The Environmental Learning Research Centre will attend Africa’s largest educational gathering this February, the Triennale on Education and Training in Africa. The conference is hosted every three years by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). This year’s conference brings major players in education -- from Africa ministers, senior officials, financial contributors, development organisations, civil society and other leaders -- to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Here they will discuss the theme, ‘Promoting critical knowledge, skills and qualifications for sustainable development in Africa: How to design and implement an effective response through education and training systems’....read more

Last year, Sivele Masa went hunting for a job at the municipality. Twenty-five, unemployed and living in Ward 7, he was open to just about anything on offer. When he arrived however, Masa was redirected to the National Youth Development Agency, where an officer posed a challenging alternative: why not create his own job? The officer advised him on the merits of starting a closed cooperative with a group of his peers. And so the seed was planted. Masa took the idea back to his community and quickly recruited nine others who shared a similar vision of employment and community betterment. After brainstorming, the group decided they wanted a project that could addresses the complex, intermingled issues of their community, from unemployment and the environment to health and safety....read more

The United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat (UNFF) has nominated the Director of MELCA-Ethiopia, Million Belay, as one of the finalists for the first international Forest Heroes Award of 2011.The announcement was done during the Forest Day at the Climate Change negotiations convened in Durban, South Africa....read more

Alongside their individual research agendas, many students at the ELRC concern themselves with issues across the broader social and environmental spectrum. This is no surprise -- when they come to the centre they are passionate advocates and educators, actively engaged in their own responses to modern problems. While they’re here, the centre aims to nurture this activism alongside their academic efforts, so that students leave better-equipped committed citizens of the world. Outside engagement is, therefore, a crucial component of a student’s time at the ELRC; this is an effort to reconstitute the traditional function of a university....read more

“It’s very important to marry learning with doing,” said Dr Shepard Urenje, at last week’s Supporting Urban Sustainability (SUS) conference. Attending the meeting were Swedish and African partners which included the Makana Municipality and local NGO, Umthathi Training Project. The partners reflected on their year engaging with local environmental and sustainability issues and interactions with cities from around the world. The purpose of the programme is to address sustainability and livelihood issues for urban populations through various small development projects, and to do this more effectively by learning through a network of international partnerships....read more

As COP17 draws nearer, so should our collective awareness of its aims. Perhaps more important, however, is mindfulness of the role we play in mitigating environmental issues. Last week the ELRC partnered with the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) to host a youth awareness activity to stimulate thinking about the international conference on a local level. ...read more

Yesterday, I spied Prof Rob O’Donoghue in the courtyard of the ELRC. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and his glasses perched on top of his head -- signals I know to mean he’s about to give a demonstration. You must know a few things about Prof Rob: he loves sustainable inventions and stand up comedy and he has been an educator for about 35 years. He has had a time to combine these interests and passions into his own well-honed brand of active workshop, which he performs to students, teachers, passersby -- basically anyone willing to listen. And by active demonstration I mean, digging holes, scooping grass, pulling weeds, planting trees. ...read more

Though Velile Quza has been teaching for 17 years, his appetite for learning has never waned. Quza teaches Grade 10 - 12 English in Grahamstown’s Khutliso Daniels Secondary School, but has embarked on a part time Honours in Environmental Eduction through Rhodes University. But more important than his continued self-education, is his desire to share his new knowledge with his students. “I thought: let me make use of what I now know in this learning environment,” says Quza, explaining his reasons for starting an invasive plant species project which is getting his classes excited about environmental issues....read more

Marking the end of Rhodes Environmental Week, three Environmental Awards were presented at the Environmental Learning Research Centre last Friday (7 October)....read more

The Environmental Learning Research Centre, together with CHERTL, are currently hosting the ‘Africa hub’ of an international training programme which focusses on education and sustainable development in universities. The programme, involving 25 academics from throughout Africa, seeks to support critical thinking and educational innovations in the cross-disciplinary area of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher education in Africa and Asia....read more