The 2nd Global Forum on Green Economy Learning kicked off in Paris on November 26th, on the theme of "Green Economy: New Challenges, New Skills". The Forum targeted education and training institutions geared towards public officials that are or are interested in engaging in green economy policymaking.
“Universities and training institutes have a key role to play in equipping decision-makers with the knowledge and tools they need to design and implement green economy solutions that offer major opportunities for people, businesses and economies,” says Gunnar Köhlin, Director of the Environment for Development (EfD) initiative.
These include national schools of public administration, civil service training institutes, and universities, as well as development partners active in green economy capacity development, and non-governmental organizations and business associations that deliver green economy-relevant training.
“It is important that we meet to share our thoughts on what makes training and skills development for the green economy work well. We know that there are many success stories in the work that we do and I am delighted that PAGE [the Partnership for Action on Green Economy] provides this forum to make sure that what works well can be replicated,” says Angus Mackay, Director of the Division for Planet at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
The aim of the Forum was to scale up knowledge and skills development for current and future decision-makers, technical staff in Ministries, and others involved in the design and implementation of inclusive green economy solutions.
Forum sessions focused on:
- What are the critical knowledge and skills gaps for designing inclusive green economy policies, as well as the key challenges faced by education and training institutions in delivering effective training for green economy policy-making;
- What are the learning solutions that work? What lessons learnt, recommendations and best practices can be distilled from global experiences.
- How can learning institutions join forces? Fostering long-term partnerships for green economy learning.
A key objective of the forum was to explore opportunities for collaboration with the goal of increasing the effectiveness, scale and impact for green economy learning.
“We hope this forum provides the foundation for new, long-lasting partnerships and plants seeds for further collaboration,” says Ben Simmons, Head of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) Secretariat.
Participants highlighted the main challenges in setting up and sustaining collaboration and defined actions towards partnerships for green economy learning, building on existing networks and initiatives.
In the days following the Forum, the Sixth GGKP Annual Conference and the OECD’s 2018 Green Growth and Sustainable Development (GGSD) Forum addressed the political economy of green and low-carbon policy reforms, identified their distributional impacts, and explored inclusive solutions for households, workers, sectors and regions so that they can contribute to a greener future.
The 2nd Global Forum on Green Economy Learning was jointly organized by the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Environment for Development (EfD), the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), and the Green Economy Coalition (GEC), and the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP).