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2011-08-03

Promotion of Sustainable Development by Sub-Saharan African Higher Education Institutions

The Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI), the International Association of Universities (IAU) and the Association of African Universities (AAU) developed a project on the Promotion of Sustainable Development by Sub-Saharan African Higher Education Institutions. The project was financed in part by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation.

The IAU is pleased to announce the publication of the final report of the project. The Report presents an overview of major actions, experiences and practices that sub-Saharan higher education institutions (HEIs) are developing to integrate sustainable development considerations within their activities; identifies the emerging trends and the priority lines of action for the integration of sustainable development considerations in the work of Sub-Saharan African HEIs and raises awareness about the important role of HEIs for promoting sustainable development in the region.

The Report and analysis of the results will be presented during the AAU Conference of Rectors, Vice Chancellors and Presidents of African Universities (COREVIP 2011), held in Stellenbosch, South Africa in June 2011.


Global Survey on Sustainable Lifestyles

A research project aiming at analyzing student perspectives on Sustainable Lifestyles has been launched in February 2009. The Project, coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with the support of the Swedish Ministry of the Environment, is developed in partnership with the International Association of Universities (IAU). The Global Survey on Sustainable Lifestyles is an ambitious initiative meant to explore how sustainable lifestyles, a challenge for present and future generations, are perceived, envisaged and shaped by young adults from different cultures and backgrounds around the world.

Due to its global and diverse membership base IAU has become an active partner of the Global Survey on Sustainable Lifestyles. IAU has invited a selection of its members to actively participate in this project. Participating universities will represent more than 24 countries in all regions of the world (Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America and West Asia).

The project is part of the activities carried out in the framework of the 'Marrakech Process', a global multi-stakeholder platform aimed at promoting the shift towards Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) (http://www.unep.fr/scp/marrakech). The Marrakech Process is building cooperation between governments and various stakeholders for the development of SCP tools, methodologies and concrete activities such as the Global Survey on Sustainable Lifestyles.

A selection of 50 Higher Education Institutions, Members of IAU, has been invited to actively participate in this project.
http://www.unep.fr/gssl
Contact: h.vantland@iau-aiu.net; fabienne.pierre @unep.fr


IAU - UNEP CD Rom

Sustainability Communications - A Toolkit for Marketing and Advertising Courses.

IAU and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) jointly produced a CD-ROM on Sustainability Communications - A Toolkit for Marketing and Advertising Courses.

It provides resources on Sustainability Communications for educators training tomorrow's marketing and communication professionals as well as for marketing and advertising trainers in the corporate field. It is a flexible, interactive tool which provides a synthesis of theoretical and methodological knowledge illustrated by specific case studies. It offers numerous pedagogical resources - short presentations, campaign analyses, exercises, web links, bibliographies and more than 300 downloadable documents - to encourage students and communication experts to engage with sustainable development-- one of the major issues facing society today.

The CD-ROM aims to:

  1. Demonstrate and analyze the marketing and communications potential of sustainable development in the framework of corporate social and environmental responsibility;
  2. Allow the current and future marketing and communication professionals to become fully aware of the key role they could and should play by responding to new consumer demand for sustainability through the promotion of sustainable products and services;
  3. Provide the necessary tools to develop both effective corporate communications strategies that build confidence in greener brands and powerful marketing campaigns on sustainable goods.

The CD-ROM contains both English and French versions. It is downloadable at:
http://www.unep.fr/scp/publications/details.asp?id=DTI/0886/PA


GHESP - Global Alliance to promote higher education for sustainable development

In 2002, four international organisations with a strong commitment to making sustainability a major focus of higher education formed a "Global Higher Education for Sustainability Partnership (GHESP)".

The four founding partners of the initiative - the International Association of Universities (IAU), the University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (ULSF) (external link) and UNESCO (external link) -combined forces in a unique effort to mobilise universities and higher education institutions to support sustainable development in response to Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 (external link)

The partnership came about as a result of the work program of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and in anticipation of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

The rationale for the partnership was the consensus that higher education must play a central role within the overall process of achieving sustainable development. The partners are still convinced that the leaders of higher education institutions and their academic colleagues in all disciplines must make sustainable development a central academic and organizational focus in order to create a just, equitable and ecologically sound future. This requires the generation and dissemination of knowledge through interdisciplinary research and teaching, policy-making, capacity-building, and technology transfer. It is critical that higher education institutions understand and accept their responsibility within the broader context of social and economic development, and the building of democratic, equitable and ecologically-minded societies.

The objectives of the partnership were to:

  1. Promote better understanding, and more effective implementation of strategies for the incorporation of sustainable development in universities and other higher education institutions, beginning with the over 1000 signatories to the charters and declarations sponsored by the partner organizations. Emphasis is put on the need for interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research;
  2. Undertake a global review and assessment of progress in making sustainability central to curriculum, research, outreach and operations in institutions of higher education. In so doing, assist UNESCO in its role within the UN system with respect to education for sustainable development;
  3. Identify, share and disseminate widely, via internet, in print, through seminars and other venues, effective strategies, models and good practices for promoting higher education for sustainable development (HESD);
  4. Make recommendations on HESD based on the partnership's research and review and in consultation with key stakeholders from North and South, including business, governments, other UN bodies such as the United Nations University (UNU), as well as other relevant non-governmental organizations;
  5. Demonstrate that it is possible to form a partnership of non-governmental organizations working closely with the UN system to develop and implement a joint action plan addressed to achieve common goals; and analyze this experience as an international demonstration project.

