education – Page 2 – weecnetwork

Photo UNDP. Village: Raypur, Panchayat: Sukala Block: Stayabadi District: Puri, State: Odhisa , India

In November of 2016 the Conference of Parties, COP22, took place in Marrakech, Morrocco. Although both the media and international policy makers gave it less attention than the COP21 in Paris, the Marrakech event was significant for its inclusion of gender as a critical climate change topic. The success in including gender as a relevant subject was partly due to the renewal of the Lima Work Program, a gender-focused initiative developed two years prior in Peru. Although at COP22 the joint discussion of gender and climate change became common practice, there remains significant challenges in defining what gender inclusion means.

The inclusion of “gender” within COP has largely and predominantly been focused on the inclusion of women, speaking within the frame of the gender binary. This year, three main lines of argumentation for this inclusion were clear; one based on a more “neoliberal” discourse, another that could be considered as more “ecofeminist”, and a third which focuses on the vulnerability of women.

The neoliberal frame is one focused predominantly on the monetary value of the inclusion of women. The idea that “investing in women causes a higher return on investment” is one couched in ideas of women as being more responsible, an argument most commonly seen in discussions on micro credit and micro finance. Though there may be truth in the findings that women tend to repay loans more often than men, this discourse is problematic in two ways. The first being that this can lead to a misleading generalization of women as being more responsible purely because they are women or mothers. It also implies that men are therefore irresponsible and not able to appreciate needs of the family or of children.

A Thematic Day on Education and climate has been held on December, 4^th, at the 21^st Conference on climate change in Paris.

This Day and the Article 12 of the final agreement (‘Parties shall cooperate in taking measures, as appropriate, to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information, recognizing the importance of these steps with respect to enhancing actions under this Agreement’) are a bottom up initiative and a success of the Paris-Education2015 Collective, a group of educationalists, organizational leaders and politicians working for the integration of education into the Paris Climate Conference 2015.

It is the first time that the education is recognized as mean for fighting against the climate change. A ‘Manifesto’ – titled ‘Ten billion human beings: to live together, let’s change the education!’ – calls for a global citizenship education.

Now the group would like to confirm the initiative at the COP22 in Morocco and to design a three years action-research project between Africans and Europeans researchers and educators.

People interested in collaborating to the Marrakech environmental education meeting in 2016 and/or a action-research action can contact the WEEC Permanent Secretariat.

Download the Manifesto (English) (Français)

Read the introduction of Yves Reinkin to the Thematic Day (French only)

Read a comment of Jacqueline Charron, Secretary of the ‘Les Amis de Circée’ association (French only)

Links to documents on the Thematic Day/Liens aux documents du Thematic Day:

Ministries meeting/Pour la partie avec les ministres : Thematic Day Education au développement durable – COP 21 – Ouverture de la conférence

First round table/Pour la 1ère table ronde: Thematic Day Education au développement durable – COP 21 – Table ronde 1

Second round table/Pour la seconde table ronde : Thematic Day Education au développement durable – COP 21 – Table ronde 2 et clôture de la conférence

Download the youth speech (French only)