Following the successful conclusion of the above project, we are pleased to share below the process and outcome of the events from Narva, Through Copenhagen, Gothenburg to Latvia. Please, see the milestones of the project:
Launch of the project on Kick-off meeting and high-level conference in Narva.
On the 26th of August 2021 partners from Nordic – Baltic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) got together in the beautiful city of Narva, Estonia to launch a great initiative “Together towards green, sustainable and digital society of Nordic-Baltic region”. The project aimed at providing a conducive space for the partners and adult learners to promote green solutions and sustainability in the Nordic-Baltic region. The project also wants to contribute to achieving the SDGs and regional cooperation on a green future of the region.
On arrival day project partners started own adventure by visiting Tallinn old town and non-formally discussed the concept of the Sustainable Development Goals in practice. On the way to Narva partners had an opportunity to meet and better know each other. This informal interaction created a solid ground for our Nordic-Baltic collaboration and development program on SDGs. Adult learners who were represented within delegations shared own expectations, thought and ideas how they could contribute to active citizens and multiplier in achievement of sustainable goals at local and regional levels.
On the 27th of August, the project was officially launched in the form of a high-level conference on sustainable development “Global Conversation 2021”. Nordic- Baltic partners and other international participants were invited to explore major obstacles to the achievement of the UN SDGs in societies with growing youth unemployment, intensifying climate change and ever deeper economic, social and racial divisions. Additionally, to that in the frame of working groups and speed dating among the adult learners with experts were discussing the role and importance of gender equality and accessible education, intercultural dialogue in healing divides and reconciling societies.
An international conference became an opportunity to reaffirm the significance of the importance of collaboration between Nordic and Baltic actors in the field of education who work for a greener, socially sustainable, and digitally integrated region. The conference connected regional networks among practitioners, policymakers, civil society organisations, international donors.
The results of the meeting can be found on the official webpage: https://www.unsdg.ee/kick-off-conference/
The results of the meeting can be found on the official webpage: https://www.unsdg.ee/kick-off-conference/
First Workshop session “Getting closer with UN SDGs” took place on the 3.12-5.12.2021 in Helsinki, Finland
On the 3rd of December 2021 the adult learner and experts on sustainable development and civil society issues gathered in the beautiful capital of Finland, Helsinki, for the first workshop session “Getting closer with UN SDGs”.
The main objective of the workshop session for participants was to learn from each other while also hearing from adults and vulnerable group representatives about their own perspectives on relevant sustainable development issues and key questions like how we could improve gender equality within society, how to make education accessible to all and protect local community life form the challenges what are influencing their everyday life, like consequences of climate change, discrimination and inequalities, transition into green growth economy and waste management
Moreover, to that partners had gathered to develop examples, tasks, and guidelines for inclusion of adult learners into the project’s main output, an educational toolkit “Civil society in building a green sustainable and digital future of the Nordic-Baltic region” and web resource, an intensive amount of work (including group tasks, creative challenges, conversation exercises, innovative approaches developed by the target group, etc.) was done during the workshops. At the end of the program partners conducted exchange session on best practices.
The workshop was divided into two parts: to gather and develop educational materials, examples, guidelines and methodology for educational toolkit and to exchange of best practices by partners and invited experts to practise on outcome gained skills and materials with wider groups and communities.
The workshop session was led by Anneli Ohvril (Executive Director, Let’s Do It World) and Ingrid Nielsen (independent expert on Environmental Question and renewable energy expert) and Jenni Kauppila (Advocacy office of UNA Finland). Training sessions were filled with a huge number of interactive exercises aimed at developing teamwork and gaining new knowledge about climate change, circular economy was interlinked and sustainable development. The room where the event took place was animated with vibrant, lively discussions on Integrating SDGs into strategies and practices: how to construct social change, led by Ingrid Nielsen.
Event materials and results of the meeting you could find on this page.
First Transnational partners and experts meeting “Together towards green, sustainable and digital society” in Copenhagen, Denmark contributed to the process of development of educational toolkit and web-resource.
The first transnational meeting of partners and experts “Together towards a Green, Sustainable and Digital Society” took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 11-13th of March 2022. Facilitated by Crossing Borders Director Garba Diallo, the meeting began with a brief introduction of the host organisation Crossing Borders and its own activities on the global goals. After partner cooperation part “getting to know each other” followed an interactive workshop on the Sustainable Development Goals, which was focusing mainly on climate change, green growth, clean Baltic Sea, waste management, sustainable lifestyle, environmental communication and sustainable cities and communities.
Transnational meeting’s main goal was to contribute to the process of development of educational toolkit and web-resource, by collecting materials, best practices and new methodologies for adult learners and hearing adults & vulnerable groups own thoughts, ideas and experiences of on themes related with sustainable development. Also meeting was designed to evaluate a feedback from workshop session for target groups, meeting of partners and experts who have been working on development educational toolkit and web-resource as main practical outcome of the project. During the workshop, people focused on their neighbourhood and their personal relationship to the Sustainable Development Goals in a creative way, gaining new knowledge, methods and sharing experiences from different partner countries to address the issues raised.
