On 20-21 March 2012, a Horizon 2020 workshop entitled “Education for Sustainable Development focusing on the H2020 thematic areasΆΆ was organized in Algiers within the framework of the H2020 CB/MEP program in collaboration with MEdIES. This workshop aimed to raising awareness and building the capacity of Algerian educators in promoting environmental and sustainable development issues, particularly on themes relating to H2020.

The target group of the meeting included formal educators (in primary and secondary schools), Non-formal educators (NGO staff, eco-clubs, animators etc.) as well as administration officers (from the Ministries of Education and Environment).

One of the scopes of the workshop was to describe the principles and concepts of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and how to apply these to the thematic areas of Horizon 2020. Specific themes of the workshop included how to educate students about the importance of properly managing sewage and municipal solid waste, as well as how to address overconsumption issues and the life cycle of materials.

The 2 day workshop was facilitated by MEdIES Secretariat. It was largely delivered through experiential exercises & methods including concept mapping, experiments, groupwork and video analysis. The experiential exercises were based on educational materials developed by MEdIES that relate to the thematic areas of H2020. All the educational material that was used was handed out to the participants in form of hardcopies as well as electronic material.

The course had a theoretical part that consisted of: An introduction to the H2020 Programme by Dr Emad Adly, RAED and presentations on the principles and concepts of ESD by Prof Mohamed Ftouhi, University Mohamed V Souissi and Mr Riad Bendaoud, ECOLOGIQUES Boumerdes. Furthermore, participants attended the following four targeted Workshops on

(i) The method of Experiments to ensure Water Quality, by Vicky Malotidi

(ii) The method of Concept Mapping usinf the topic of Water Threats, by Iro Alampei

(iii) Conducting Surveys and formulating Questionnaires about consumption habits, by Vicky Malotidi

(iv) The Life-Cycle Analysis of products and services Methodology by Iro Alampei.

The course was evaluated very positively by the participants who asked for a potential continuation of such a training activity on more ESD topics and methodologies. The 32 trainees expressed their enthusiasm about the high level of expertise, both in terms of content and on the state-of-the-art interactive learning methodologies applied.

Snapshots from the workshop

Participants expectations on post-it papers

Participants workling in small groups

Informal Evaluation of the meeting in the form of a DARTS game

REFERENCES / Educational material used

“Water in the Mediterranean” © MIO-ECSDE, Athens, 2002 in English & French

“Waste in our lives” © MIO-ECSDE, Athens, 2008 in English & French

youthXchange Guide on Sustainable Consumption © UNEP/MAP, UNESCO, MIO-ECSDE, 2009

Download the trainingΆs overview and training material on the H2020 CB/MEP program webpage:
http://www.h2020.net/en/resources/training-materials/viewcategory/165.html

For more information on the meeting contact the workshop organisers at info (a) medies (.) net