SADC
Regional Environmental Education Programme

Strengthen and Broaden the Regional Environmental Education Network

The objective of this component is to support environmental education processes through enabling decentralised networking of environmental education practitioners within the SADC region.

The SADC Regional Environmental Education Programme has established a broad decentralised regional environmental education network which consists of the SADC Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources directorate, National Network Representatives, the Regional EE Centre and other environmental education practitioners in the region. Many SADC countries are establishing or have established national environmental education committees with a co-ordinating role at a national level (e.g. Botswana, Namibia and Zambia). The SADC REEP is also supporting development of environmental education networks in the SADC region.

Networking activities have included, annual meetings of National Network Representatives, participation in the annual conferences of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) and collaborative work on courses, materials and policy. An important dimension of this networking has been the formation of partnerships with existing regional initiatives such as the IUCN Regional Office Southern Africa (ROSA) and the Rhodes University Environmental Education Unit.

Many national initiatives such as Ecological Youth of Angola, WWF-Zambia, Department of Labour and Vocational Training (Malawi), Swaziland National Trust Commission, Ministry of Environment and Transports (Seychelles) to name a few, have undertaken environmental education initiatives within the programme involving sustained partnerships. In addition to these activities, a number of important events such as the meetings of the Ministers of Environment and the Council of Ministers meeting could be viewed as networking opportunities for and within the SADC Regional Environmental Education Programme.