RCE Okayama (Japan) and the ESD Okayama Award Steering Committee are pleased to announce that the ESD Okayama Award 2024 is now open for entries.

The Award honours outstanding ESD practices in local communities around the world to support organisations carrying out ESD activities and to promote ESD to local communities globally through showcasing their initiatives.

Co-hosted by the RCE Yokohama Youth Group and UNU-IAS, the 6th Japan RCE Youth Meeting was held in Yokohama, Japan on 16 and 17 February 2024. It was attended by 15 youth members from 7 RCEs across the country. The event coincided with the Working- level Meeting of Japanese RCEs hosted by RCE Yokohama with 19 participants.  

The International Association of Universities (IAU) has launched its 3rd iteration of the IAU Global Survey on Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development (HESD) 2022 - Accelerating Action for the SDGs.

(Report submitted by RCE Kuching)

Following an unprecedented year, the RCE SDG Youth Challenge has now commenced its fourth year running. The global initiative aims to engage and empower local youth leaders with the opportunity to have a voice and implement their own place-based projects on issues that matter to them and the RCEs.  

The RCE SDG Youth Challenge 2020 focused on localised youth action to address SDGs 11, 12 and 15.

During the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD, from 2015-2019, RCEs conducted close to 480 projects across 46 countries. Research was recently conducted on these projects, both at a global and regional level, analysing the SDGs, themes, institutions, audiences and environments across the projects completed, all tied to SDG 4 (Quality Education).

Take a look at some of the trends here:

Since 2015, RCE Central Semenanjung (RCE CS) Malaysia through its secretariat - University Malaya (UM) Community & Sustainability Centre or well-known as 'UMCares' has organised a competition for in-house university students named the 'UMCares Competition'. This year, UMCares along with the strategic partnership of UM Sustainability & Living Labs Secretariat (UMSLLS) have redesigned the competition with the aim to enhance and showcase eco-campus and community initiatives at the UM residential colleges level.

A new publication recently launched from UNESCO Bangkok and UNU-IAS, 'Multi-stakeholder Approaches to Education for Sustainable Development in Local Communities: Towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Asia', presents a collection of case studies from RCEs in the Asia-Pacific region, demonstrating innovative approaches to ESD through multi-stakeholder partnerships at the local level.