The Conference was hosted by and at the University of València (Geography Department) and it was officially opened by M. Alcaraz, Counselor of Transparency, Social Responsability, Participation and Cooperation; J. Font, President of Water Tribunal of Valencia; P. Pypaert, UNESCO Beijing Office, representing also the Division of Water Sciences of UNESCO-IHP, and E. Moors, the President of the Global Network of Water Museums.

During the Conference several Water Museums had the chance to present their activities on Awareness Raising and Education, while the Conference included two interactive workshops: A) on SDGs/Education/Water Museums and, B) on Communication / Media / Water Museums. Vicky Malotidi, MEdIES, delivered a presentation and coordinated a working group during the Workshop A on Education.

MEdIES/MIO-ECSDE are participating in the World Water Museums Network since its launching having the status of "Affiliated Member", through the HYDRIA Project. Just one day before the Conference, on June 11, the WAMUNET board meeting took place, in which MIO-ECSDE is participating as well.

MEdIES was represented in the DNOSES Project Partners Meeting, Porto 13-15 May 2019 in which MIO-ECSDE is one of the partners. The main scope of DNOSES is to explore solutions for odour pollution and introduce it in the policy agendas at a global scale in the medium to long term, through Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in support of sustainability and governance, and an ‘extreme citizen-science’ appoach (developed within the project. In this consortium meeting, MEdIES, had the chance to introduce all partners to the draft MOOC , presented by Vicky Malotidi, that is under development by MEdIES on the issue of odour pollution, and collect some first feedback; while early in July, an e-meeting will follow for more discussion and elaboration.

The Conference brought together stakeholders and actors to  share  innovative solutions to contemporary challenges on how water vulnerability affects  the welfare of humans and ecosystems, and reflects the conditions of gender equality, education and cultural diversity of a region.

MEdIES Coordinator, Prof Scoullos contributed in the interactive sessions and debates on how integrated management of water resources is  critical to sustainable development and poverty reduction; The key role of education to holistic and sustainable approaches to deal with water challenges issues; the impacting of the governance to management of water.

 Prof Scoullos shared the 20-years long experience of MIO-ECSDE in Water Education activities and projects in Mediterranean countries showcasing activities like the development of educational resources (publications and digital) and capacity building activities impacting more than 5000 educators and 35000 youth and students in the region.

Delegates participated in the Conference by invitation only.

In the presence of Mr Fouad Makhzoumi, the Founder and Mrs May Makhzoumi, the President of Makhzoumi Foundation, representatives from the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR), representatives from municipalities, NGOs, public and private schools, the media and other stakeholders, the closing ceremony of the project "Civil Society in Action for Sustainable Development" was held in Zahle (Lebanon) on 9th of November 2018.

The results of the Project were presented and all the involved actors affirmed their commitment to work for the promotion of sustainable development in Lebanon and in the Mediterranean in general. The Project aimed at fostering the socio-economic sustainable development in the West, Mid and North Bekaa regions of Lebanon, through raising public awareness, empowering people’s capacities and skills (handcrafting, bee-keepers, etc) and enhancing energy efficiency solutions in the communities covering different levels of interventions – awareness raising, education, vocational training and other services. MEdIES designed and applied a survey targeted to young people aged 15-18 years old from Bekaa to capture the youth’s perceptions on current issues related to sustainable development in their region, as well as their visions for future.

Find here the Report of the Survey.

During the ceremony the importance of the Project and the contribution from the partners involved was highlighted while the Makhzoumi Foundation illustrated the role and contribution of this Project within the national and global efforts to promote the SDGs.  Also, the Fair exchibiting the products made during the project by the citizens benefited from the Project was lauched.

Vicky Malotidi and Vassilis Psallidas represented MIO-ECSDE/ MEdIES in the Ceremony.

View some snapshots from the event

Read more about the event at http://www.makhzoumi-foundation.org

https://www.facebook.com/makhzoumi.foundation/

Raising awareness on urban water vulnerability/NCWRs in the “WATER, SANITATION, HYGIENE & PEACE” Conference

Professor Michael Scoullos and Vasillis Psallidas were invited and participated during the Rotary Presidential Peace building Conference entitled “WATER, SANITATION, HYGIENE & PEACE”, that took place between 16 - 18 February in Beirut (Lebanon).

In the opening session, (Panel I – Water Scarcity & Peace in the Middle East), Prof. Scoullos accompanied by Dr. Fadi Comair, Dr. C. N. Papanicolas and Dr. Waleed Zubariin, presented his views about “Water scarcity, global warming and effect on economy development”, with the presentation of the political and state leadership of the Republic of Lebanon.

In the second day of the conference, during a parallel break out session addressed to School Headmasters, Supervisors, Educators mainly Health Educators and Municipal Representatives, attended by more than 80 peoplem Vas. Psallidas and Prof. M. Scoullos representing MEDIES, MIO-ECSDE, presented the 10+ years’ experience of the Educational Component of Non-Conventional Water Resources (NCWRs) Programme in the Mediterranean.