The second day of the workshop took place with the help of the Danish organization Folkevirke, which is a women’s cross-political, public education and adult education movement. The session was opened by Ingrid Nielsen (independent expert on environmental communications), who conducted an evaluation meeting of experts in terms of gathered materials, best practices and new methodologies for adult learners and facilitated process of educational toolkit and web-resource development . A separate discussion for adult’ learners was conducted to detect positive learning lessons by adult learners from the perspective of Nordic and Baltic regions.
The results of the meeting can be found on the official webpage: www.unsdg.ee/denmark
Second Workshop (training) session “Getting closer with UN SDGs: gender equality, accessible global education and digital society” was conducted on 22-24 April 2022, Vilnius, Lithuania
The second workshop session took place on the April 22-24 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The key themes of this workshop were gender equality, adult learning education possibilities and digital society. Knowing that situation with gender equality in Baltic State is different than in Nordic. This training session was devoted to “Gender Equality as an accelerator for achieving the SDGs” and was led by two experts Margarita Jankauskaitė, Center for Equality Advancement, who conducted a keynote speech “Can men do it? Men and gender equality…”. First part of training was lead by Barbi Pilvre-Storgard from Tallinn University, who has improved participants skills on “Gender Equality and environmental issues“. Later participants joined 3 parallel workshops on gender equality, women empowerment and sustainable welfare what was conducted by each partner.
The second part of training was a training session lead by Birgit Lao (Ambassador at large for Education at Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia), who has presented a keynote speech on “Education and Digital society one step closer in achievement of the UN SDGs” and Jari Roy Lee Kaivo-oja (Adjunct Professor, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Science) from Finland shared Finnish experience on “Accessible Global Education for adult learners and practitioners”. After presentations participants had great opportunity to ask questions and existing challenges. First working day ended with discussion in frame of the three more workshops on global education and digital society. Participants have proposed to continue working on solutions development how to improve education access and digital innovation for vulnerable group representative and proposed own know-how in this term. During the workshops an intense work (including personal and group tasks, creative challenges, conversation exercises, an innovative approaches developed by target group etc) will be carried out to develop examples, tasks and guidelines to be included in the project main outcome an educational toolkit and web resource, also will be organised a session of exchange of partners best practices will be conducted as part of this event.
Also experts had the opportunity to share experiences and best practices and examples of their implementation in adult education for sustainable development. Partners have fruitful discussions and used interactive methods and tools of learning by involving people from vulnerable groups in the learning process. All participants has shared own material (stories, games, exercises, use of digital solutions) with wider audience to increase knowledge on sustainable development goals and improve community awareness about importance of sustainability and cross-cutting themes.
You can find the results of the meeting and interesting materials on https://www.unsdg.ee/workshops/lithuania/
Transnational partners and experts meeting “Together towards green, sustainable and digital society” (10-12th of June 2022, Gothenburg, Sweden)
The second transnational partners and experts meeting took place on 10-12. June 2022 in Gothenburg, Sweden. With the cooperation of Swedish partner Burgardens Gymnasium the meeting started on 10. June in the schools building. Firstly, the experts listened to a lecture by Vassili Golikov on “Living sustainably – dilemma, transformation and what can we do?”, where they heard some suggestions and were involved in an active discussion of the topic. After that, they divided into several working groups and began to work together on content for the book and on the design and content of the project’s website.
The next day, the experts continued their work at the Museum of World Culture. All the experts were divided into two teams. The first worked on editing existing materials and setting final structure to the educational toolkit. The second group was dedicated to Selection of best gathered educational materials, more specifically general content, best practices/exercises. After lunch, the work continued, and each of the organizations showed their best practices or the best practices of their country on the topics: Quality Education, Gender equality, Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequality, Sustainable cities, Climate action, Peace and Justice strong institutions.
The results of the meeting can be found on this page.
Transnational partners and experts meeting “Together towards green, sustainable and digital society” (4-7th of August 2022, Riga, Latvia)
Oleg Pissarenko, Villu Veski, Raun Juurikas, Tiit Kalluste, Taavo Remmel and others took part at the final Expert and partners meeting in EU House, Riga, Latvia on 4-6 august 2022 to share their experiences and insights about music.
Villu Veski tells about own roots in music and finding personal sound language through them. Raun Juurikas reveals the secrets of improvisational music based on live electronics and Oleg Pissarenko introduces the therapeutic effect of music.
At the end of the mini-lecture and music day there will be concert performed by previously spoken artists. The concert also marks the final event of the project.
The goal of this project is to increase the knowledge of young adults, teachers, NGO experts, and representatives of vulnerable groups about the UN SDGs in the context of a globalized world, as well as to improve their ability to be change agents and their engagement in pursuing more environmentally friendly and sustainable lifestyles in their daily activities.
The toolkit will be focused on the goals №4: Quality Education, №5: Gender equality, №8: Decent Work and Economic growth, №10: Reduced inequality, №13: Climate action, №16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions and will introduce the learners and educators to the current situation on SDG’s in partner countries (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia). The textbook will contain practical exercises that will help the reader to understand SDG in an accessible way.
The toolkit has been published at the web page: http://www.unsdg.ee/book
Project is financed by Nordplus Adult programm of Nordic Council and international partners.