Dior and UNESCO’s renewed partnership

On 16 March, Dior and UNESCO renewed their partnership aiming to empower women leaders and cultivate the transmission of savoir-faire.

On this occasion, Delphine Arnault, Chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, and member of the LVMH Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee, and Khaled El-Enany, Director-General of UNESCO, met and signed the renewal of this unique partnership. They were joined by a group of Mentees from the Women@Dior & UNESCO programme, who were invited to share their personal journeys, reflect on their experience within the programme, and engage in a dialogue on the skills of the future, from creative leadership to social sustainability and transmission.

This renewed partnership is structured around two core commitments: empowering women leaders and cultivating the transmission of savoir-faire, which lay the foundations for the next chapter of this engagement.

A shared ambition to empower future women leaders globally

The partnership’s signature event was held symbolically a week ahead of UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition sixth annual meeting. Having joined the Coalition in 2020 on World Youth Skills Day, Dior is a key partner and the first couture House to have joined through the Women@Dior & UNESCO programme.

Women@Dior & UNESCO is a unique international mentorship and education programme dedicated to young women. It leverages the House of Dior’s unique expertise in knowledge and skills-transmission, alongside its community of motivated and inspiring talents, and UNESCO’s long-standing commitment to empowering individuals and fostering a future-ready workforce globally. The Programme partners with over 75 schools and has supported, since its creation, over 2,800 young women selected from a wide range of studies – from business to engineering, art and fashion, to hospitality, communication, international relations, and more. To date, Mentees have spanned over 60 countries and represent almost 90 nationalities.

Over the years, the Women@Dior & UNESCO programme’s impact and reach have continued to grow, connecting talent, creativity, and ambition to empower women globally. The 2026/2027 cohort have registered 12,000 applications. From these, 300 new Mentees have joined this unique sisterhood on March 8, on the symbolic occasion of International Women’s Day.

Next year, the Women@Dior & UNESCO programme celebrates its 10th anniversary, alongside the 80th anniversary of the House of Dior. The renewed partnership with UNESCO builds on an initial, enriching five-year collaboration (2020–25) that laid the foundations for a strong and shared commitment to education and women’s empowerment. At its core, the programme empowers young women through mentorship – involving Dior team members worldwide, education through a dedicated learning platform, and incubation through the Dream for Change project, a Mentee-led initiative dedicated to supporting young women within their local communities.

Through this new edition of the partnership, Dior and UNESCO conducted a comprehensive impact assessment to formalize the programme’s methodology and key learnings, with the ambition of sharing actionable frameworks that can inspire and inform broader ecosystems. The partnership further expands the 20+ exclusive educational courses available on the Mentees’ learning platform that cover a variety of topics under the programme’s five core values of Self-Care & Awareness, Autonomy, Creativity, Inclusion, and Sustainability. It also continues to strengthen the Mentee and Mentor communities by fostering engagement and interactions across regions, hand in hand with UNESCO.

“We are proud and honoured to build a global community where education and mentorship unlock leadership for young women worldwide. Together with UNESCO, we connect Dior Mentors and Mentees in a dynamic exchange of knowledge, creativity and experience, enabling young women not only to learn, but to act. Today, we renew this commitment with the same shared conviction: that transmission, culture and creative spirit are powerful drivers of autonomy and impact. United with UNESCO, we will continue to support the next generation of women leaders and cultivate the preservation of savoir-faire,” shares Olivier Sastre, Deputy Managing Director in charge of Human Resources and Sustainable Development at Christian Dior Couture.

A joint commitment to cultivate the transmission of savoir-faire

This alliance between Dior and UNESCO embodies a shared strategic vision: to make savoir-faire a lever for education, training, and leadership in the service of sustainable impact. “Education is the passport to freedom. It gives young women the confidence to choose their own path, make their voices heard and contribute to their communities. Through our partnership with Dior, UNESCO is proud to help young women around the world unlock their full potential through education and mentorship,” said Stefania Giannini, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education.

By combining the artisanal excellence of the métiers d’art, couture, and creative industries championed by Christian Dior Couture with UNESCO’s mandate in education – to promote inclusive, equitable, and quality education systems, ensure lifelong learning, and make gender equality a cross-cutting priority, as well as its commitment to the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage and the cultural and creative industries, this cooperation reflects an ambition that is at once educational, cultural, and societal.

Together, Dior and UNESCO aim to make the transmission of métiers d’excellence a concrete driver of socio- economic mobility and sustainable development, by structuring different forms of savoir-faire into real opportunities for learning and decent work.

“Every young woman who enters this programme brings with her a unique story, a spark of creativity, and the determination to shape her own future. At UNESCO, we strive to give that spark the space to grow. Our partnership with Dior builds on this shared conviction that mentorship, education and culture are powerful drivers to support young women and uplift entire communities,” said UNESCO’s Director-General, Khaled El-Enany.

“Dior’s renewed partnership with UNESCO brings to life our shared values through concrete actions aimed at education and the transmission of savoir-faire for the empowerment of women. This ongoing alliance is driven by a durable ambition: that of making a meaningful and responsible impact around the world.” shares Delphine Arnault, Chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, and member of the LVMH Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee.