2019•12•06 Tokyo
On 26 November 2019, UNU-IAS hosted an interim reporting meeting for the third term of the Grant for Global Sustainability (GGS), consisting of a reporting session and an examination.
The Grant for Global Sustainability (GGS) is an initiative supporting research on sustainability, launched in 2015 with support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT). Each term of GGS supports the work of two educational and research institutes in Japan, covering two thematic areas (“Inclusive Development” and “Gender Equality”), which aim to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The reporting meeting reviewed the progress of two projects currently being implemented by the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education and Graduate School of Medicine. Having examining the reports, the review board approved a further year’s support for implementation of the two projects. The progress reports are available (in Japanese ONLY) under the RELATED FILES tab.
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Graduate School of Education, the University of Tokyo
Project Title: “Strengthening Social Resilience through Education for Sustainable Development — Building a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and Improvement Mechanisms“
The main objective of this project is to develop a common international framework and indicators to effectively monitor and assess the progress, learning outcomes, and impact on society of initiatives undertaken by respective countries in the domain of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which aims to enhance people’s knowledge and skills to build a sustainable society, as mentioned in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 4.7. The project also aims to contribute to the formation of an international mechanism that monitors the progress of ESD, by proposing that countries use the project’s framework and indicators to periodically monitor and assess their initiatives and outcomes and report results to the United Nations University and UNESCO.
During the first year, analysis of the framework and indicators of ESD M&E has been done and field research conducted in Indonesia (ocean education) and Cambodia (traffic education), to examine their suitability and effectiveness using the bottom-up approach. In the second year, preliminary research was undertaken in Yokohama to examine awareness of ESD among teachers to establish the ESD/GCED monitoring flamework and development of indicators. It resulted in a wider understanding of the importance of ESD/GCED M&E development among the various stakeholders such as international organizations and local schools, and the provisional draft of indicators was developed.
Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo
Project Title: “Improving maternal and child health and wellbeing through gender mainstreaming in Cambodia”
This programme aims to develop a model of health and welfare service provisions in health facilities, workplace, households and communities, and early childhood education centers and improving involvement from husbands and other family members in the urban and peri-urban setting in Cambodia. Demand for female workers is growing in rapidly developing economies with the expansion of light manufacturing industries. Women of reproductive age needs to be ensured reproductive health and rights and receive screening of non-communicable diseases which are growing concern.
During the reporting period, the current situation and conditions of child welfare were well understood by medical staff in the two project sites. An agreement was made on intervention in the hospitals and managed areas. Targeting policymakers of the concerned ministries of the Cambodian government, agreement was made on the needs of policy as well as the access to the early childhood education to address the current changing situations of increased female workers, diversification of rearers, and child welfare. Moreover, the project revealed from the data collected that the coverage rate of maternal and child health differs based on the service types, work style (home-based or neighborhood) of father and mothers, and participation in public health insurance.