After having initiated projects and other activities for more than 5 years, the partnership ceased its activities.

Documents and outcomes

  • Memorandum of Understanding (pdf, 16 kb) and Action Plan (rtf, 128 kb)
  • Luneburg Declaration on Higher Education for Sustainable Development (rtf, 68 kb)
  • Joint publication IAU / ULSF journals on the theme of higher education for sustainable development Higher Education Policy (15/2, June 2002) and _International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education _(3/3, July 2002)
  • Development of Type II Partnership (rtf, 356 kb) as a major higher education outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)
  • International Conference on Education for a Sustainable Future: Shaping the practical role of higher education for sustainable development. 10 - 11 September 2003, Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic.
  • Regional Consultations
  • Multiple contributions to debates, conference, etc aiming developing HESD.


IAU Prague Conference: Education for a Sustainable future, September 10-11, 2003

Education for a sustainable future: Shaping the practical role of higher education for sustainable development
Organized by the International Association of Universities (IAU) and Charles University in Prague

Conference Papers

Opening remarks by the IAU President (rtf, 12 kb) and by the Rector of Charles University (rtf, 12 kb)



Keynote Address
Educating Earth-literate leaders (pdf, 88 kb) by Rolf Jucker, University of Wales Swansea, United Kingdom. Stephen Martins, The Open University, United Kingdom


Thematic Plenary


Working Groups


Kyoto Declaration

Kyoto Declaration on Sustainable Development

Following the Ninth IAU Round Table, in Tokyo, Japan, Participants adopted, on 19 November 1993, the following Declaration:

  1. To urge universities world-wide to seek, establish and disseminate a clearer understanding of Sustainable Development - "development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations" - and encourage more appropriate sustainable development principles and practices at the local, national and global levels, in ways consistent with their missions.
  2. To utilize resources of the university to encourage a better understanding on the part of Governments and the public at large of the inter-related physical, biological and social dangers facing the planet Earth, and to recognise the significant interdependence and international dimensions of sustainable development.
  3. To emphasize the ethical obligation of the present generation to overcome those practices of resource utilisation and those widespread disparities which lie at the root of environmental unsustainability.
  4. To enhance the capacity of the university to teach and undertake research and action in society in sustainable development principles, to increase environmental literacy, and to enhance the understanding of environmental ethics within the university and with the public at large.
  5. To cooperate with one another and with all segments of society in the pursuit of practical and policy measures to achieve sustainable development and thereby safeguard the interests of future generations.
  6. To encourage universities to review their own operations to reflect best sustainable development practices.
  7. To request the IAU Administrative Board to consider and implement the ways and means to give life to this Declaration in the mission of each of its members and through the common enterprise of the IAU.

It is recommended that each university, in its own action plan, strive to:

  1. Make an institutional commitment to the principle and practice of sustainable development within the academic milieu and to communicate that commitment to its students, its employees and to the public at large;
  2. Promote sustainable consumption practices in its own operations;
  3. Develop the capacities of its academic staff to teach environmental literacy;
  4. Encourage among both staff and students an environmental perspective, whatever the field of study;
  5. Utilise the intellectual resources of the university to build strong environmental education programs;
  6. Encourage interdisciplinary and collaborative research programs related to sustainable development as part of the institution's central mission and to overcome traditional barriers between discipline's and departments;
  7. Emphasize the ethical obligations of the immediate university community - current students, faculty and staff - to understand and defeat the forces that lead to environmental degradation, North-South disparities, and the inter-generational inequities; to work at ways that will help its academic community, and the graduates, friends and governments that support it, to accept these ethical obligations;
  8. Promote interdisciplinary networks of environmental experts at the local, national and international level in order to disseminate knowledge and to collaborate on common environmental projects in both research and education;
  9. Promote the mobility of staff and students as essential to the free trade of knowledge;
  10. Forge partnerships with other sectors of society in transferring innovative and appropriate technologies that can benefit and enhance sustainable development practices.

In adopting this Declaration, delegates underlined specifically the following points:

  1. That sustainable development must not be interpreted in a manner that would lead to "sustained undevelopment" for certain systems, thus blocking their legitimate aspiration to raise their standard of living.

  2. That sustainable development must take into consideration existing disparities in consumption and distribution patterns, with unsustainable over-consumption in some parts of the world contrasting with dramatic states of depravation in others.

  3. That global sustainable development implies changes of existing value systems, a task UN which universities have an essential mission, in order to create the necessary international consciousness and global sense of responsibility and solidarity.

  4. That university cooperation for sustainable development must also assure that universities from countries with insufficient proper resources may play an active role in the process.

  5. That IAU, through the intellectual and organisational potential of the Association, its clearinghouse, catalyst and network function, has a major role to play in the implementation of this Declaration.