VASS Vice President Dang Xuan Thanh (Photo: vass.gov.vn)

Hanoi – The Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) and the Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO on November 28 organised a capacity building workshop on developing vision and strategy for social sciences from UNESCO’s view.

VASS Vice President Dang Xuan Thanh said that in the development process of each country, social sciences and humanities play an important role in providing scientific evidence, detecting issues and proposing solutions.

Phinith Chanthalangsy, regional advisor for the Social and Human Sciences at the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok, said that UNESCO aims to strengthen humanities and social sciences programmes to build more peaceful and inclusive societies by addressing the challenges of social changes.

He said that based on experience from the Management of Social Transformations Programme, UNESCO aims to collect knowledge and accompany the communities to form or modify development models and then apply them in Southeast Asia. These models will predict new trends, ensuring development that is equitable, inclusive, more sustainable and more respectful of people's quality of life.

Tran Thi Thanh Huong, a consultant from UNESCO Vietnam Office, offered four suggestions to achieve goals in social sciences and humanities within the framework of cooperation between UNESCO and Vietnam.

They are to add the content of social sciences and humanities into the policy-making process on social transformation and inclusive development to enhance the role of social sciences in solving challenges; to teach philosophy to children to make educational methods suitable to the complex world context; to promote gender equality, rights for people with disabilities and cultural diversity; and to promote policy dialogue on ethics related to artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change.

The workshop is the first step in building a network of experts who are willing to engage with UNESCO in tabling critic measures to address the most urgent climate change issues that the region and Vietnam are facing.