The United Nations University, as secretariat of the Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP) Initiative, will be holding a summer school on e-waste management in the Netherlands in September.

Deadline for applications is 31 May 2009.

In collaboration with UNU-ViE the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) organizes two project-based workshops at the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development. Participants from 44 developing countries meet to discuss how to use education to enhance sustainable development. The UNESCO conference is held in Bonn, Germany, from 31 March to 2 April 2009.

A strategic workshop exploring the role of e-learning, with a special focus on Africa, took place between 26-27 November at UNU in Bonn. The participants were members of UNU academic staff, as well as educational experts from Africa and other external stakeholders.

During this workshop various key conclusions were reached concerning the role, definition and necessity of e-learning at UNU. The experts agreed that E-learning is an innovative and essential tool for capacity building, as well as “advancing research and teaching in service of the UN goals”.

Read the complete article on the strategic e-learning workshop on the UNU Headquarters' website.

The 55th Session of the UNU Council was hosted from 1-5 December 2008 for the first time by the Vice Rectorate in Europe in Bonn, Germany. The event also coincided with the UNU-EHS’ five year anniversary, making the occasion all the more memorable.

The United Nations University Vice Rectorate in Europe in collaboration with UNU Headquarters and UNU Media Studio hosted a strategic workshop to build a UNU consolidated approach to e-learning for capacity development. The workshop took place 26-27 November 2008, on the UN Campus Bonn.

UNU teams up with the University of Yaoundé I and participates in a workshop on its campus to share experiences with online courses and e-learning facilities to strengthen the development of higher education systems in Africa.

A group of ten high level professors at the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon - all recipients of the prestigious Humboldt fellowship - decided to take up the challenge of e-learning and organised a colloquium to raise awareness for its potentials for the Cameroonian educational community. The colloquium “E-learning, Research and Development in Cameroon: Challenges and Perspectives” took place at the University of Yaoundé I on 29 and 30 July 2008 and addressed the challenges for the university asking the question: How can the university benefit most from e-learning and what could be the first steps?

UNU supports two science policy dialogues: Germany- Russia and Germany-South Africa.

UNU-ViE facilitates the dialogue process to establish the common research agendas between Germany and emerging economies together with cooperation partners such as International Bureau and German Development Institute.

The project entitled “Sustainable Solutions – Science for Sustainability” aims to develop a common policy approach to support sustainability between Germany and important emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. With this programme Germany strengthens its commitment to the Agenda 21 and the promotion of fundamental political, social, economic and industrial change towards sustainability.

The project E-Learning for Integrated Watershed Management aims at introducing e-learning into the teaching and learning practices in East African universities in the area of Watershed Management Education. The project is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and will run from 2008 to 2010. It will contribute to the EU-Project “Capacity Building for Integrated Watershed Management in Eastern Africa – (IWMNET)” managed by Universität Siegen.

You can learn more about the work of UNU in Bonn in a very compact version by downloading the flyer (German)

Agreement signed in September 2007

The Sustainable Land Management in the High Pamir and Pamir-Alai Mountains is an Integrated and Trans-boundary Initiative in Central Asia (PALM Project). The initiative’s goal is to enhance the capacity dealing with conservation and sustainable development of fragile and transboundary mountain environments. UNU-ViE was involved in the appraisal process and is responsible for execution of the four years project.