’s lived experiences of the dehumanising legacies and connected relational and spiritual harm. The IDIs also enabled community stakeholders to identify relational and spiritual practices and resources key to resilience and healing of collective trauma.
To further deepen our understanding of what constitutes relational and spiritual harm from an interdisciplinary perspective, and to explore what relational and spiritual approaches to healing and community regeneration are necessary in the context of global structural dehumanisation, the partners hosted a second UNESCO Symposium in Jan 2024 at Virginia Union University, in Richmond, VA., USA.
FOCUS & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
We invite thinkers, scholars, researcher and practitioners to come together and focus our dialogue on the nature of relational and spiritual harm, and the necessary relational-centred and spiritually-inspired approaches to collective healing. Here, ‘spiritual harm’ is not solely about the wounding perpetuated or condoned by faith-based teaching, spiritual leaders and religious institutions.
We propose the following questions for dialogue and discussion:
What is the nature of dehumanising harm in the contexts of transoceanic slavery?
How might the terms ‘relational’ and ‘spiritual’ shift our understanding of such harm and the connected trauma and continuing injustices? What are the processes, modalities and manifestations of these harms?
How does the relational and spiritual harm differ for the enslaved and their descendants, and the enslavers and their descendants? What are the micro and macro consequences of those harms today?
What forms of healing are necessary to overcome these harms? How do the healing processes differ for those who are at the receiving end of dehumanisation and those who are perpetuating or participating in the perpetuation of dehumanisation?
What should be the future directions of healing work in the light of our understandings of relational and spiritual harm? How could we best integrate the relational and spiritual dimension in global transformation towards just system and well-being of all?
What approaches/practices could we draw upon and learn from global communities? How might research contribute to a new political culture of respect, love and caring?
