The Regional Center of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCEs on ESD) is an international network of institutions and individuals committed to education and learning-oriented towards a sustainable future. RCE is also committed to the acceleration and dissemination of ESD-based education (Sustainable Education) in the context of the realization of the Global Action Program (GAP) which contributes to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This RCE Youth Meeting was held as the follow-up to RCE Asia Pacific-Youth program that has established in 2016. The youth segment was first declared in 2016 at RCE Global Meeting organized by Universitas Gadjah Mada. Furthermore, RCE Asia Pacific Meeting was held in 2017 which was then followed by a program stated as Sustainable Development Goals Challenge (SDGs) Challenge. The program has been running for about six months with at least 31 programs established throughout the Asia Pacific.
The results of these activities were presented at the Virtual Conference which held on September 24, 2018. To improve the coordination among all the RCE Youth members, RCE Asia Pacific Youth Leader -Ms. Brittany Hardiman from RCE Great Western Sydney Australia-visited Universitas Gadjah Mada as RCE Yogyakarta coordinator. This meeting was attended by 25 communities group representatives who were active in supporting SDGs in Special Region of Yogyakarta. The forum was held on July 16, 2018, and was officially opened by Prof. Ir.Irfan Dwidya Prijambada, M.Eng., Ph.D. as Director of Community Service UGM. It was continued by the presentation of the ESD programs carried out by the Directorate for Community Services UGM. The session continued with a plenary session by Ms. Brittany Hardiman (RCE Great Western Sydney) Australia, Nanung Agus Fitriyanto, S.Pt., M.Sc., Ph.D. (Head of Sub Directorate of Community Empowerment, DfCS UGM) moderated by Emmy Yuniarti Rusadi, S.T., M.Eng., (Leader Deputy of RCE UGM Asia Pacific Youth).
Invited communities and ESD actors from various backgrounds agreed that the RCE forum was useful in strengthening community networking and development. In one of the sessions, the FGD participants were divided into three areas which are environment, climate change, and consumption. The education sector represented by Kantong Pintar, Jogja Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Nada Bicara, Jogja Museum Lovers, dan ASEC (Actual Smile English Club). The FGD participants said that it was important to collaborate in developing knowledge among relevant communities to trigger bigger participation in the development process.
The environmental sector was attended by the communities such as KOPHI (Indonesian Green Coalition) and KeMangteer. They suggested there should be improvements in cooperation between communities in a similar sector in order to develop wider, centralized, and an easier public network access. This meeting has summed up to build an integrated line of communication between policymakers and the community. The last sector discussed in how to improve and change waste into economic value products. Participants agreed that the RCE Youth forum has provided a good opportunity to establish and develop networks, by increasing communication through collaboration. The event was attended by 50 participants consist of students, NGOs, and activists in the environmental field
