RCE Hamburg and Region
The Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) for the greater area of Hamburg, Lüneburg and Lübeck is officially chaired by, and since 2014 also coordinated by, the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management Research and Transfer Center (FTZ-NK) at HAW Hamburg. Since 2015, the RCE's networking activities have explicitly targeted higher education institutions that commit themselves to education on sustainable development through their activities.
The vision of the RCE is to work in an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and cross-institutional manner, with a special focus on incorporating education on sustainable development into the contexts and learning environments of higher education institutions (HEIs). HEIs are playing a major role regarding support and capacity building on topics related to sustainability and sustainable development. They act as facilitators of societal innovation and have the power to lay the groundwork for important discussions about changes towards a more sustainable way of living.
Although it focuses on higher education institutions, the RCE will also include local and regional actors (formal and informal educational institutions, research institutions, higher education institutions, communities, authorities, companies, NGOs, etc.) involved in education on sustainable development in its activities, especially the events organised and undertaken in the framework of the RCE. It is the RCE’s role to foster synergies, the exchange of knowledge and best practices, and networking among local actors.
The Role of RCEs
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In response to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD, 2005–2014), the United Nations University (UNU) called for the development of regional networks for the promotion of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). These networks address local sustainable development challenges through research and capacity development. This was the birth of Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD (RCEs). RCEs are acknowledged by the UNU based on recommendations of the Ubuntu Committee of Peers for the RCEs, which consists of signatories of the Ubuntu Declaration signed in 2002.
RCEs aspire to achieve the goals of the DESD by translating its global objectives into the context of the local communities in which they operate. This is then accomplished by acting as a catalyst for institutions that promote ESD through formal, non-formal and informal education, and by providing suitable platforms to share information and experiences and to promote dialogue among regional stakeholders through partnerships for sustainable development. They also develop regional knowledge bases to support ESD and promote its goals in a resource-effective manner. This can be achieved through the delivery of training programmes, by facilitating research into ESD, by raising public awareness, and by increasing the quality and access to ESD in the region.
An RCE should have four core elements:
• Governance - addressing issues of RCE management and leadership
• Collaboration - addressing the engagement of actors from all levels of formal, non-formal and informal education
• Research and development - addressing the role of research and its inclusion in RCE activities, as well as contributing to the design of strategies for collaborative activities, including those with other RCEs
• Transformative education - contributing to the transformation of the current education and training systems to satisfy ambitions of the region regarding sustainable living and livelihoods.
RCEs also have four major ESD goals to be promoted in an effective way:
• Reorienting education towards SD, by integrating SD and ESD into the current curriculum and tailoring it to address the issues and local context of the community in which they operate
• Increasing access to quality education that is most needed in the regional context
• Delivering trainers’ training programmes and developing methodologies and learning materials for them
• Leading advocacy and awareness-raising efforts to increase public awareness about the importance of educators and the essential role of ESD in achieving a sustainable future. RCEs promote the long-term goals of ESD, such as environmental stewardship, social justice, and improvement of the quality of life.
RCEs are not only significant for the region itself, where they provide a unique opportunity to promote learning and development for SD, but also important at the international level, where they help to constitute the Global Learning Space for Sustainable Development. Globally, RCEs are facilitated through the United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS), which provides a framework for strategy, best practices and techniques for success, which can then be translated to the regional level.
RCEs were acknowledged in the 2009 Bonn Declaration, which calls for action to 'develop knowledge through ESD networking' via 'networks that could serve as centres of expertise and innovation'.
(Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Centres_of_Expertise_(RCE)
Activities of the RCE for Hamburg and Region
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In order to foster education on sustainable development and discussions about sustainable development education, and to enhance research in this regard, the FTZ-NK organises and hosts various national and international events such as the national LS-Research Colloquia on Sustainability or the World Symposia on Sustainable Development at Universities.
Additional Links
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The United Nations University - Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS)
UNESCO / Education for Sustainable Development
BMBF / Bildung für Nachhaltige Entwicklung
Initiative Hamburg Lernt Nachhaltigkeit
Internetportal "Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung"