Snapshots from the Conference:

MIO-ECSDE and MEdIES together with CMED, RAED and CERGEO have coorganised the Official Side Event entitled "The Mediterranean Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): how to educate youth and local communities to effectively address climate change” within the COP22 in Marakesh.

The side event was held on 14 November at Sebou Room - Green Zone (11.00 - 11.40).It aimed to explore how Education for Sustainable Development can contribute to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the outcomes of Marrakesh COP22. Prof. Michael Scoullos, has been responsible for the organisation of the Side Event.

Read more about the event announcement here !

About 100 people have attended the Side event, proving with their presence a strong commitment towards both Climate Education as well as ESD.

Snapsots from the meeting:

The 1st Steering Group meeting of the project "Civil Society in Action for Sustainable Development" was held on 20/09/2016 in the Makhzoumi Foundation premises, in Beirut, with the participation of all partners and primal aim to establish a common framework of understanding and communication for the project. This is actually a kind of continuation of the previous AFKAR II Project, led also by the Makhzoumi Foundation in Lebanon having MIO/MEdIES as partner. The current Project falls under “AFKAR III - Reinforcing human rights and democracy in Lebanon – Active citizenship – Increase active citizenship”, supported by the EU and managed by the Ministry of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR). Makhzoumi Foundation is leading the project and apart from MIO/MEdIES, ALMEE (Lebanese Association for Energy Saving and for Environment) and Armadilla /Italy are partners as well.

The agenda items discussed in the meeting were the following:

• Documentary about the previous AFKAR III project “Lebanese Youth as Messengers for Sustainability.”
• Introduction of the Project and Partners
• Elaboration on the activities of the Project and work plan of the first year
• Role of each Partner
• Administrative issues

Vicky Malotidi and Vassilis Psallidas represented MIO-ECSDE and MEdIES in the meeting.

The Project aims at fostering socio-economic sustainable development in the West, Mid and North Bekaa regions of Lebanon, through raising public awareness, empowering people’s capacities and skills, and enhancing energy efficiency solutions in the communities. It covers different levels of interventions – awareness raising, education, vocational training and other services.

MEdIES has undertaken the delivery of a survey to 30 selected schools from the Bekka region targeting young people aged 15-18 years having as main scope the capturing the youth’s perceptions on current issues related to sustainable development in their region, as well as their visions for future.  In this framework, on September 21 a meeting solely dedicated to the elaboration of the draft questionnaire prepared by MEdIES took place.

Next step is the validation of the amended draft questiuonnaire by a group of external evaluators from the field of ESD and social research.

Snapshots from the meeting

Scaling-up was the theme of a meeting of more than 80 members of the Partner Networks of the Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

On 5-6 July 2016 the annual GAP Working Meeting took place in Paris while one day before, on July 4 a mmeting of the Chairs and Co Chairs of the Partner Networks was held.

During the meeting the developments of the Partner Networks were presented together with the related Flagship Projects will and workplans while the participants worked in groups and elaborated ideas on how to scale up partners' activities as well as the future steps of the GAP.

Prof Scoullos contributed actively in the meeting's sessions and made the presentation on the developments of the PN1 as one of its Co-chairs.

GAP Key Partners group photo during their meeting in July 2016, Paris

More information about the Meeting can be found here

All enssential information about the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD is presented at:

http://en.unesco.org/gap

while  you can find more information about the MEdIES participation in the GAP at:

http://www.medies.net/articles.asp?cID=7&aID=1050

The Annual Meeting of the UE4SD project took place on 27 June, hosted by the University of Gibralat. The meeting aimed to provide the opportunity to the partners’ representatives to discuss - in plennaries and breakout sessions -  the future steps of the network, ideas to continue supporting the ESD professional development of the university educators and opportunities to keep the legacy of the network/project “alive” .  The meeting was quite fruitful in providing concrete proposals to the coordinators and the partners as well.

The afternoon of the June 27 the Conference “Universities as Beacons of Change: Education for Sustainability lighting up pathways for a new world” started welcoming academic staff and stakeholders interested in ESD in higher education. The Conference was a contribution to the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which have acknowledged that there is a need to improve support for university educators to re-orient teaching and learning for sustainable development. The Conference brought together over 100 delegates from across the world who discussed existing international and UN frameworks on ESD, the role of higher education institutions and specifically university educators in ESD processes, and on more practical level, possibilities of future networking and cooperation with each other. Topics such as professional development issues, possibilities for change, and pathways for quality and partnerships were discussed in three parallel sessions.

The conference was opened by the Minister for Health, the Environment and Climate Change, Dr John Cortes and included key presentations by Prof Heila Lotz-Sisitka Rhodes University Dr Alexander Leicht UNESCO, Adriana Valenzuela UNFCCC and others. Prof Scoullos was one of panelists as well, while Ms Vicky Malotidi represented MIO-ECSDE/MEdIES.

Read more about the Confernece at: http://www.ue4sd.eu/gibraltar