Dates and Venue:
(TBC) 17-30 January 2016
Asian Institute of Technology Campus, Bangkok, Thailand
Academic committee:
Co-chairs: UNEP and Prof. C. Visvanathan, AIT
Members:
Prof. Mario Tabucanon, UNU-IAS,
Dr. Zinaida Fadeeva, UNU-IAS,
Dr. Rotchanatch Darnsawasdi, Prince of Songkhla University
Dr. Somporn Kamolsiripichaiporn, Chulalongkorn University
Strategic objective:
To improve the knowledge of future decision makers in the area of Sustainable Consumption and Production and thus contribute to the design and implementation of policies, business models and practices that can promote sustainable resource management in a life cycle perspective for goods and services produced and used by governments, business and civil society.
Specific Objectives:
To provide credible knowledge on SCP to post-graduate students and equip them with skills that can support their research and professional activities.
To increase the understanding of the need for - and challenges to - implementation of SCP in different sectors and thereby enable participants to effectively engage with and contribute to mainstreaming and upscaling of Sustainable Consumption and Production through their daily management practices.
Enhance the capacity level of junior governmental professionals from developing countries to work with projects that promote SCP.
Assist future decision-makers from developing countries and countries with economies in transition to respond better in the growing needs to mainstream SCP by raising their knowledge in this field.
Create networks of junior professionals from developing and industrialised countries and thus promoting North-South and South-South cooperation mechanisms in the field of SCP.
Learning Benefits
After the completion of the course participants will be able to:
1. Clearly understand what SCP and resource efficiency is and how they contribute to sustainable development, poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods (and the relative contributions by different socio-economic sectors, geo-political countries, etc.)
2. Know how to use alternative policy instruments, strategy options and institutional arrangements (including networks) for achieving resource efficiency and its subsequent development, climate and environmental conservation outcomes (e.g. regulatory, market based, information, etc instruments in environment, industry, technology, education, training and other policy domains).
3. Developing analytical, advocacy and implementation capabilities and skills, in particular through practical piloting of selected resource efficiency methods, techniques and policy instruments, as appropriate to the backgrounds and interests of participants
4. Have a better understanding and appreciation of the different perspectives and interests of various stakeholders as these are affected by, and could potentially contribute to, resource efficiency and its development, climate and environmental benefits.
Eligible candidates and application process:
In principle the following three groups of candidates could apply to participate in the Winter School:
Junior Government professionals (up to 5 years of experience)
Junior development consultants from the private sector (up to 5 years of experience)
Doctoral or Master students
Candidates are required to have completed as a minimum a first university degree in environment, development, engineering, policy, economics or relevant discipline. Completion of postgraduate degree and/or professional training relevant to sustainable development would be considered favourably.
To apply for the Winter School candidates should send:
A short resume (one page maximum)
Copy of degrees obtained
A motivation note (could be the cover mail) on why they are interested to participate in the summer school and what is their expectation. Candidates should also indicate if they request a scholarship provided they are eligible as per the table below.
Candidate should send their application to UNEP (switch.psc@unep.org) no later than 8th November 2015.
Successful candidates will be informed by 4 December 2015.
Participation and Cost
Participation will be open to participants from all countries and a scholarship scheme will apply on the basis of the following table:
Scholarship scheme for the summers school participants
- Full scholarship will cover: Seminar fees (including seminar material), meals and accommodation
- Partial scholarship will cover: Seminar fees (including seminar material)
Selection criteria:
- Candidate belongs to one of the three eligible groups
- Balanced representation between genders (at least 50% females) and countries
- Motivation note
Topics
The summer school with be conducted over two weeks that will include courses and group work on Sustainable Consumption and Production.
Each module will address and use inter alia information and cases on:
- Trends and challenges of development, including in the area of resource use and quality of life
- Concepts around Resource Efficiency; and their historical and state of the art interpretation
- Strategies to address issues of (un)sustainable resource use and livelihoods development at the policy level.
- Emerging risks of climate change, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, etc and required system innovations; scenarios of development.
Links:
More details are available at these links:
http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/china/press_corner/all_news/news/2015/201510201_en.htm
http://www.switch-asia.eu/events/un-winter-school-on-sustainable-consumption-and-production-in-asia-and-the-pacific-1/