This was discussed at a meeting of AIT President Said Irandoust
with Dr. Young-Woo Park, UNEP Regional Director and Representative for
Asia and the Pacific, Mr Mahesh Pradhan, Interim Director of the
AIT/UNEP Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) and Mr. Henk Verbeek,
Senior Administrative Officer for UNEP's Regional Office for Asia and
the Pacific. The AIT President was accompanied by Mr. Karma Rana,
Institute Sectetary.
The partnership between AIT and UNEP on RRC.AP was reviewed at the
meeting amidst a clear understanding that RRC.AP provides a useful
platform for mutual collaboration. AIT has agreed that it would work
towards greater involvement in RRC.AP, in terms of joint programming,
resource mobilization and overall management. The possibility of
convergence between AIT’s Sustainable Development in the Context of
Climate Change (SDCC) and RRC.AP on climate change issues was discussed
along with the possibility of secondment of AIT faculty as "RRC.AP
Fellows". It was agreed that linkages between RRC.AP and other AIT
Centres (AIT-UN Office, Yunus Center at AIT, ASEAN Regional Center of
Excellence for Millennium Development Goals (ARCMDG), CSR Center at
AIT, Center for Excellence in Nanotechlogy etc) will also be explored
and consolidated.
AIT and UNEP agreed that the role and visibility of RRC.AP has been
significantly enhanced under the leadership of Mr. Pradhan, who is an
AIT alumnus, and that both AIT and UNEP would now focus on
transitioning the partnership to a higher level of engagement. It was
agreed that the new MOU between AIT and UNEP would also include
publication of joint newsletters, and focus on three pillars of
partnership -- education, research and outreach.