CEPA // CEPA Best Practices Database Project

CEPA Best Practices Database Project

The project below was submitted by the organization below in response to the notification issued by the Executive Secretary in December 2003. The Secretariat does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the information it contains. Any questions about the project should be addressed to the organization which reported the project


General Description
Title		Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Environmental Education Programme
Status		Ongoing
From		01/01/1997
To		2005
Country(ies)		Angola Botswana Democratic Republic of the Congo Lesotho Malawi Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Seychelles Zimbabwe
Region(s)		Africa

Participating Organization(s)
Lead Organization(s)		SADC Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate
Type of Implementing Agency(ies)		Governments
Other Collaborating Organizations		Danida USAID IUCN
Main Target Groups or Audience
Country		South Africa
Telephone		27333303931
Fax		27333304576
E-mail Address		sadc-reec@futurenet.co.za
Web Site		http://www.sadc-reep.org.za

Funding
Source of Funding		Multilateral and Bilateral
Funding Agency		Swedish International Development Agency; Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA), USAID,

Goals and Objectives
Overall Goal		The purpose of the Regional Environmental Education (EE) Programme is to enable environmental education practitioners in the SADC region to strengthen environmental education processes for equitable and sustainable environmental management choices. This will be achieved through enhanced and strengthened environmental education policy, networking, resource materials and training capacity. The SADC Regional EE Programme consists of four major components with different sub-projects. Each component has its specific objectives as follows.
Specific Objectives		Networking - Strengthen and broaden the Regional Environmental Education Network The objective of this component is to support environmental education processes through enabling decentralised networking of environmental education practitioners within the SADC region. Policy - Support environmental education policy processes The objective of this component is to create an enabling environment for regional and national environmental education policy and to support the development and implementation of local level environmental and environmental education policy within the SADC region. Training - Development and strengthening of training capacity in environmental education The objective of this component is to support the development of capacity within the SADC region to respond to environmental issues through improved environmental education processes and training activities. Materials - Development of relevant resource materials for the region The objective of this component is to support the development of capacity within the SADC region to access, use and develop appropriate environmental education resource materials.

Scope and Activities
Regions and Sub-Regional Level Activities		Policy The SADC Regional EE Centre was asked to implement the environmental education policy section of the Networking and Capacity Building Programme (NETCAB) of IUCN Africa, which successfully finished in December 2001. Lessons from this project have informed the development of guidelines for environmental education policy in southern Africa. An Environmental Education Policy Audit (2003) was recently carried out to determine the status of environmental education policy processes in SADC. This Audit provides the working definition of policy and attempts to examine the milestones in environmental education over the decades as well as the vital link between environmental education processes and policy. Training A Course Developerment Network (CDN) has been established to share skills, experience and course materials in order to deliver effective environmental education processes in the SADC region. This Network consists of universities, polytechnics and other educational organisations and institutions. The CDN has recently developed a toolkit to support the development of environmental education courses. It includes examples of course proposals, case studies on institutional planning and course materials, as well as samples of materials being used in environmental education courses in the SADC region. The Rhodes University/SADC International Certificate Course in Environmental Education has been held five times since the inception of the programme. More than 110 participants from southern and eastern Africa have attended the course since 1998. The next course will run from September to November 2004 and will include 14 participants from the SADC region. Materials A sourcebook to support environmental education processes was recently developed by the REEP in consultation with environmental education practitioners from the SADC region. The sourcebook on the Development, Adaptation and Use of Learning Support Materials provides an orientation to materials development and was official launched at the 2003 EEASA Conference. A number of materials to support environmental education processes have been developed by SADC countries. Some of these examples include booklets on Wildlife Management for Schools in Zimbabwe, Close Encounters – A series of Namibian EE Case Studies, a magazine on Protected Areas by the Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles and booklets on Lesotho folktales and proverbs. Research Plans for an evaluation of the SADC REEP are currently being developed. This evaluation is aimed at providing insights into the way forward for the SADC Programme as well as looking at some strategic areas such as the United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development, an exit strategy or strategy for diversification of funding.