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way to engage with regional partners who are not yet engaged in
ESD but are active in a particular sustainability area or working for
a specific sector. In this way, RCEs bring together more partners in
addition to the original stakeholders who initiated the RCE.
Collaborative projects of RCEs
International collaboration and contribution
to global issues
While thematic and operational groups are often initiated and main-
tained by the RCEs, the Global RCE Service Centre at UNU-IAS
facilitates these activities by enabling electronic communication
and face-to-face meetings, providing conceptual input and estab-
lishing linkages to expert, policy makers and various
international processes on sustainable develop-
ment. For example, participation of RCEs Penang
and Saskatchewan in the side events of the eighteenth
meeting of the Commission for Sustainable Development
(CSD 18), held in May 2010 in New York, enabled the
RCEs to contribute to the discussion on regional sustain-
able consumption and production (SCP) challenges and
the role of RCEs in addressing them. Similarly, RCEs
active in the ESD and biodiversity group, in preparation
for the tenth Conference of the Parties of the Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD-COP10) are consolidating
their regional actions and beginning strategic alignment
of RCE community contributions to the CBD process.
The RCEs’ work on developing joint projects is
often accompanied by development of structures that
would facilitate ongoing support for such projects. For
example, eight RCEs from Bangalore, Cairo, Cebu,
Kodagu, Kyrgyzstan, Makana, Penang and Jogjakarta
took part in a planning workshop on Traditional
Medicine and Health held in Bangalore, India, in
November 2009. In addition to the discussion of the
projects, whose topics ranged from primary health care
to sustainable livelihood through traditional medicine,
they explored conceptual, strategic and operational
issues related to establishment of the global framework
for working with ESD and health for the whole RCE
community. As the workshop was strategically organ-
ized back-to-back with the international exchange and
conference of traditional healers, the RCE representa-
tives also had an opportunity to establish linkages with
organizations and experts on the topic.
Working with ESD in the regions
To illustrate the innovative nature, diversity and signif-
icance of RCE projects in the regions, this section
highlights some examples of the RCEs’ collaborative
activities. Regular exchange of information on the projects,
through a quarterly bulletin, Skype conferences and
regional or global meetings, has led to a growing body of
ESD expertise for the RCEs and the broader community.
For decision makers, such projects often serve as innova-
tive experiments in ESD and sustainability.
RCE Kano (Nigeria) – working with Koranic schools:
challenges of rural-urban migration
There are four times as many Koranic schools as
Western conventional schools in the Kano state of
Nigeria. The number of pupils in these schools is five
times the number of pupils and wards in conventional
schools. RCE Kano observed that most students of
Koranic schools take up jobs away from the villages,
thus increasing rural-urban migration. The RCE is
working with both teachers and students in these
schools to promote the understanding that life in rural
areas provides opportunities for farming, that the local
and traditional food in rural areas is more nutritious
than that available in cities, and that some students are
too young to live away from their parents. The RCE is
Evolution of RCEs
Source: UNU-IAS
Recycling workshop in Penang, Malaysia
Image: © RCE Penang