Upcoming Events

 

Events organized by UNU-IAS

Asia Pacific Leadership Programme 2015 on Environment for Sustainable Development

21-25 September 2015

Shanghai, China

The Asia-Pacific Leadership Programme on Environment for Sustainable Development is an annual flagship programme co-hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Tongji University, aiming to build capacity for emerging leaders from the Asia Pacific region on holistic sustainability thinking and evidence based approaches for effective action. The Leadership Programme is organized by the Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD) at Tongji University, in support of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-14, and closely linked with the training pillar of the Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability GUPES.

The Leadership Programme will provide participants from the Asia Pacific region with the opportunity to improve all-round thinking and their decision-making abilities. The programme is targeted to emerging leaders in the region, representing governmental organizations, international organizations, NGOs and the private sector. The objective of the programme is to get a good understanding in the three key dimensions – human, environmental and social/economic – in promoting sustainable development and finally set up a platform for emerging leaders in the Asia-Pacific region to communicate and network with each other while working together to address complex practical sustainable development challenges. For more information please visit the RCE Portal or the programme’s website.

Events organized by RCE members

Media Workshop on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction

6-8 April 2015

Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir

To sensitize journalists on climate change issues globally viz-a-viz the Himalayan region; apprise them on existing policies and programmes for climate change mitigation and adaptation, and orient them about effective reporting on climate change issues, case studies and sustainable development for the mountain communities, the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) and The Third Pole (TTP) under the Indian Himalayas Climate Adaptation Programme (IHCAP) supported by RCE Srinagar are organising this media workshop. For more information please contact Dr. Abdhesh Gangwar, RCE Srinagar (+91-9415104125 or at abdhesh.gangwar@ceeindia.org)

Opening Ceremony RCE Eco-Park & Sejahtera Center for RCEs in Asia-Pacific

23 May 2015

Tongyeong City, Republic of Korea

The opening ceremony will take place back to back with the UNESCO World Education Forum in Incheon (19-22 May 2015). Direct transportation will be arranged from Incheon to Tongyeong on May 22. The full programme during the day is still to be confirmed but there will be an opening ceremony with a cultural performance, a guided tour of the park and the 7th Tongyeong ESD International Forum 2015. During the forum the role of the Sejahtera Centre in creating a global learning space for a sustainable future will be discussed. Another interesting item planned for the agenda is a policy maker roundtable of Asia Pacific RCEs which will include mayors, city councilors, and ESD experts that serve an important role in promoting ESD in the region. The discussion will create an opportunity for policy makers to understand the global RCE movement, allow them to form closer networks with each other, allow to learn from successful/unsuccessful experiences, and to form partnerships. The 2015 discussion will focus on sharing good practices of participating RCEs and on the role of the Sejahtera Centre for RCEs in the Asia Pacific region. For the full invitation letter please visit the RCE Portal.

For details, please contact Ms. Won J Byun at the RCE Tongyeong Secretariat rceorg@gmail.com or visit the RCE Tongyeong's website.

Other Events

UNESCO World Education Forum (WEF

19-22 May, 2015

Incheon, Republic of Korea

UNESCO, in close collaboration with other UN Agencies as co-conveners, will organize the World Education Forum 2015 (WEF 2015). The WEF’s outcome will be fully aligned with the education goal and targets of the global development agenda to be adopted at the UN High-Level Summit in September 2015, in order to have one single education agenda for 2015-2030. To achieve this consensus UNESCO is facilitating consultations at various levels and with the UN Secretariat. This also requires continued strong engagement and support from governments and other education partners to ensure that the final targets for education post-2015 are transformative, achievable and measurable. For more information on this event please visit the UNESCO website.

2015 International Student Conference on Environment and Sustainability.

2-7 June 2015

Tongji University, Shanghai, China

The conference will be hosted by Tongji University and co-hosted by UNEP, Xinhua News Agency, BEFYT. Other co-organizers include UNESCO, FAO, UNAIDS, Bayer, and SKLPCR. There will be five different panels of discussion at the conference: Ecological Civilization and Green Development, Education for Sustainable Development, Food and Health, Ecosystem and Climate Change, Green Development, and finally Sustainable Development and the United Nations. For more information on this event and how to register please visit the conference’s website.

 

Latest News

8th Asia-Pacific RCE Conference and 6th International Conference on Environmental and Rural Development (ICERD)

The 8th Asia-Pacific RCE Conference was organized in Cebu and Bohol, the Philippines from 5 to 8 March 2015 in conjunction with the 6th International Conference on Environmental and Rural Development (ICERD). This event was a joint effort of RCE Cebu, RCE Bohol and RCE Greater Phnom Penh - engaging a variety of stakeholders such as university students who provided most logistical support during the conference.

Over 50 participants from 13 RCEs and candidate members in Asia-Pacific exchanged updates and innovative ideas on various projects related to biodiversity, community, schools, disaster risk reduction and youth. During the meeting, it was noted that many interesting collaborative projects were emerging among two or more RCEs while there was still a need for more consolidated efforts and a strategic approach in order to strengthen such collaborations and maximize the impact of these projects.

RCE members were also invited to present at ICERD, where 180 participants from 16 countries gathered to discuss effective processes and strategies for sustainable rural development. It provided a great opportunity for RCEs to share their experiences with other practitioners outside the network and enhance the visibility of the RCE initiative.

