United Nations Secretary General António Guterres is focusing to bring reforms in the UN to make it a force that can prevent war, inequality and intolerance.

This was stated by UN Resident Coordinator to Pakistan Neil Buhne in an interview with News and Current Affairs Channel of Radio Pakistan on the occasion of International Day for Tolerance.

Neil Buhne emphasized the need for promotion of education, development and justice in order to address the issue of intolerance from societies.

The UN Resident Coordinator admitted that some positive changes are happening in Pakistan. He said he has recently been to Waziristan and was encouraged to see focus on early childhood education including that of the girls.

Neil Buhne said though Pakistan has made tremendous progress in education sector, yet many of the children are out of the school. He said that emphasis should be given to the quality of education in order to bring the out of school children to the school and then retain them.

Speaking on the occasion, Country Director UNESCO Vibeke Jensen said that a lot more needs to be done to promote tolerance in the world today. She said we have to focus more on inclusion to bring everyone into the mainstream development.

The country director UNESCO pointed out that it is the first time that the sustainable development goals adopted a couple of years back envisage steps for inclusion and respect for diversity.

Neil Buhne and Vibeke Jensen said the media also has an important role to play in promoting tolerance in communities. They said that the media must not promote hate speech but greater understanding and tolerance.