RCE Bulletin
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Greetings from the Global RCE Service Centre! We start by thanking all RCEs who submitted proposals for RCE Event hosts for this year's RCE Regional Meetings, as we look towards continued opportunities to meet and collaborate further this year. Speaking of Regional Meetings, the latest one to take place (hosted by RCE Fryslan for the European region last month) has just released an online magazine covering outcomes from the event - see below for what is an inspiring read!
As we go throughout the year, we would also like to take this opportunity to remind all RCEs to keep reporting up-to-date during the year. Please note, for those RCEs who did not report during the GAP (2015-2019), these profiles are no longer active on the portal. Reporting is encouraged at least once per year - this includes the submission of RCE Projects on the RCE Portal, and any necessary updates to RCE profile pages. Keeping these updated is also a great way to share information and for others within the network and beyond to learn from.
If you would like to share any news, upcoming events, open calls, or publications for an upcoming bulletin, please complete this form and email your submission to the Global RCE Service Centre at rceservicecentre@unu.edu (submissions close on the 15th of each month).
Sincerely,
The Global RCE Service Centre
The team at RCE Fryslan, hosts of the Europe Regional Meeting 2022 (held 8-9 February, 2022), have put together an online magazine compiling the inspirational knowledge and ideas that were shared at the event. It includes:
- Links to rewatch the different elements of the programme
- Interviews with some of the speakers
- Additional background information
- Inspiration from a number of other RCEs
- Learning outcomes of the day
Thank you once again to RCE Fryslan for such an inspiring programme! Take a look at the online magazine here (best viewed in Chrome or Firefox).
Upcoming Events
4 April, 2022, 14:00-16:30 (GMT+01:00), online
Ahead of the World Conference on Higher Education (WHEC2022), organised by UNESCO from 18-20 May in Barcelona, Spain, a number of youth webinars will be held. This webinar from Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) will deliver training on Sustainable Development Goals Curriculum Mapping. Participants will explore the role of education institutions to embed sustainability in learning through ESD, and use their training to map how the SDGs and wider elements of sustainability learning are incorporated in their modules. Participants will then be able to open a dialogue with their university to activate change. Read more
7 April, 2022, 21:00-23:00 (JST), online
Organised by the UNESCO Chair in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Engineering (DRR&RE) at University College London (UCL), this short introductory course will outline the probabilistic risk assessment methodology applied to structures exposed to seismic hazards and the retrofitting strategies used for disaster risk reduction. Read more
Open Calls
RCE Dobong-gu invites youth to join 'Project Neuru II', a project to improve ecological literacy and glocal leadership. The name 'Neuru' is a Korean word meaning 'for a long time, not all at once', which could be translated to aiming for a sustainable life for youth for a long time. Last year, the project was held under the main topic 'The Truth of Hamburgers'. This year, it will be held under the main topic 'Sustainable Fashion'. RCE Dobong-gu hopes many RCEs will participate in Project Neuru II, which is conducted with a Zoom-based photo-voice research method. For more information, refer to the flyer and operation guideline.
Application period: 7 March - 31 March, 2022
Eligibility: Youth aged 10 years and over
Application method: Email an application form to bhs0110@dobong.go.kr
Read more about Project Neuru here.
On a biennial basis, 17 outstanding young leaders from across various sectors are recognised for their agency, courage and ingenuity in finding lasting solutions to the world's greatest challenges. Throughout a two-year term, these Young Leaders will engage with youth for the 2030 Agenda through their platforms, networks, and advocacy opportunities with the United Nations and its partners.
Applications for the 'Young Leaders for the SDGs' 2022 class are now open for young people from across the world, aged between 15-29, closing on 31 March, 2022. Full details including how to apply can be found here.
The annual Earth Month Ecochallenge is coming up this April and is focused on the SDGs. Creating an Ecochallenge team is an easy way to engage people, with opportunities for team-building, individual actions, and community change. Ecochallenge.org (formerly Northwest Earth Institute) is a founding partner of RCE Greater Portland and won an RCE Award in 2015 for this ground-breaking program. Many RCEs around the world have participated over the years and this year once again, all RCEs are invited to sign up to be a part of the solution to the planet's biggest challenges through the power of collective action. Find out more and register your Ecochallenge team here.
UNU-IAS invites applications for September 2022 admission to its postgraduate degree programme, the PhD in Sustainability Science, a three-year programme that aims to produce scholars who will become key researchers in the field of sustainability science. The programme takes an innovative approach to sustainability, seeking to promote a better understanding of the issues by incorporating global change perspectives, specifically those related to climate change and biodiversity. The application deadline is 28 March, 2022. Read more
(Photo credit: Kenichi Tanaka)
Latest News
On 5 March, 2022, over 100 participants joined the 13th International Conference on Environmental and Rural Development online, organised by the International Society of Environmental and Rural Development, the Bohol Island State University, Philippines, and the Institute of Environmental Rehabilitation and Conservation, Japan, and co-organised by UNU-IAS. A special RCE session on the topic of 'Disaster Management: Community-based responses in the aftermath of devastating typhoons' delved into the important role of education, multistakeholder partnership, and community engagement in dealing with local problems, particularly in the aftermath of devastating typhoons. Experiences were shared from four RCEs in the Philippines, along with discussions on lessons learned on how RCEs in typhoon-hit regions in the Philippines should respond and contribute to mitigating the adverse impacts of disasters. Read the full report here.
A key project of RCE Greater Western Sydney, the Hawkesbury Resilience Project engaged and empowered residents to act on climate change. Residents of the Hawkesbury are not only experiencing and responding to acute incidents such as fires, floods, and heatwaves, but are experiencing the many social and ecological flow-on effects.
Funded by an AdaptNSW Community Grant, the project raised awareness of current activities, provided opportunities for direct community engagement, and created a mechanism for further place-based initiatives. Read more
An online workshop, 'Industrial Skill Development in Developing Countries: Education, Skills Demands, and Productivity' was held on 28 February, 2022. Co-organised by Nagoya University, Japan (as part of its Skills and Knowledge for Youth (SKY) Project) and UNU-IAS, the event brought together 57 participants across the globe to discuss skills development within developing countries. It focused on the opportunities and challenges of technical and vocational education and training (TVET), particularly regarding the nature of skills composition required in respective contexts of work. Read more
ESD BOOKS, PUBLICATIONS AND OTHER
The IPCC released its latest climate report on 28 February, 2022, 'Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability'.
This contribution from Working Group II to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report assesses the impacts of climate change, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It finds that human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks.
The report also finds that people and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit. Learn more and access the full report here.
RCE Dobong-gu has published an annual report for 2021, in which they share their ESD activities and major achievements, as well as upcoming major events. As an RCE hosted by a local government, RCE Dobong-gu in Seoul, Korea, is carrying out ESD activities that utilise the characteristics of large cities.
Key projects have included the creation of ESD textbooks and the 'Global ESD Youth Project Neuru', an RCE city collaboration project.
Take a look at their annual report here.
This is a publication of the UNU-IAS Global RCE Service Centre.
If you wish to contribute to the monthly bulletin or have news, upcoming events, or publications you would like to share, please use this form. You can email it to the Global RCE Service Centre: rceservicecentre@unu.edu. Submissions must be made by the 15th of every month. In addition, we encourage you to continue using the RCE Portal to exchange ideas, share expertise and resources and deliberate emerging sustainability issues towards ESD implementation at a global level.
Please send your comments, suggestions and materials to rceservicecentre@unu.edu.
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