Participants also discussed general guidelines for organizing future continental meetings as well as for formulating the coordinating committee that provides peer support for facilitating communication and collaboration among Asia-Pacific RCEs. The revised guidelines for the coordinating committee are available here and the guidelines for the meeting organizer here. Any comments and suggestions are welcome and can be sent to the Global RCE Service Centre. For those who are interested in becoming part of the coordinating committee for the Asia-Pacific region, please note that the first open call will be made in the next couple of weeks.

Follow-up Meeting of the UNESCO World Conference on ESD

In October and November 2014, the City of Okayama hosted a number of ESD-related conferences including the Kominkan-CLC International Conference on ESD, UNESCO ASPnet Schools related meetings, a Youth Conference, the Teacher Education Conference and the 9th Global RCE Conference. Four months after the successful closing of the UN Decade of ESD, the City of Okayama organized a one-day follow-up meeting on 14 March 2015 to revisit the outcomes of the UNESCO World Conference on ESD and discuss a way forward as to how to further upscale ESD activities in Okayama in the context of the GAP on ESD.

180 participants, mostly local citizens from Okayama and its neighboring areas, actively took part in small group discussions to share their engagement in various ESD activities and confirm their commitments to addressing sustainability issues through ESD. The City of Okayama presented the new “Okayama ESD Project Master Plan (2015-2019)” which was developed by RCE Okayama in close consultation with key stakeholders and external experts. This will serve as guiding principles for people in Okayama to further promote ESD beyond DESD in pursuit of achieving a more sustainable society. Inputs from local participants based on the discussions will be reflected in the final version of the Plan. For more information, please contact Mr. Nagareo.

CEE Facilitated RCEs Meet during CEE 2015

During this meeting on 2 February 2015 in Ahmedabad, India, the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) facilitated RCEs from India discussed different issues. The main agenda was how different CEE RCEs can strengthen each other’s work, work together and do joint projects, raise funds and other resources, share experiences, identify common themes to work together across countries, do better reporting of RCE activities, popularize RCE work and ESD using media, motivate other partners, seeking their active participation and learn from each other. For more information on the outcome of this meeting, please visit the RCE Portal.

Asia-Pacific Strategic Paper ‘Advancing ESD beyond 2014: Strategy for Asia-Pacific RCEs'

Over 100 RCE members from 29 of the 49 Asia-Pacific RCEs met in Okayama during the 9th Global RCE Conference to reflect on recent developments in the community and discuss a more dynamic collaboration and the post-2014 strategic direction. One of the highlights of the meeting was the adoption of the Asia-Pacific Strategic Paper ‘Advancing ESD beyond 2014: Strategy for Asia-Pacific RCEs’ which encapsulates the aspirations of the Asia-Pacific RCE community and served as input to the RCE Global Conference. The category of issues are aligned with, but not limited to, the priority action areas of GAP. You can find the paper on the RCE Portal.

Japanese RCE Meeting, 16 March, Sendai, Japan

The Japanese RCE Meeting was held in Sendai, Japan on 16 March 2015 hosted by RCE Greater Sendai. All six Japanese RCEs (RCE Greater Sendai, RCE Yokohama, RCE Chubu, RCE Hyogo-Kobe, RCE Okayama and RCE Kitakyushu) came together and reported on activities implemented in 2014.

RCE Greater Sendai is taking part in the ESD Consortium that covers the area of Tohoku, and promotes ESD in wider areas by working with UNESCO Associated Schools, universities, school committees, NGOs and other. RCE Yokohama is offering environment education for elementary and middle school students and they also organized a youth competition in Yokohama on environmental activities. RCE Chubu promoted ESD mainly through ESD-seminars. RCE Okayama is developing an “Okayama ESD Project Master Plan 2015-2019” where they involve citizens of Okayama, and RCE Kitakyushu had developed a “Kyushu Declaration on RCEs and ESD beyond 2014”. RCE Hyogo-Kobe is currently focusing on higher education by offering ESD courses at Kobe University for both undergraduate and graduate students. Finally, they also discussed how they can promote ESD beyond 2014 after the series of ESD-related events in Okayama and Nagoya last year. In order to look for a possibility of collaboration among RCEs, they are now exchanging their different work plans for 2015.

Successful Kominkan-CLC International Conference on ESD

Over 650 participants, including learners, facilitators and managers of Kominkan (Community Learning Centre of Japan) and other Community Learning Centers (CLCs), community educators, representatives from governments, United Nation agencies and researchers gathered together for the Kominkan-CLC International Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), held in Okayama 9-12 October 2014.

Participants discussed how to sustain and promote ESD through community-based learning, drawing on their rich experience of working with local communities. The main outcome of the Conference was the ‘Okayama Commitment 2014: Promoting ESD beyond DESD through Community-Based Learning’, a document that celebrates the significant contributions of community-based learning during the UNDESD and the commitments made to continue making advancements in ESD.

To access relevant documents, please visit the conference website. The French version of the “Okayama Commitment 2014” is available at UNESDOC. The Okayama Commitment 2014 is also available on Youtube: short English version (3 min), short Japanese version (3 min), and the full version (24 min). Please feel free to use and share the commitment and the videos.

Media and Other Articles

The Science Magazine: Sustainable Goals from the UN under fire

Reuters: New development goals risk failure without clearer targets, scientists warn

UNESCOPRESS: Five exceptional women honored for their ground-breaking discoveries in the physical sciences

NY Times: Gender gap in education cuts both ways

These and many more articles can be found on the RCE Portal. For instantaneous news, please sign up for our RSS Feed!