Tag: India

UNESCO India Assignment

I worked with UNESCO for four years as Team Leader on the STEP Malawi project. It was a fantastic project in skills and technical education like this one coming up in India but the latter has a particular focus on young women.

The position is “Project Associate” to support the implementation of the UNESCO–NIKE “Kickstart Her Future – India” project.

Logo of UNESCO featuring a stylized building and the acronym 'UNESCO' on a blue background.

Application Deadline is: July 26th

To see information on the STEP Malawi program use the following link.

STEP – Skills and Technical Education Programme – Malawi

I found the UNESCO India request interesting for several reasons. One, the request shows the level of detail that goes into requests of this type, and secondly it provides a link to the UNESCO recruitment page.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/call-for-applications-the-unesco-regional-share-7477247192085340160-LBgb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAAAT6WVYBoOng7VOGUXAeFXrhWNx2_Umpivg

Good luck if you apply.

In my long career, I had several assignments in South Asia including one with the ITU in India. To read about my experience there, you can check out my book Overseas Adventures – From Afghanistan to Zambia and Points In-Between available from my website or from AMAZON Canada.

Small Businesses and Generative AI in India

I worked several times in India, first with an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) project based in Jabalpur, and then later with a CIDA funded project working with Polytechnics in Southern India. It is an amazing country, with amazing people and amazing food. I even got to ride on an elephant! In this context, and my interest in international development, I was excited to see the article referenced here published by ICTworks. In my view, Wayan Vota has hit a home-run with this story (or in the context of India, it might be better to say has hit a six).

https://www.ictworks.org/india-small-business-revolution

The article focuses on how many persons in India are applying Generative AI to help them set up new businesses or improve existing ones.

Among the statistics Wayan quotes from recent LinkedIn research are these amazing facts.

  • 82% of Indian small business founders say starting a business is easier with AI.
  • 83% of business leaders in India say it’s key to growing their business
  • 97% of small businesses in India are already using AI in some form

We didn’t have even basic AI when I worked in India at the start of the New Millennium, but at least I can say our telecom project at the time assisted India to enhance its telecommunications. A small but important contribution.

You can read about my assignment in India and others in South Asia in my book.

Overseas Adventures – North Star Skills for Development

Enjoy both.