UNESCO Chair
After a year-long process, the UNESCO Chair in Water Conflict Management (UCW) at Ludovika University of Public Service (Ludovika-UPS) was officially established on 21 March 2024, thus becoming the third UNESCO Chair in Hungary.
The knowledge of how to prevent, manage and resolve water conflicts at national and international levels will be critical for the prosperity and stability of any nation in the future. To address these challenges, the UCW will focus its activities on knowledge sharing and the ‘North-South’ networking of universities, research and other institutions for their collaboration on an interdisciplinary scientific research and higher-education training on the topics such as international water governance, water cooperation and conflict management, or sustainable and equitable water management. Thus, the UCW will strive to contribute to the achievement of UNESCO’s mission and mandate – primarily peace, inter-cultural dialogue, and scientific collaboration – as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), given that water is a cross-cutting theme among all SDGs.
The UCW is planned to facilitate academic exchange with partner institutions, as well as research and knowledge building among teachers, researchers, students, decision-makers and water professionals through various mechanisms. On that basis, the chair’s work is expected to contribute to a further strengthening of the university’s existing educational programme on water diplomacy and conflict management. Still, it also has a high potential to yield other benefits for Hungarian education (e.g., joint educational programmes with partner institutions, new professional training products, innovation in teaching, training of staff, and learning from experiences of other institutions), as well as the country’s international relations, water sector, and economy in general.
The UCW is hosted by the Faculty of Water Sciences of Ludovika-UPS. Under the leadership of Professor András Szöllősi-Nagy, the chair will incorporate professors and researchers with international recognition from Ludovika-UPS, other academic institutions in Hungary, as well as other countries from several continents.
To disseminate the information on the chair’s objectives, planned activities, and expected outputs to the expert community and the public, the UCW’s opening event will be held on 2 May 2024 (the event programme is available https://ludevent.uni-nke.hu/event/4079/).