ProSPER.Net E-Bulletin Issue 110 (March 2022)

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Message from the ProSPER.Net Secretariat

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Greetings from the ProSPER.Net Secretariat! This month, we bring you the latest open calls, and news, including a report from the 13th International Conference on Environmental and Rural Development, where key findings from ProSPER.Net Joint Research Projects were discussed in relation to disaster resilience and education.

If you have any news, open calls, upcoming events, or publications you wish to share in a future bulletin, please complete this form and email your submission to the ProSPER.Net Secretariat at ProSPERNet@unu.edu (submissions close on the 15th of each month).

Sincerely,

ProSPER.Net Secretariat

Open Calls

Applications Open for Young Leaders for the SDGs

On a biennial basis, 17 outstanding young leaders from across various sectors are recognised for their agency, courage and ingenuity in finding lasting solutions to the world's greatest challenges. Throughout a two-year term, these Young Leaders will engage with youth for the 2030 Agenda through their platforms, networks, and advocacy opportunities with the United Nations and its partners.

Applications for the 'Young Leaders for the SDGs' 2022 class are now open for young people from across the world, aged between 15-29, closing on 31 March, 2022. Full details including how to apply can be found here.

Applications Closing Soon: 2022 UNU-IAS Doctoral Programme

UNU-IAS invites applications for September 2022 admission to its postgraduate degree programme, the PhD in Sustainability Science, a three-year programme that aims to produce scholars who will become key researchers in the field of sustainability science.

The programme takes an innovative approach to sustainability, seeking to promote a better understanding of the issues by incorporating global change perspectives, specifically those related to climate change and biodiversity. The application deadline is 28 March, 2022. Read more

(Photo credit: Photo: Kenichi Tanaka)

Upcoming Events

Webinar: Student-Led UN Sustainable Development Goals Curriculum Mapping

4 April, 2022, 14:00-16:30 (GMT+01:00), online

Ahead of the World Conference on Higher Education (WHEC2022), organised by UNESCO from 18-20 May in Barcelona, Spain, a number of youth webinars will be held. This webinar from Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) will deliver training on Sustainable Development Goals Curriculum Mapping. Participants will explore the role of education institutions to embed sustainability in learning through ESD, and use their training to map how the SDGs and wider elements of sustainability learning are incorporated in their modules. Participants will then be able to open a dialogue with their university to activate change. Read more

Webinar: Probabilistic Risk Assessment For Disaster Risk Reduction - CAPRA Platform

7 April, 2022, 21:00-23:00 (JST), online

Organised by the UNESCO Chair in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Engineering (DRR&RE) at University College London (UCL), this short introductory course will outline the probabilistic risk assessment methodology applied to structures exposed to seismic hazards and the retrofitting strategies used for disaster risk reduction. Read more

Latest News

13th International Conference on Environmental and Rural Development

On 5 March, 2022, over 100 participants joined the 13th International Conference on Environmental and Rural Development online, organised by the International Society of Environmental and Rural Development, the Bohol Island State University, Philippines, and the Institute of Environmental Rehabilitation and Conservation, Japan, and co-organised by UNU-IAS. A special session from Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCEs) was held on the topic of 'Disaster Management: Community-based responses in the aftermath of devastating typhoons’, which delved into the important role of education, multistakeholder partnership, and community engagement in dealing with local problems, particularly in the aftermath of devastating typhoons.

The keynote was given by Dr. Indrajit Pal (Asian Institute of Technology), who led two ProSPER.Net joint research projects on disaster resilience and education, in which he shared results from the projects. Experiences were also shared from four RCEs in the Philippines, along with discussions on lessons learned on how RCEs in typhoon-hit regions in the Philippines should respond and contribute to mitigating the adverse impacts of disasters. Read the full report here.

Workshop Explores Industrial Skills Development in Developing Countries

An online workshop, ‘Industrial Skill Development in Developing Countries: Education, Skills Demands, and Productivity’ was held on 28 February, 2022. Co-organised by Nagoya University, Japan (as part of its Skills and Knowledge for Youth (SKY) Project) and UNU-IAS, the event brought together 57 participants across the globe to discuss skills development within developing countries. It focused on the opportunities and challenges of technical and vocational education and training (TVET), particularly regarding the nature of skills composition required in respective contexts of work. Read more

ESD Publications & Other

IPCC Sixth Assessment Report - Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

The IPCC released its latest climate report on 28 February, 2022, ‘Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’.

This contribution from Working Group II to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report assesses the impacts of climate change, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It finds that human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks.

The report also finds that people and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit. Learn more and access the full report here.

This is a publication of UNU-IAS ProSPER.Net Secretariat. The bulletin is a great way to share your activities, events and news as a ProSPER.Net member with the rest of the network. Feel free to send us any information you may deem relevant for the rest of the community by completing this form and emailing it to prospernet@unu.edu. We look forward to your inputs! Visit ProSPER.Net regularly for up-to-date news and event information.

ProSPER.Net Secretariat 

United Nations University 
Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability 
5-53-70 Jingumae, 
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925 
Japan