The RCE Youth SDG Challenge ‘Youth for the Goals’ 2020 series launched this month, with 19 youth-led sustainability projects focusing on SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 15: Life on Land. Led by the RCE Asia-Pacific Regional Youth Leaders (RCE Greater Western Sydney) via the global RCE network, projects for this year’s challenge include poster and design competitions, tree planting, justice forums, waste management solutions and more, all targeting youth at the grassroots level. All projects are underpinned by SDG 4/ESD.

The 2020 TeLL-Net Forum (Telling Live Lessons from Disasters) was held in Kobe, Japan from 24-26 January, 2020. TeLL-Net was created in 2006 to preserve and pass on lived experiences and lessons from disasters to other areas and generations to contribute to the creation of disaster-resilient societies.

On 1-2 February, 2020, UNU-IAS and RCE Hyogo-Kobe held a Japanese RCE Youth Meeting in Kobe, Japan. Twenty-five youth members from seven Japanese RCEs, Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan (MOEJ), and UNU-IAS attended the meeting over the two days, whilst some other members from each RCE also joined the field visit and workshop on the second day.

The Global RCE Service Centre is delighted to announce six new RCEs joining the network, who were acknowledged at the Fourteenth Meeting of the Ubuntu Committee of Peers for the RCEs held last month in Tokyo, Japan, from 5-6 December, 2019.

Please join us in extending a warm welcome to the new members of the RCE family:

The 2019 Asia-Pacific SDG Challenge 'Youth for the Goals' aimed to inspire and mobilise on-the-ground projects led by youth, centred around social sustainability (SDGs 1, 6 and 10).

Collectively it achieved an engagement of nearly 8,000 youth participants across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

2019 RCE Awards for Innovative Projects on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

Organised by the School of Education, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (HNBGU), Srinagar, Garhwal, a six-day training programme on 'Reorienting education towards sustainability for higher education teachers' was held from 5-10 December, 2019 in Srinagar, Uttarakhand, India. RCE Srinagar helped the School of Education to design the training programme.

The year 2019 is a milestone both for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development / Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 11th ASEAN+3 Leadership Programme on Sustainable Consumption and Production took place from 11-14 November, 2019 in Bandung, Indonesia. Organised by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the Hanns Seidel Foundation (Jakarta and Hanoi Offices), this annual programme (run since 2008) has provided leadership training to key target groups, including government officials to raise awareness and inspire action on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP).