Enhancing Green Economy in three Asian Countries (EGEA)

Angesichts des Wissens um die Bedeutung der "Green Economy" für weltweite wirtschaftliche Entwicklungen besteht das Hauptziel von EGEA, kurz für "Enhancing Green Economy in three Asian Countries", darin, nachhaltiges Denken und Verhalten auf allen Bildungsebenen in drei Ländern Asiens (Kirgisistan, Nepal und Indien) zu fördern. Hierbei sollen Hochschulen als Katalysatoren des Wandels fungieren und diese Rolle soll mithilfe des Projekts gestärkt werden. Im Mittelpunkt steht das übergeordnete Ziel, die Wechselbeziehung zwischen Umwelt und Wirtschaft in den Partnerländern und ihren Gesellschaften stärker zu thematisieren in den nationalen Bildungsprogrammen nachhaltig zu implementieren .
Basierend auf früheren Kooperationen und Erfahrungen ist das Konsortium der Ansicht, dass zur Gewährleistung der Nachhaltigkeit von "Green Economy"-Initiativen Bottom-up- und Top-down-Ansätze eingesetzt werden sollten. Zu den fünf Hauptstrategien gehören

• die Entwicklung modularer Programme zur Stärkung von Wissen und Praxis in Bezug auf "Green Economy", die in bestehende oder neue Programme an Partnerhochschulen integriert werden sollen,
• die Verbesserung des lebenslangen Lernens durch Blended Learning-Angebote, die sich an die Erwachsenenbildung in "Green Economy" und verwandte Bereiche richten,
• die Stärkung von Public Affairs-Abteilungen und Marketing-Einheiten, um die Rolle der Hochschulen als Förderer von Green Behaviour in der lokalen Gesellschaft zu erleichtern sowie
• die Entwicklung von Werbekampagnen und Programmen, um nachhaltiges Handeln in der Vernetzung von Schulen und Hochschulen zu fördern.

The transition to sustainable development is an urgent necessity for the Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal and India, since at present, these countries’ socio-economic development is largely based on the consumption of natural resources. Today, these countries face challenges that pose a threat to their future sustainable development, the most important of which are: depletion of natural resources without creation of effective alternatives, loss of basic natural ecosystems and stagnation of human capital.
In 2012, at the conference on sustainable development "RIO+20" in Brazil, KG expressed its commitment to sustainable development through promoting the priorities of the "green economy", which was confirmed in the signing of the final document "The Future We Want". This document has become a call for action for governments, business leaders and the UN, to support countries interested in the transition to the "green" economy. In Nepal, there are numerous challenges in adapting and adopting Green Economy policies starting by the lack of national policies. Capacity and skill development, technology adaptation, transfer, and retrofitting to suit Nepal’s hilly and mountainous terrains, need for large investments and of course adapting to and mitigating against climate change are some of the major challenges. Notwithstanding these constraints, green economic policies and programmes can be means to achieve sustainable development in this mountainous region. There is need to document good case studies for drawing lessons so that future green growth pathway cans be charted and bigger impacts can be achieved. India has become since 1991 one of the fastest growing major economies. However today, there are many environmental problems and issues that slows down its progress. The concept of green economy has been discussed in recent years for achieving sustainability through inclusive growth and development. Thus, sustainability has become a key element of the national agenda of these 3 countries.
One of important aspects of economic development of these three Asian countries is to maintain the principles of environmental sustainability, because economic growth and population increase force expansion and intensification of land use, growth of food and industrial production and depletion of natural resources. The needs identified hitherto and the lack of specialists in green economy prompted the identification of a project goal link to the need of modernizing curriculum. However, effective and outcome oriented green economy implementation requires multi-disciplinary planning, interdisciplinary implementation, and effective and participatory monitoring and evaluation. The introduction of green economy concepts in law, business, economics, environmental studies or management programs should support economic development adopting curricula to changes in labour market and to an increasing demand for new "green” skills. The project specific objectives is thus to stress the fostering of green skills in different target groups (students, teachers, professionals, young generations) and for different subject areas.
Green economy and green skills as well as other aspects of sustainable development are of global importance, therefore the project will have a significant European added value. A green economy can generate as much growth and employment as the so called "brown” economy, and outperforms the latter in the medium and long run, while yielding significantly more environmental and social benefits. Of course, moving towards a green economy will require Asian governments, HEIs, civil society and leading businesses to engage in this transition collaboratively.