DANISH AGENCY TO SPONSOR ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING PROGRAMME IN ASIA AND PACIFIC
Press Release
HE/927
DANISH AGENCY TO SPONSOR ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING PROGRAMME IN ASIA AND PACIFIC
19960221 BANGKOK, 20 February (UNEP) -- The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today that the Danish Cooperation Agency for Environment and Development is sponsoring a two-year project implemented under UNEP's Network for Environmental Training at the Tertiary-Level in Asia and the Pacific, which will design, test and implement an inter-university network to promote teaching and research on environmental management in Thailand and Malaysia.The project, part of the Network's new policy supporting national partnerships for governmental training, will serve as a catalyst to encourage "innovators" in teaching and research on environmental management at approximately 50 universities in Thailand and nine in Malaysia to forge ahead with their ideas and proposals, through a combination of self-help, mutual encouragement and limited funding (seed money). Danish universities and research institutes will participate as active collaborators in the activities of the network.
"It is hoped that the proposed network will encourage universities in Thailand and Malaysia to develop teaching and research programmes that are multi-disciplinary in their approach", said Suvit Yodmani, UNEP's Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. The programmes are expected to meet the needs of public and private organizations that are involved in environmental management and the needs of mid-career professionals, as well as full-time students.
The project will also receive support under the regional Network umbrella. The Network is a training system which currently links more than 200 institutions and more than 2,000 individuals active in environmental education and training at the university, technical institute and teacher training college -- the tertiary level -- spanning 36 countries in Asia and the Pacific.
The network enhances the environmental expertise of decision makers, policy formulators and tertiary-level educators. Through the educators, the Network also works to increase the knowledge and awareness of students, in the hope that will improve environmental technologies and the capacity for their use. In brief, the Network aims to increase the overall environmental expertise in the region at the technical, managerial and policy levels.
The Danish Cooperation Agency for Environment and Development is the first bilateral organization with which UNEP and the Network has collaborated.
- 2 - Press Release HE/927 21 February 1996
It continues to work with such international agencies as the Asian Development Bank, the World Conservation Union-IUCN and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). "Many Governments agreed to the recommendation made in Agenda 21 calling for the contribution of about 0.1 per cent of their total gross national product to be allocated to salvaging the environment, but very few have actually followed the recommendations as the Danish Government has through the Agency", said Dr. Yodmani.
As explained by its Programme Director, Morgens Dyhr-Nielson, the Agency, under the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy and in coordination with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was established in 1993 following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio with an overall objective of contributing to restoring the global environment in accordance to the recommendations of Agenda 21.
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