Overview
As part of the Water and Environment Support (WES) in the Southern Neighborhood region project, a Regional Activity focusing on ‘’Awareness Raising and Education for Sustainable Development Educating for Sustainable Development (ESD): Training of Trainers on campaigns for sustainable consumption’’ (HE-2-REG) was tailor-designed and delivered to some 61 competent stakeholders from the WES Partner Countries (PCs), namely Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia.
The Activity was delivered in three online sessions, in the second semester of 2021.
The interconnected crises of global depletion of natural resources, food shortages, biodiversity loss, and climate change are strongly linked to the fact that more is demanded from nature than it can provide. To avoid catastrophic consequences and move forward, values, attitudes and behaviours must change at many levels.
In order to find responses to address these problems, the online Regional Training was organised to provide technical assistance and strengthen the capacities of the WES Partner Countries to effectively implement Education for Sustainable Development campaigns and initiatives on sustainable consumption.
Objectives
The objectives of this online training were to:
Support the PCs in being engaged within the new international and regional ESD contexts and frameworks leading to 2030.
Enhance the capacity of stakeholders to implement the Action Plan of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MSESD) and also contribute to the forthcoming revision of its Action Plan (2022-2030).
Facilitate the competent authorities of the PCs to design and coordinate ESD actions on Sustainable Consumption aligned with the 2030 Agenda and other international and regional frameworks.
Develop the necessary competences of key non-state stakeholders of the PCs in designing and implementing campaigns on sustainable consumption with emphasis on different aspects of the food chain, as well as on packaging issues.
Methodology and Implementation
The Mediterranean Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development (MSESD) a flagship of the Union for Mediterranean (UfM), the Barcelona Convention, UNESCO, the UNECE and the League of Arab States, was adopted by UfM Ministers of Environment in 2014 and its Action Plan by Mediterranean Ministers of Education in 2016. The MSESD can actually transform educational institutions and therefore help countries to accelerate more sustainable economies and societies.
ESD aims to raise knowledge, awareness and action in order to transform the culture of production and consumption, to show an alternative to consumer societies and address the unsustainable consumption and production patterns of current economic structures more directly.
Within this framework, this WES regional activity came to assist the PCs to prepare and implement ESD campaigns and initiatives on sustainable consumption.
The team of WES Education for Sustainable Development Experts organised an online Regional Training in the second semester of 2021, during which a number of presentations and discussions on ESD training concepts and methodologies, case studies and good practices were made. International experts from the Region and the EU namely UNESCO Paris and the UNESCO Regional Office in Venice, the UNECE, UNEP/MAP, Union for the Mediterranean, and League of Arab States, presented their initiatives and practices embedding and promoting ESD, shared their knowledge and experience and participated in the brainstorming sessions that took place between the trainers and trainees.
Main topics:
ESD key concepts, methods, case studies and good practices; the Mediterranean Strategy on ESD and its Action Plan; the #ESDfor2030; Education for Sustainable Consumption (ESC); Designing campaigns and ESD actions on sustainable consumption, food and packaging; Current patterns of single-use packaging consumption; Education for a zero-waste future.
The training structured around the Webinars/Modules below:
Webinar Module 1: ‘’Distilling the priorities for a renewed ESD Action Plan for 2030 for the Mediterranean’’
Webinar Module 2: “Sustainable Consumption related to Food”
Webinar Module 3: “Sustainable Consumption & Packaging”
Results
The online Regional Training was carried out via 3 webinars (~9 hours in total) on 14/07, 14/09 and 25/10/2021.
In total, 61 trainees from Ministries of Education, Environment, Water, Development, dealing with Awareness Raising/Education/Sustainable Consumption & Production and following the MSESD process, along with environmental Non-Government Organisations, Consumers’ Associations, Civil Society Organisations, academia and researchers, participated in this training, during which they had the opportunity to:
Learn about the new international and regional SD/ESD contexts and developments leading to 2030.
Enhance capacities to implement the Action Plan of the MSESD in light of the #ESDfor2030 and Agenda 2030.
Increase knowledge and competences to design and coordinate ESD actions on Sustainable Consumption.
Develop skills in designing and implementing campaigns on sustainable consumption with emphasis on different aspects of the food chain, as well as on packaging issues.
Reinforce a regional network of stakeholders to contribute to the forthcoming revision of the Action Plan (2022-2030) of the MSESD.
Useful Link
WES Project
The EU funded Water and Environment Support (WES) is a regional project designed to contribute to the implementation of an integrated approach to pollution reduction and prevention, in line with the Union for the Mediterranean agendas and the Barcelona Convention. WES is also meant to contribute to a more efficient management of scarce water resources in the ENI Southern Neighbourhood region.
The project aims to do so by increasing the capacity of stakeholders that are involved in pollution reduction and water management and support them in formulating and implementing the environmental and water policies.
WES supports the shift to a more sustainable consumption and production model, promotes an integrated and efficient management of water, combats plastic pollution and marine litter and fosters dialogue on key environmental and sustainable development issues. In this way, WES also supports mutual understanding, cooperation, and peace in the region.
The WES Partner Countries are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia. However, to ensure the coherence and effectiveness of EU funding or to promote regional cooperation, the eligibility of specific actions can be extended to neighboring countries in the Southern Neighborhood region.
For any further information on WES project, please visit: www.wes-med.eu
And follow us for all the latest updates via:
DISCLAIMER:
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the WES Project and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
