The United Nations University Institute in Macau (UNU Macau) and Caritas Macau announced on Wednesday a five-year strategic partnership to strengthen cooperation on projects that promote policy as well as practice-relevant research and capacity building activities in the fields of sustainable community development, social innovation, and civil society cyber resilience.

In order to achieve these shared objectives, both parties signed on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to coordinate their work and synergise efforts on the implementation of projects and other activities of mutual interest through joint research, workshops, conferences, and other modalities.

We are glad to be signing our first MOU with UNU Macau after our continued collaboration with them on various projects and engagements in the past few years. Through this partnership, we hope to enhance evidence-based practice and scientific support to improve social services and capacity building initiatives in Macao. This also aligns with our objectives of strengthening collaboration with international organisations to establish a platform for networking, information exchange on global issues and ultimately to achieve greater human goals, the statement quoted Paul Pun Chi Meng, secretary-general of Caritas Macau, as saying.

Caritas Macau has been a long-term friend of the institute. We have many shared interests, such as sustainable community development and social innovation in Macao. We have collaborated on research projects in the past, thanks to Dr Mamello Thinyanes initiatives. Currently, Caritas is working with us on the Smart City-zen Cyber Resilience project funded by the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) where we aim to explore the role of civil society toward cyber resilience and enhance the cyber resilience preparedness in Macao. We are excited about this partnership with Caritas Macau. As the only United Nations presence in Macao, our Institute is working with local partners to connect Macao with the rest of the world through research and innovation, and helping transform the region into a hub of global technology innovation, the statement quoted UNU Macau Director Dr Huang Jingbo as saying.

According to the UNU Macau website, Dr Thinyane, a principal research fellow, works within the UNU Macaus Small Data Lab investigating the role of locally-relevant, citizen-generated data to empower individuals and community-level actors towards the Sustainable Development Goals targets, as well as the role of this data within the larger social indicators data ecosystem.

Dr Thinyane is the chairman of the board of the African Footprints of Hope Organisation, an NGO that facilitates strategic multistakeholder engagements towards socio-economic development of communities in Southern Africa. He is also a visiting researcher at the Australian Centre of Cyber-Security at the University of New South Wales in Canberra.

One of the key initiatives that both organisations will be working on is the Smart City-zen Cyber Resilience project which aims to enhance the cyber resilience of smart city-zens in Macao and around the world involving civil society actors in local preparations against cybersecurity threats. This project was designed to help accelerate the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Macaos development plans.

According to the UNU Macau website, the Smart City-zen Cyber Resilience project aims to enhance the cyber resilience of civil society in Macao and globally through the development of a civil society-centric cyber resilience management model, as well as the operationalisation of the model through tools and applications in partnership with civil society and governmental stakeholders.

(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)PHOTO The Macau Post Daily

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UNU Macau and Caritas Macau partner to advance research & capacity building initiatives - Macau News