Education for Sustainable Development

I attended the Education for Sustainable Development on Monday 5 August 2013. It was staged at a very impressive Bamboo Hall on the Unisa Main Campus.

The programme on Education for Sustainable Development is a joint initiative between Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Capacity Building International (on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation); South Africa and Mexico.

The purpose of the dialogue was to deliberate on sustainable practices and design strategies to document and share knowledge among international experts' network and all stakeholders, especially Universities, Government Departments, Civil Society, UN bodies and NGOs.

Professor Godwell Nhamo's presentation on 'Research for a sustainable future' was one of the presentations that caught my attention. He had a very impressive one graphic slide presentation which was out of the ordinary because all the other presenters used multiple slides. "Now we are taking economics into the environment" and "the global sustainability agenda is getting clearer and more streamlined" was two concepts the mentioned that still gets me thinking.

He stressed that the 'polluter-must pay-principle' should apply to developed countries only. I couldn't resist asking him during the Question and Answer session why he believes that a developing country such as South Africa, who has one of the highest carbon emission levels in the world, shouldn't take responsibility for releasing greenhouse gases that causes global warming. Nhamo, the Exxaro Chair on Business and Climate Change, passionately defended his view saying that as a developing country South Africa's carbon emission can't be compared to that of developed countries who are polluting on a much bigger scale. I was not convinced about his argument. I am of the opinion that every country and business who pollutes should pay whether you are in the North or the South......take responsibility!



Mr Thillo Thormeyer, Head of Capacity Building GIZ, explained the training process that participants in the ESD Young Leader's Change Project undergo. It is a multi-disciplinary curriculum taught in South Africa, Germany, Mexico and India. Their first intake was all school teachers but they have started to broaden the intake to civil servants and  other interested parties. The Alumni of the Young Leader's Change project's roles are to promote systems change and cultivate networks. Alumni member, Mr Thamsanqa Nkosi, left us with some 'green nuggets of wisdom'

• Use social networks to effect change
• work at multiple levels of change
• make space for self-realisation.

Youth and the Green Economy

It was a perfect sunny Friday morning, 26 July 2013, as my colleagues and I made our way to Sandton Convention Centre. The traffic from Pretoria was playing along so we managed to get to the Youth and the Green Economy Seminar just after 9am.

Mr Malusi Gigaba, Minister of Public Enterprises, did the opening speech.He raised a lot of relevant issues that aspiring 'greentrepreneurs' have to deal with like access to funding.

Mr Pandelani Dzughudza, Deputy Director within the sector Education, Training and Development at the National Department of Environmental was next to take the podium. The Youth Strategic objectives of the Department is:

• To strengthen the capabilities of young people to realize their potential through skills development.
• To strengthen the culture of patriotic citizenship through rendering of services in disadvantaged communities.
• To ensure that the young people play a part in the development of the country.
• Provide environmental education and awareness in schools and communities.
• To contribute to conservation and protection in the environment.

One of my highlights was listening to a highly informative presentation by Dr Mbileni who is responsible for Green and Sustainable Development Projects at the Innovation Hub. The Innovation Hub's intelligent community has become a regional centre of innovation and knowledge creation, linked to the fast-moving world of global interconnectivity. The Innovation Hub has created a unique space for high-tech entrepreneurs, world-class businesses, academics, researchers and venture capitalists to meet network and prosper. It's value-adding business support services contribute to the growth and globalisation of technology-rich enterprises in an environment that promotes innovation and enhances competitiveness for knowledge-based businesses.

I so look forward to working with the Hub in the not too distant future.

Ella Bella looking at the world through green lenses. She delivered an engaging talk.

Some of the nuggets of wisdom and challenges that Ella Bella, co-founder of Miss Earth SA and Generation Earth, left us with are the following 'green nuggets'.

1. "How are we gonna bring together people,planet,profit?"
2. "African solutions for African problems."
3. "The youth are not the future; they are the present."
4. Solution:"Miss Earth SA planted over 20 000 trees"
5. "There is no Planet B", the final worlds of the moving documentary, outlining the disastrous impact of humans on the natural environment, that she started her presentation with.

Lunch with my colleagues at Sandton Convention Centre after the seminar

I took so much knowledge and inspiration from the day's speakers. However, enough inspiration it is time to apply all the knowledge and make it work for all of us.