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 post-conference online evaluation survey. The useful feedback you have provided on the quality and effectiveness of the conference is highly appreciated. The results of the survey will be posted on the RCE Portal soon.

Meanwhile, we encourage you all to join the post conference online discussions, via the RCE Portalhttp://www.rcenetwork.org/portal/community with a view to implementing joint action points that emerged from the 8th Global RCE Conference. The minutes of the 8th Global RCE Conference are now ready and are available here. A conference booklet is being compiled for later distribution based on the minutes.

With much appreciation,

The Global RCE Service Centre

 

Upcoming Events

1st Regional Conference on Campus Sustainability

7–9 April 2014

The 1st Regional Conference on Campus Sustainability (1RCCS) will be organized by Universiti Malaysia Sabah with the collaboration of Universiti Malaya, Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) and Palawan State University. Organizers welcome all delegates to this beautiful state of Malaysian Borneo. The conference will focus on a broad range of topics related to campus sustainability. The conference organizers invite posters and papers relevant to the theme of the conference “Building Sustainability Edge through Institutional Strategy”. More information is available here: http://www.ums.edu.my/ecomc/.

RCE Grand Rapids to host its second annual Virtual Youth Conference

2 May 2014

RCE Grand Rapids is planning to host its second annual RCE Americas Virtual Youth Conference on 2 May, 2014. This year’s topic is on Food Systems and Sustainability. For more details, contact RCE Grand Rapids (grandrapidsrce@gmail.com).

RCE London ESD Conference

10 June 2014

RCE London will hold its first annual ESD Conference – ‘Supporting employability, society and the environment curriculum for sustainability’ on 10 June 2014 at London South Bank University. The conference will bring together educationalists, NGOs and employers to promote and share good subject based and interdisciplinary practice across a wide range of areas, from both the natural sciences and the social sciences. For more details visit:http://www.esdlondon.co.uk/.

3rd RCE Americas Meeting

28 July–2 August 2014

The 3rd Americas RCEs annual meeting will be hosted by RCE Western Jalisco and it is tentatively scheduled for 28 July–2 August 2014. Further details will be shared with RCEs in due course.

7th RCE Asia-Pacific Meeting

26–28 August 2014

The 7th RCE Asia-Pacific Meeting will be hosted by RCE Penang in Malaysia from 26–28 August 2014, in conjunction with the International Symposium on Sejahtera Living, Sustainable Community. Further details will be shared with RCEs in due course.

Youth Conference

7 November 2014

Prior to the UNESCO World Conference on ESD, which is scheduled for 10–12 November 2014, three stakeholder meetings will be held in Okayama, Japan: the 9th Global RCE Conference (4–7 November); the International Forum on UNESCO ASPnet (6–8 November) and the Youth Conference (7 November).

Organisers of the Youth Conference will call for youth participants from all over the world who are actively engaged in ESD. Fifty selected youth will be invited to both the Youth Conference and the UNESCO World Conference on ESD. Youth representatives from the RCE community are encouraged to apply. Application guidelines will be posted on the UNESCO World Conference on ESD website (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco-world-conference-on-esd-2014/) in April 2014. To receive updates when available, please email your request for “more info” to esd2014@goipeace.or.jp. For more details, please clickhere.

Latest News

Call for Applications for new Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD (RCEs)

The United Nations University is now calling for applications for new RCEs. Those organizations interested in becoming an RCE are requested to send expressions of interest to the Global RCE Service Centre (rceservicecentre@ias.unu.edu) by Monday, 7 April 2014. RCE candidates are then requested to submit an application and an application summary by Friday, 30 May 2014. The Global RCE Service Centre will communicate with the applicants for the following months, so that applications can be developed in time for the 9th Ubuntu Committee Meeting which is scheduled for the first week of November this year. For more information regarding guidelines for applications, visit our website (here).

RCEs of Americas hold Conference Call

On 31 January 2014 RCEs of the Americas held a conference call in which an international NGO framework for the RCEs was discussed. Updates from seven RCEs (Saskatchewan, Grand Rapids, Shenandoah Valley, Lima, Western Jalisco, Mauricie/Centre-du-Québec and Greater Portland) were also shared. For more information, visithttps://mybb.gvsu.edu/webapps/login/

Youth Unite for Voluntary Action (YUVA Meet) 2014 and RCE Youth Session

Youth representatives from 11 RCEs gathered in Delhi, India to attend the annual YUVA Meet 2014, organized by RCE Delhi, and the RCE Youth Session from 3–5 February 2014. This provided an excellent opportunity for RCE youth representatives from all over the world to share their experiences with RCEs and discuss the strategic directions to strengthen the global RCE youth network. The brief report of the RCE Youth Session is availablehere.

ProSPER.Net Represented at the 2014 Delhi Sustainable Development Summit

TERI University and Keio University (both members of ProSPER.Net) together with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (a partner of ProSPER.Net) organised the 14th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) Thematic Track on “Adaptive Development for the Sustainability of Asia: Research and Practice” held on February 8, 2014 in New Delhi, India. The session focused on the science-policy interface for sustainable development in general and climate change adaptation and environmental risk reduction in particular. The session was about experience sharing and prospects for sustainability in Asia-Pacific countries. Participants at the session in large part came from higher education and research institutions. UNU-IAS (ProSPER.Net Secretariat) made a presentation and joined the panel discussion under the sub-theme “Value of Field-based/Project-based Learning and Action Research” on the topic of “Fostering Global and Local Leadership for Sustainability” highlighting the contributions of ProSPER.Net and the global Regional Center of Expertise (RCE) on ESD communities.

RCE Chubu hosts the RCE Chubu ESD DAY Event

RCE Chubu held a stakeholder meeting at Nagoya City University on 8 February 2014 in which more than 80 people from various parts of the Chubu area attended. Ongoing activities and lessons learned were shared during the meeting. RCE Chubu aims to share recommendations based on its collaborative activities at the forthcoming UNESCO World Conference on ESD. The brief report of the meeting is available here.

UNertia: UNESCO/UNEP’s Sustainability Campaign and Competition for the Asia-Pacific Youth

Since its launch in October 2013, more than 60 individuals and 17 schools/groups from 12 countries have joined the UNertia initiative in implementing sustainable actions in their local communities. The interest in UNertia has been great and to ensure that more schools get the opportunity to join, UNESCO Bangkok has extended the submission deadline to 30 June 2014. For more information on UNertia and its participants, please visitwww.joinunertia.org.

Call for Papers: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education - special issue on "Sustainable Development at Universities: Trends from Africa"

The International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education (published by Emerald Publishing, UK) is the prime academic journal focusing on matters related to sustainable development in a higher education context. Established in 2000 and now on its 15th volume, IJSHE -which is fully indexed and with the impact factor 0.824 (2012) - has documented the evolution of scientific thinking on sustainable development at universities for the past 15 years, and has been instrumental in catalysing some key developments. The latest issue of IJSHE can be seen at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/rss/1467-6370.xml

Papers are now invited for a special issue on "Sustainable Development at Universities: Trends from Africa". The special issue seeks to provide a venue for a celebration of the achievements on sustainable development in higher education in Africa. In particular, it intends to accommodate papers on empirical studies, projects or practical experiences which show how universities across Africa treat and handle matters related to sustainable development. Contributions are now invited from suitably qualified experts, living in Africa or working in cooperation with African universities.

Expressions of interest, initially consisting of a short abstract of 200 words with the full contact details of the authors, should be sent to the guest editors by the 30th March 2014 at: beids@beids.de. For inquiry, please contact Prof. Walter Leal (walter.leal@haw-hamburg.de).

 

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

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