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Measuring Up: How the UK is performing on the SDGs
A new report on SDGs in UK released on 3 July 2018 has highlighted why the UK should place the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the heart of its Brexit strategy to galvanise support for a positive vision of the country and build the foundations for future prosperity.
The report is the first comprehensive assessment of the UK’s performance against the SDGs and highlights a significant danger of the UK quality of life getting worse if action is not taken.
SDGs in the Himalayas: A Solar-powered Learning Tea Community
by May East
It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community, a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. And the practice can be carried out as a group, as a city, as a nation. Thich Nhat Hanh, “The next Buddha may be a Sangha” in Inquiring Mind, Vol 10, No. 2, Spring 1994
Surrounded by tea plantations, Darjeeling has been considered the Queen of the Hills with…
Regeneration: New Frontiers for Designers of Complex Systems
Today, a new generation of place-based community leaders is emerging to spearhead regenerative design, development and planning efforts all around the world. However advancing regenerative design at the local level can be a surprisingly complex challenge. Each and every place on earth is characterised by a unique set of cultural, social, and political dynamics that can hinder or even prevent local projects from making a global difference.
The webinar provides a high level overview…
Gaia ToT embedded in the largest urban forest of the world
by Lucimara Letelier
Reinvigorating to be learning at the National School of Tropical Botanics, embedded in Tijuca Forest Rio de Janeiro, the largest urban forest of the world, covering some 32 km², home to hundreds of species of plants and wildlife, many threatened by extinction.
“The Brazil TOT reminded me of the importance of ‘who I am’ rather than ‘what I know’ in the process of building my own strengths as a change maker and edge worker.
It showed…
Participatory Skills for World Change
by Pia Cameron
“Gaia Education’s Training of Trainers (ToT) programme was a truly empowering and enlivening experience. I stretched my skills and built on new ones, elevating my facilitation tool kit to the next level. My biggest take away was an inner sense of confidence in my facilitation, voices of anxiety (Will my audience like my work? Will I get through all my content? Will my points be understood?) stilled and a quiet sense of knowing that I am enough,…
ESD-for-SDGs a post-GAP Vision
The current framework of the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) will end in 2019 and a decision on the post-GAP period will soon have to be made by UNESCO Member States.
To that effect, the UNESCO Secretariat is launching a global consultation process to reflect on the post-GAP period and on the future direction of ESD.
For this purpose, UNESCO has drafted a position paper on the future of ESD through a series of mee…
The Road from Wigan Pier
“For this is part at least of what industrialism has done for us. Columbus sailed the Atlantic, the first steam engines tottered into motion, the British squares stood firm under the French guns at Waterloo, the one-eyed scoundrels of the nineteenth century praised God and filled their pockets; and this is where it all led – to labyrinthine slums and dark back kitchens with sickly, ageing people creeping round and round them like blackbeetles.”
George …
Water for Life
The ‘Local Water Solutions for Global Challenges’ course took off at the World Water Day 2018 with 350 students enrolled online. Our largest online class ever!
The 5-week free MOOC, developed in partnership with Gaia Education, UNITAR, University of Strathclyde, the Scottish Government and CREW was officially launched on 22 March 2018 through two interconnected events taking place in Brazil and Scotland.
In Brazil, during the World Water Forum, the course was broadcast widely at the …
International Meeting of NGOs – ECOLISE
Meeting in Luxembourg on 28 March, representatives of 43 leading networks and organisations supporting community-led initiatives for climate change and sustainability have called on policy makers from the local to the European level to recognise and support the vital role that grassroots organisations are playing in the transition to a healthy and sustainable zero-carbon society.
“Thousands of communities across Europe are experimenting in new ways of living tha…
Empowered by the Training of Trainers, Thailand
“When I first joined a Gaia Education EDE hosted by NextGenOA it changed my life. Taking the Training of Trainers in Thailand was the next step for me as I wanted to strengthen my skills in becoming a qualified project leader. The course demonstrates distinctly what is participatory learning; the content is rich and the learning process fluid. What impressed me the most was the talent of the facilitators to get participants to understand and practice Meta-Skill…