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10th Asia-Pacific RCE Regional Meeting Report

need financial support from outside. They have been trying to raise funds locally and overseas, and have been successful with some p rojects. Expectations are huge and d espite all the challenges this RCE has been able to steer through. In terms of capacity building, they have been able to mentor the other partners. The value addition they have done is very well accepted and in demand. They feel that more resources will add momentum to their agenda. For next year they are keen to have a case study that they could share with the global network. RCE Penang shared their different initiatives /activities : It was informed that their RCE is led by university. Further their engagement has been mainly through MoUs, which have a 10-year life. They are now learning how to better their partnerships and engagement. They have launched a regional network which has been much better than the MoUs. There is now a good mix of NGOs, schools and people who move the sustainability agenda in society. However it was informed that there is always a challenge of funding their activities. One possible funding source is through the research grant. One of the challenges they face is to get the stakeholders on board and enable them to embrace the ESD and SDG framework. RCE Penang has about 51 partners including schools undertaking various activities. Some of these activities include- empowering teachers with the knowledge of ESD through a series of webinar workshops. In addition they have also published a book to assist teachers from different subject areas to embed ESD across the curriculum. Through the School Sejahtera Club they are supporting schools and teacher to develop ESD objectives. An intervention study using sustainability module across different countries was also shared with the delegates. Representatives from RCE Jammu shared the activities undertaken by them with the participants. Since they are a new entrant in this network and are in the transition state, they have convened meetings with their stakeholders and apprised them about the agenda as well as the roadmap of RCE. They are hoping that in the next year they will see their progress through assessment of their activities. Dr. Fadeeva in the end shared some of her observations on the feedback shared by RCEs: She mentioned that the feedback provides focus on the way RCEs are working with multiple stakeholders. She also mentioned that this assessment will answer several questions such as how often have all the members of the RCE met together and what if you brought together the majority of stakeholders for common reflection . This idea of collaborative assessment is one of the few meaningful ways to bring together people and try to become more ambitious. She reiterated that if we are truly looking at the SDG agenda and issues around resour ces, etc. then the sense of urgency needs to kick in and evaluation is a strategy to get things moving. Closing Ceremony Special Remarks Ms. Livleen Kahlon, Associate Director, Environment Education and Awareness, TERI During the Closing ceremony, Ms Kahlon stated, it is great to see that we have had so much active participation from all the delegates. She added that talking and connecting is a crucial part of this meeting. A note is being made of the actions we have come up with and the people we need to connect with. The interactions in different working groups saw many people coming forward with d ifferent actions. As far as RCE Delh i‟s w ork is con cern ed , w e are aim in g to d o youth conferences within the city at a local level with more on ground actions. Coming together at this important forum has given us a wider exposure to see what are the issues and the possibilities at a wider scale. 14


10th Asia-Pacific RCE Regional Meeting Report
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