RCE Czechia 2nd Annual General Meeting Focuses on Driving Further Cooperation Towards the SDGs
On 23 May, 2018, RCE Czechia held its 2nd Annual General Meeting, with 17 member representatives in attendance from higher education, schools, informal education, governmental bodies, NGOs and its RCE Advisory Board.
The RCE’s activities and plans were presented, including their first jointly developed flagship project, ‘Responsible Consumption – Education for Sustainable Lifestyles’, which began recently, aiming to address SDG 12 through the education of school pupils and university students.
Several members shared presentations on their activities: Jan Vávra presented on the sustainable (Fairtrade) Faculty of Economics in South Bohemia; Dana Kapitulčinová (Charles University Environment Centre) introduced the recently completed nutritional footprint calculator (https://www.nutristopa.cz/en); and Marianna Sršňová (Society for Creativity in Education) presented an example of an interdisciplinary arts integration project.
Invited guests also presented their activities: Soňa Jonášová represented the Institute for Circular Economy, a newly established institution that provides advisory services in the innovative areas of economy (https://incien.org/); and Jakub Múčka, a student from the Charles University Department of Philosophy presented a student project aimed at providing information on migrants and migration – the Encyclopedia on Migration (http://encyklopedie.org/).
Plans were discussed for the future, including a joint project aiming to facilitate the transfer of scientists’ know-how to areas of the Czech Republic where a vision of sustainable development has yet to be developed. In response to the need to include marginalised regions, a lifelong learning system to promote sustainable development competences is under development. This will involve members from universities in a dialogue with local actors who can draw on their expertise in practice, with the practical outcomes of this cooperation to utilise the National Network of Local Action Groups. Arts integration in ESD was also discussed – a national-level project aiming to explore the potential of interlinking arts education and ESD pedagogies at schools.
Further dialogue is planned, in particular on how to capitalise on the potential of network cooperation, not only with universities, but also other actors in sustainable development who are interested in promoting and working towards the SDGs through education.
