RCE Bulletin 29: November 2013

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Issue 29: November 2013

 

Message from the Global RCE Service Centre:

 
Dear colleagues and friends

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all those who participated in the 8th Global RCE Conference in Nairobi, either in person or online. The conference was a great success thanks to your strong engagement. Presentations, minutes and photos from the conference will be posted online in due course. In the meantime, we encourage you all to continue the conference discussions online, via the RCE Portal here.

With much appreciation,

The Global RCE Service Centre

Upcoming Events
 
COPERNICUS Alliance Conference “Leadership in a Changing World: Higher education, sustainability and the new Global Action Programme on ESD”
10-11 January 2014

The COPERNICUS Alliance - a European network of higher education institutions for sustainable development - is pleased to share programme information and to invite participation in an international conference that it is organizing early in the new year. The Conference will focus on global platforms, institutional development and student leadership for sustainable development in higher education. It asks questions such as:

  1. Q. What have been the major changes and shifts in higher education towards sustainability over the last ten years?
  2. Q. What does the future hold for universities and colleges engaged with this agenda?
  3. Q. What role will the new Global Action Programme on ESD play in advancing change for sustainability in higher education?
  4. Q. How do we extend the circle of the committed and build partnerships for change?
  5. Q. How do you understand transformation for sustainable development in higher education?

Keynote speakers include: Dr. Alexander Leicht (UNESCO ESD, France); Mahesh Pradhan (UNEP – GUPES, Kenya); Dr. Geoff Scott (Sustainable Futures Leadership Academy, Australia); Prof Javier Benayas (ARIUSA and CRUE-CADEP, Spain); Dr Lorna Down (University of West Indies, Jamaica); Jamie Agombar (NUS, UK); Felix Spira (RootAbility, Germany); Dr. Zoe Robinson (Keele University, UK); Prof Clemens Mader (COPERNICUSAlliance, Germany); and, Prof Daniella Tilbury (UNESCO M&E Group for the DESD and COPERNICUS Alliance, UK).

For further information, abstract submissions and booking details please download the Conference brochure here. ABSTRACT SUBMISSION and REGISTRATION DEADLINE is Monday 9 December. Download registration information here.

ISCUS - International Students Conference on Urban Sustainability

24-25 February 2014

TUNILIVRE-Curitiba and its partners: the RCE-Curitiba-Paraná and the UTFPR-University Tecnological Federal of Paraná-Studio Cities & Biodiversity Project are very pleased to invite the colleagues of all RCEs to the ISCUS - International Students Conference on Urban Sustainability, which will take place in Curitiba - 24 and 25 February 2014. Please check the main information at the site http://www.unilivre.org.br/iscus/ as well as the themes to be focused. Other details will be add to the site soon. The International Students Conference on Urban Sustainability (ISCUS) aims to provide an opportunity for students from different countries to exchange knowledge and promoting research. By gathering presentations from undergraduate and graduate students on case studies, research and practical experiences on subject matters, it will also encourage the strengthening of international networking between students and the institutions.

3rd UNESCO-APEID Meeting on Entrepreneurship Education

10-12 December 2013

UNESCO Bangkok and the Ministry of Education in Malaysia are co-organizing the 3rd UNESCO-APEID Meeting on Entrepreneurship Education to continue on-going discussions about entrepreneurship education and to strengthen the network of entrepreneurship educators and practitioners. Objectives of the meeting are to: launch the Entrepreneurship Education network (EE-Net); share innovative and educational approaches, projects and practices of entrepreneurship education; identify potential areas of joint activities; and discuss 4th Meeting on Entrepreneurship Education and other follow-up activities for 2014.

About 100 participants including policy makers, educators, entrepreneurs, professionals and youth are expected to attend the meeting. The Malaysian hosts will cover local accommodation and meals of the participants for the duration of the meeting, but participants have to cover their own travel costs and other expenses.To find out more about the event, download this document: here. To register for the event, please download the registration form hereand send to UNESCO by 1 November 2013.

Latest News

RCEs featured on Voice of Nigeria Radio Network

During the Third Africa RCE Meeting in Abuja earlier this year, the national radio network VON (Voice of Nigeria) spoke with a number of ESD and RCE experts about the importance of education for sustainable development in the country and beyond. Listen to the radio programme by clicking here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xv7cN5A-ho&feature=youtu.be.

RCE Greater Dhaka and Knowledge Based Area Development

Bangladesh is the most densely populated least developed country in the world. Most of the country is the alluvial flood plain of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Basin and is agriculture-based. But due to intense cultivation and indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides the land has increasingly losing its fertility. While Bangladesh is endowed with many people, it has very limited natural resources and financial capital. By developing human capital, it can overcome some of the limitations of the country’s physical capital and, at the same time, generate capital resources. Considering this, Professor M Alimullah Miyan, Vice-Chancellor and Founder of IUBAT, has postulated the concept of “Knowledge Based Area Development (KBAD)” to educate young persons from each locality and giving them opportunities for higher education in ‘marketable knowledge and skills with sustainability practices’. Read more about his work here.

RCE Brittany Launches new Website

RCE Brittany recently launched its new website to keep all interested members up to date on their projects and programmes. Visit their website here: http://www.rce-bretagne.fr/.

Call for Papers: World Symposium on Sustainability at Universities (WSSD-U-2014)

The World Symposium on Sustainability at Universities (WSSD-U-2014), which will be held in Manchester, UK on 3-5 September 2014. This will follow-up a highly successful event held in Rio de Janeiro last year, parallel to the UN Conferenceon Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Organizers are seeking contributions from suitably qualified academics, research groups and students working in the field of sustainable development as a whole,and concerned with research on sustainability, on curriculum greening and campus activities,in particular. This Call is also meant to engage colleagues undertaking practical initiatives and projects aimed at promoting sustainable development at universities,or where universities transfer information and know-how to developing countries.WSSD-U-2014 will offer a good platform for those undertaking local, national and international projects to showcase how higher education institutions are putting the principles of sustainable development into practice. Interested people and organizationsshould submit an abstract as soon as possible, but no later than30th January 2014. Further details WSSD-U-2014, including on howto submit an abstract and how to register can be seen here.

New Publications and Resources

New Publication: African Heritage Knowledge in the Context of Social Innovation

Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) were developed as sites for participatory learning and action within the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), opening up more collaborative and inclusive learning spaces towards more just and sustainable ways of life now and in the future. Some of the contours of these emergent education processes of collaborative learning-to-change as they relate to African heritage knowledge in the context of social innovation are developing in many RCE contexts today. The Education for Sustainable Development Programme at UNU-IAS has worked with RCEs across the African continent and in particular southern Africa to create a new publication showcasing a series of case studies in this regard. To download the book click here.

New Article: Going Beyond Sustainability

What is your idea of sustainability? Is there a right or wrong? Adrian Alexander Poher got his MSc in Social Responsibility at Aston Business School, Aston University, UK and is affiliated with RCE Hamburg. He explored the idea of Regenerating Thinking – Development and Design for the Built Environment that looks beyond the horizon of sustainability the way most of us usually talk about. Download his article here.

 

This is a publication of UNU-IAS RCE Global Service Centre.

Please send your comments, suggestions and materials to rceservicecentre@ias.unu.edu

Visit the ESD Programme's News and Events page regularly for up-to-date news and event information.

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