Issue #44: February 2015
Issue 44: February 2015
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Message from the Global RCE Service Centre:Dear colleagues and friends, In Tokyo we are all waiting impatiently for the first cherry blossom sakura which will finally announce the beginning of spring and the change of season. As with many things in Japan, sakura carries a certain weight for its symbolism and tradition. Salary men gather under cherry and plum trees laden with short-lived white and pink flowers picnicking and drinking sake for the so called hanami (literally translated as flower viewing). It is hugely popular and difficult to get a spot in one of the many parks or cemeteries in Tokyo. People are merry and cheerful that the long winter is over, finally getting a break from the cold, with the excruciating hot and humid summer still far away. Spring is probably the most beautiful season in Japan. The Japanese Meteorological Agency and the public track the sakura zensen or cherry blossom front, as it moves northward up the archipelago with the approach of warmer weather via nightly forecasts following the weather segment of the news programmes. The official change of season in 2015, the vernal equinox or spring equinox, as it is called in the Northern Hemisphere, comes March 20th, so we take this opportunity to wish you all already a wonderful beginning of spring. RCE Portal REVAMP 2015 Highlights In the spirit of change and new beginnings, we would like to point out a few changes made on the RCE Portal. You may have noticed that the homepage has downsized considerably without losing any essence of content. We no longer make a difference between featured activities, news and events. Although you can still find all these items in their respective tab locations, on the homepage they are all now consolidated under HIGHLIGHTS. If you wish to display an item in this section, make sure you click on ‘Featured’ when adding a post. ESD post-2014 A new section on the RCE Portal called ESD after 2014 holds relevant information post-DESD which you and your RCE may find useful in order to plan and implement activities and projects after the DESD has now officially come to an end. If you can think of any relevant resources that should be added to this section, in terms of GAP on ESD, and any other policy-relevant documents, do let us know and we will add these for all to be accessible. Resources you will find here are for example the Okayama and Nagoya declarations, the UNESCO Roadmap, GAP relevant documents and many policy-related publications. Data Privacy Finally, we have also implemented the important features of COPYRIGHT, TERMS OF USE and PRIVACY STATEMENT on our homepage. At the bottom of the RCE Portal you will find three links which explain how your data privacy is ensured and what the terms of use are for the RCE Network website. Please take a moment to read through them, since by using the website you automatically agree to them. The Terms of Use explain the rules of the RCE website. These include use of language, types of unloadable material and content responsibility. We do hope you find these new features useful for your work and continue to improve wherever we can. There are several new projects which are currently being developed such as including an RSS Feed on the website for instantaneous news, improving the Searchability of the portal for common projects, names and activities, RCE PORTAL TUTORIAL 101, as well as enhancing the RCE World Map with more interactive features and including a feature on Connecting with Members. However, we would like to emphasize that it is your responsibility as an RCE within this network to provide us with relevant information. The RCE Portal is an interactive website that strongly depends on your input and information sharing. The Global RCE Service Centre merely acts as an administrator. Many RCEs are still missing their Profile Pages and contact information and not enough are using the portal to upload relevant material that can be shared and may be useful to others in the COMMUNITY. It is up to you at the end to make this portal successful and useful for us all! Sincerely, Global RCE Service Centre Upcoming EventsEvents organized by RCE members UN 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction Forum: Fostering Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) through Education for Sustainable Development16 March 2015 |