Africa and Middle East

atiti's picture

JOIN NOW! the 9th Global RCE Conference African Discussion Group

More than 60 delegates from 17 acknowledged RCEs and four candidate RCEs attended the African continental discussion at the 8th Global RCE Conference in Nairobi. The discussion forum provided the delegates with an opportunity to share their achievements and challenges with a view to consolidate collaborative efforts in ESD research and capacity development. Highlights for 2013 included an increased visibility of African RCEs and improved interactions with policy makers. Another highlight was on the enhanced capacities to deliver ESD following implementation of African RCE Capacity Development Programme. Capacity development processes focused on improving transformative learning processes, strengthening governance and coordination mechanisms with reference to Ubuntu philosophy, and sharing of community-engaged research case studies.

Several African RCEs shared success stories on how they are engaging local communities in ESD activities. There was discussion on how to jointly fundraise for ESD research projects under the auspices of African RCEs. Other issues discussed were on strengthening RCE governance and coordination mechanisms, participatory leadership and the practice of recording achievements for the purpose of widespread sharing as in RCE assessment. It was also agreed that more universities need to be directly engaged in RCE activities.

The following action points for implementation in 2014 emerged from the Africa continental discussion:
• Implement exchange visits across RCEs
• Conclude the capacity development materials
• Further increase visibility of African RCEs
• Implement a mentorship programme for new RCEs.

Share your progress in implementing the above action points and deliberate ways of strengthening the African RCE network as part of preparations for the 9th Global RCE Conference in Okayama this November.

Comments

RCEbuea's picture

Hello Abel, thank you for opening the floor for us once more. I am wondering if we are going to have an African Continental Meeting this year. I think its a strong binding force and helps renew our strength.
atiti's picture

Dear Masango. Great to hear from you. We have plans to hold the African meeting. I am in consultation with the new coordinators to agree on the dates and venue. RCE Kano is not in a position to host the event as earlier planned. Do you have any thoughts for a host RCE?
RCEgreaternairobi's picture

Dear Abel,
Thank you for jam-starting the plans for the Africa pre-9th global conference. I guess time is not on our side, hence we need to speed up the decision on the host. I encourage my colleagues thinking in the same lines to come forward.

This forum is good for Africa to assess progress and come up with a document evidence of our successes and challenges that we will market for collaboration and support.
atiti's picture

Hello Mary, are you planning to attend the 4th African RCE meeting?
Hamisi Mkuzi's picture

Dear Atiti. Thank you so much for sharing with us the above content. I would like to highlight our progress at RCE-Greater Pwani:-

Highlights of the RCE Greater Pwani achievements
Some of the achievements of the RCE-Greater Pwani are;
–ESD policy has been developed
–Governance and management structure has been agreed upon by stakeholders
–Collaborative projects have been initiated
–Thematic area for collaboration have been developed
–Several awareness and sensitization workshops for both the university management and stakeholders
–RCE-Greater Pwani has managed to bring stakeholders together to undertake sustainable development activities

Thank You,
Hamisi.
For RCE-Greater Pwani.

RCEzomba's picture

greetings from the warm heart of Africa. RCE Zomba stakeholders will be meeting for an evaluation workshop this month end and hopefully a clear picture of how we will forge forward will emerge. suffice to say that we hope to attend the forthcoming 32nd EEASA conference in Namibia (funds permitting)this September and will consider that as an exchange visit in disguise.

thank you abel and our continental coordinators for keeping us in the loop
atiti's picture

Thanks for the update Marlene. Other RCEs will be encouraged to undertake the evaluation process. Do you have any news to share through this month's RCE Bulletin? I am encouraging African RCEs to share with others what they are doing. The continental coordinators are shopping around for an RCE to host the 4th Continental Meeting. Any thoughts?
NCHEKOUA TCHOUMBA Jean Robert's picture

welcome every one we are now going on the 9th RCE conference network see you
atiti's picture

Bonjour Nchekoua. How have you been?
Hamisi Mkuzi's picture

@ Nchekoua, I really love your optimism. What are you going to bring with you to the conference?
atiti's picture

RCE Khmomas-Erongo of Namibia will be hosting the 4th African RCE meeting alongside the 32nd Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa Conference that will take place from 9-12 September 2014 at the University of Namibia. Please mark your calendars.
RCEbuea's picture

Great News there. Good to know that we finally have a host for the 4th RCE Meeting.
RCE Buea Supported some youths of the Mount Cameroon Forest Region with farming a equipments and start-up seeds in a project aimed at curbing youth unemployment.
Another project worked on is a two days training workshop on pig farming and the setting up on one community pig farm in the Vasingly community. We have also organised a number of workshops and stakeholder meetings during the past six months.
Hamisi Mkuzi's picture

Thank you so much for this great information. Is the 4th African RCE meeting set for this year or 2015? @ATITI
atiti's picture

It is this year Hamizi.
Since 2011 we have been holding African RCE meetings.
Hamisi Mkuzi's picture

Thank you so much Atiti. I am a member of RCE-Greater Pwani and an undergraduate student (Bsc Environmental Science). Are the youth like me going to be invited in such a meeting and is there financial support?
Thank you.
RCEgreaterpwani's picture

Great Africa. The discussion should probably focus on the way forward beyond 2014 for the ESD Agenda. I have always felt like we need a global fund which can be accessed through competitive ESD relevant proposals from the RCEs. This will make RCEs visible and active especially in the African continent. You will concur with me that one of the challenges in the coordination of RCEs is fund raising. If there was a fund that was dedicated for RCEs would improve the situation and make RCEs visible in strengthening the agenda of ESD beyond 2014.
Hamisi Mkuzi's picture

Great Africa indeed @Dr.Maarifa. I will agree with you that funding has been the main challenge especially for Africa. If at all the global funding is going to be introduced then the development process is going to accelerate. I believe that we can still bring positive change even with all this challenges in place; the road to success will never be all smooth!
Usman Muhammad's picture

We should feed in Global Action Program on ESD especially on the 5 Principles and to work on ESD in Africa beyond 2014. Though African RCEs are working towards that but more efforts are needed especially in the formal, informal, ECCE and TVET. We therefore needs to put heads together for global sustainability.

Thank you.

Usman
Hamisi Mkuzi's picture

Collaboration is the only option if we are to bring any positive change in the whole world. We should forcus on the most affected areas and come up with an effective solution. More so, a lot has to be done on the informal sector in regards to ESD even beyond this decade.
atiti's picture

Dear Usman and Dr Maarifa. USAID has made a call for concept note on development innovation ventures. I encouraged both of you to submit a concept note. Visit this link: See the link below| http://newsletters.fundsforngos.org/may-2014/usaids-development-innovation-ventures-call-for-concept-notes-2/
Best regards
Kholiwe Cindzi's picture

im delighted to find a lot of african youth concerned with the environment. this is our duty so lets do all that has to be done.
Hamisi Mkuzi's picture

Dear Kholiwe, welcome on board! The youth aren't forgotten, that's the beauty of the RCE Network. A platfor is hereby set for us to voice our opinions and views and so should we. The environment really needs our attention and it is our duty as youth to take the responsibility of saving it for the future generation. It all starts by thinking deeply of any possible solution, then multiplying it! Regards. HAMISI MKUZI for RCE-Greater Pwani
RCEgreaterpwani's picture

Hello Mkuzi

Your suggestion is quite in order and actually this will give RCEs a chance to share and learn from each other. However, we have had such meetings/conference before. There was the pre 8th global conference meeting in Kakamega last year and the National RCE conference in Nairobi 2012. Organizing such meetings is hectic and therefore none of the RCEs in Kenya is ready to organize one at the moment.
Hamisi Mkuzi's picture

Hello Maarifa, I do agree with you that organizing meetings isn't an easy task as it involves a lot of financial issues. Funding for any activity comes out clearly to be the most experienced challenge for most RCEs if not all. We should be thinking of the way forward to overcome this obstacle. This will contribute to some significance as we prepare for an ESD action plan beyond 2014
RCEgreaternairobi's picture

Greetings everyone from RCE GREATER NAIROBI, KENYA
We are currently conducting a pilot study for ESD in the primary schools.The pilot school is called Jamhuri Primary School. It is a project on "learning by doing" to conserve the environment The learners are going to be exposed to water conservation within the school e.g rain water harvesting and waste management We hope through this the learners can influence the families/households to practice the same. The other project which is on-going is the Ngong project on recovery of material from waste, RCEGN is conducting training for the community.

We hope these initiatives can be replicated in other areas of Kenya and beyond. We are also looking for collaboration in the related projects.
Hamisi Mkuzi's picture

Hello Mary, this is really good information. 'Learning by doing', this is what is meant by Education for Sustainable Development. I would really love to see these project replicated in my area. If you wun't mind, would be happy to hear more of these initiatives. Please find below my e-mail: htmkuzi430@gmail.com. Looking forward to hearing from you in this regartd. Thank you so much. HAMISI MKUZI for RCE-Greater Pwani (Kenya)
atiti's picture

Dr Otieno, these are interesting initiatives that require wider sharing. Send us a brief report for Bulletin news and also report this using our annual reports.
atiti's picture

Dear Colleagues see attached invitation to the 4th African RCE meeting.

Search