In its role as a global
leader of science-based environmental policy,
the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) continues to attach great importance
to universities which will educate the environmentalists
of the future as well as serve as the pool
for the intellectual capital needed to
address the concerns of climate change and
growing environmental degradation.
To strengthen its interaction
with universities, UNEP last week convened
the Global Universities Partnership on Environment
and Sustainability (GUPES) meeting at its
headquarters in Nairobi which brought together
40 professors from Africa, Asia and the
Pacific, Latin America, North America and
Europe.
Discussions during the
two-day meeting revolved around how to enhance
the quality of environmental education in
universities in Africa and globally and
in turn mainstream the teaching and research
into policymaking as well as into civil
society.
"The universities
of Africa here represent the top sector
where there is the wisdom that can be mainstreamed.
This needs to be increased at the national
level, into governments, business and into
society," said Nay Htun, Research Professor
from the Department of Technology and Society
in the State University of New York, who
was attending the meeting.
UNEP brings a vast expertise
and knowledge to the GUPES in shaping the
university curricula to incorporate environment
and sustainability issues that look at climate
change, ecosystem management, hazardous
waste, environmental governance and resource
efficiency.
In his opening remarks,
Ibrahim Thiaw, Director of UNEP's Division
of Environmental Policy Implementation (DEPI),
underscored the important role of universities
in generating informed change agents required
in the achievement of sustainable development
as well as the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals. ''Participating institutions
are the nucleus of universities that have
come together to develop the GUPES partnership.
UNEP hopes that the network will grow with
hundreds of universities expected to join
the network by the Rio+20 summit,"
he said.
And as the world gears
up for the climate meeting in Cancun, Mexico,
next week, streamlining the environment
into the public domain is as important as
ever. The devastating impact of climate
change, growing numbers of conflicts over
natural resources and increasing pressure
on ecosystems will require the assistance
of an ever larger number of trained environmentalists.
The GUPES offers a platform for training
specialists and inspiring the innovation
that will offer solutions to current and
future environmental threats.
Education has always
been a priority for UNEP and its annual
training programme with Germany's Dresden
University on environmental management has
been ongoing since 1977. Over the past three
years, UNEP has also worked closely with
over 90 universities across 42 countries
in Africa in building a programme for bringing
environmental concerns and solutions into
higher education. Known as the Mainstreaming
Environment and Sustainability in African
Universities (MESA), this successful project
is now being considered for replication
in Caribbean universities under the Mainstreamimg
Environment and Sustainability in the Caribbean
(MESCA) partnership programme.
Similarly in China,
UNEP launched an initiative with Tongji
University in May 2002 to create the UNEP-Tongji
Institute for Environment and Sustainable
Development (IESD) that seeks to develop
educational programmes to build research,
technical and managerial skills in developing
countries. UNEP also has partnerships with
the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology,
the Institute of Soil Science and Fertilizer
in the Shannxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences
and the Gansu Research Institute for Water
Conservancy.
Most recently, UNEP
has established a partnership with the University
of Eastern Finland to work on International
Environmental Law-making and Diplomacy.
The GUPES meeting was
preceded by a one-day meeting on 17 November
on Asian-African universities to discuss
experiences and pressing concerns in environmental
policy and research on both continents.
