Alpbach-Laxenburg Group retreat at EFA 2018

August 26, 2018

During European Forum Alpbach 2018, Alpbach-Laxenburg Group hosted a retreat where partners and potential partners of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens gathered, including IIASA, to discuss potential future collaboration. The meeting was attended by some of the Centre’s Board members Jeffrey Sachs and Kim Won-soo, and CEO Monika Froehler.

Potential topics of collaboration include developing thematic and political frameworks to link the Agenda 2030, the Paris Agreement, and other international conventions to create integrated implementation frameworks. The Centre’s partners will work together to develop a global school of excellence in sustainable studies in line with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Academy and SDSN Youth directed by Jeffrey Sachs.

Source and photo: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/events/20180826-Alpbach.html

Ban Ki-moon Centre Hosts the Second Breakfast Hub for Youth-led and Youth-focused Organizations

June 25, 2018

Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens invited young leaders and representatives from varied organizations that work with and for youth and their empowerment. To achieve the goals as a global citizen the participants shared their ideas on how they are connected to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Agenda 2030.

The two keynote guest speakers were Billy Batware from the UNODC, who is Co-founder of Regional Academy on United Nations (RAUN), United for Education and Sustainable Futures (UESF), Youth Education Ambassadors (YEA), and Forum for Young Internationalists (FYI), and Katarina Eric, who is President of AIESEC in Austria.

“As you know, global citizenship requires strong networks, partnerships,” said Batware. He emphasized, “during this network event, probably, get to know others and do something together”

and ended his speech with a quote from Ban Ki-moon:

“Be a global citizen. Act with passion and compassion. Help us make this world safer and more sustainable today and for the generations that will follow us. That is our moral responsibility.”

Katarina said she strongly believes that “in order to create a better future, we need to unlock potential in youth.” She said, “a whole point of activating youth is actually creating a change agent” and that being a global citizen for her is “actually believing that you can make a change.”

The participants actively engaged in networking and workshop session by discussing what needs to be improved in the field of youth empowerment to achieve global goals. For one-on-one interviews that the Centre conducted, each of them picked their favorite SDG and explained what they have done and what they will do as a global citizen in order to achieve the goal.

The participants’ organizations are:

AIESEC in Austria, CISV Austria, Erasmus Mundus Global Studies MA Dual Degree Program (EMGS), European Youth Parliament Austria, Interact Club Austria, International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA), Regional Academy on the United Nations (RAUN), Students Impact Initiative, Umweltbundesamt, Civil Society Team of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), WWF Generation Earth, and HeForShe in Graz/Vienna.

Ban Ki-moon Meets the Secretary General of the ASEAN-Korea Centre

April 30, 2018

The Co-chairman of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met the Secretary General of the ASEAN-Korea Centre Lee Hyuk on April 30th.

Mr. Ban Ki-moon congratulated the 4th Secretary General of the ASEAN-Korea Centre on his inauguration that took place on April 16th. Previously, Mr. Lee has served as the Ambassador at the Korean Embassies in the Philippines and Vietnam.

ASEAN-Korea Centre was established with aims to enlarge trades, promote investments, enhance cooperation on culture and tourism, and to activate human exchanges between Korea and the ASEAN countries. ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Mr. Ban also encouraged the ASEAN-Korea Centre to make continuous efforts to build a stronger, sustainable partnership between the ASEAN countries and Korea.

The ASEAN-Korea Centre is currently accepting applicants for the 2018 ASEAN-Korea Youth Network Workshop that will be held in two places, Seoul and Manila, on July 2nd-12th. The deadline for the application submission is May 24th.

Source: https://www.aseankorea.org/eng/Activities/activities_view.asp?pageNum=20&page=1&boa_num=12792&boa_gubun=2&pageReturn=Activities&boa_cnt=49&S_YEAR=&S_MONTH=&S_GUBUN=0&rownum=1
Source: http://www.aseankorea.org/eng/Activities/Activities_view.asp?page=1&boa_num=12789&boa_gubun=6&pageReturn=Activities&boa_cnt=0&S_YEAR=&S_MONTH=&S_GUBUN=0&rownum=1
Photo: ASEAN-Korea Centre

Online course with Ban Ki-moon and Heinz Fischer on the SDGs

March 7, 2018

Our co-chairmen Ban Ki-moon and Heinz Fischer teach an online course on Coursera, and now registered students can access the videos and readings. Anyone from any part of the world interested in familiarizing themselves with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for sustainable development is invited to take the lectures. Throughout 7 weeks, students will be directed to learn about the SDGs through five foundations: people. planet, prosperity, peace & partnership, and youth & SDG implementation. These interconnected foundations then will lead students to tackle problems and encourage them to make changes and take part in integrating the SDGs in all countries.

Following the introductory session for the 17 goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, every week there are 8 to 13 lecture videos along with 5 to 8 readings to complete. Weekly quizzes and the final project will be graded if one decides to take the course whereas auditing the course is also an option. Check out the course on Coursera and register now.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/sustainable-development-ban-ki-moon

Photo: Porapak Apickodilok