GEN meeting 2021

The update for the Visegrad Regional Cluster was shared by Eliška Šertlerova from the Czech Forum for Development Cooperation – FoRS. The most up to date news is that in March 2020 Visegrad partners hosted a regional on-line experts meeting in coordination with the North-South Centre, and representatives from GENE and Bridge 47. The experts meeting allowed for involvement of civil servants from the ministries of education and foreign affairs, it was an active meeting during which organisations outlined where global education can be included in national policies. There is recognition that embedding global themed topics into formal education is a difficult and long-term process. Developing memorandums of understandings has helped this. In the Czech Republic, an MOU has been developed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Czech Forum for Development Cooperation, in Poland the MOU is between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs / Education and Grupa Zagranica, and in Slovakia between the Ministry of Education and GENE.  Another success is that in 2020 all Visegrad countries were members of and well-represented on GENE. Reflecting on challenges, there is always the fight for budget, and while national-level challenges vary, it is where a regional network helps, as while some countries have challenges, others have successes to the network sustains vision and effort.