ICESCO and UNESCO renew their cooperation agreement, adding AI ethics and teacher capacity

ICESCO Director-General Dr. Salim M. AlMalik and UNESCO Director-General Dr. Khaled El-Enany signed a memorandum of understanding in Paris on 7 October 2026, under the general ICESCO-UNESCO agreement first signed in July 1985 and renewed in 2010, 2015 and 2019. It covers education and higher education (including faculty capacity building, dropout prevention and early childhood access), science and technology (AI ethics, digital transformation, water management cooperation, particularly in Africa), culture (cultural rights, endangered and underwater heritage, illicit trafficking of cultural property) and peacebuilding (social cohesion and countering disinformation and discrimination). The two leaders also discussed a possible joint conference and exhibition on Islamic art and youth capacity-building programmes. Why it matters: durable partnerships between the Muslim world's institutions and global bodies are how shared priorities become funded programmes.

This is a QeRN summary by Ahmed Qerni. Read the original at ICESCO: https://icesco.org/en/2026/10/08/icesco-unesco-agree-to-strengthen-institutional-cooperation-in-education-culture-science-communication-and-artificial-intelligence/.