Renforcer l'accès aux informations sur l'environnement et le développement durable pour les utilisateurs clefs et le public en développant des méthodes et des outils innovateurs - SMSI PrepCom-2 (17-25 février 2005, Genève)
Mots-clés
Base de données - Développement durable - Outils géographiques - Technologies de l'information et de la communicationDescription
Ce texte n'existe qu'en anglais.Access, use and sharing of information and knowledge are keywords of the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action adopted at the World Summit on the Information Society in December 2003 in Geneva (WSIS Phase I). WSIS Phase II in November 2005 in Tunis is recognized to be the platform for the development of concrete measures for the implementation of the WSIS Geneva 2003 Plan of Action.
Following the WSIS call for the development of pilot projects in education and capacity building, the proposed project aims to develop a concrete example of an ICT application for the next WSIS Phase II Preparatory Committee in Geneva (PrepCom-2, 17-25 February 2005). The objective of the project is to demonstrate how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can improve the accessibility to data and information on environment / sustainable development (SD) for the general public by using innovative e-learning methods and tools. The capacity building material will be developed around the existing UNEP GEO Data Portal. It will be distributed, tested and discussed at the PrepCom-2 meeting, and it will also be re-used in UNEP and University of Geneva activities.
The project will draw on the experience of two partners working in the field of environment / SD and ICTs:
The UNEP Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is a project initiated in response to the environmental reporting requirements of Agenda 21 and to a UNEP Governing Council decision of May 1995 which requested the production of a new comprehensive global state of the environment report. Three global reports, several regional and national reports as well as educational and technical products have been published since 1997 (http://www.grid.unep.ch/geo/).
The UniGe Sustainability and public or private environmental management (SUPPREM) is one of the Swiss Virtual Campus (SVC) programs. Its objective is to produce a bundle of inter-disciplinary web-based teaching modules oriented toward sustainability and environmental management. Funded from 2001 to 2003 by the SVC, it is one the two SVC phase 1 projects (out of 13) maintained at the Unige in the SVC phase 2 (http://www.unige.ch/dinf/ntic/cel/projCVS.html).
Although the two partners have already developed a number of tools and course contents for their own internal purposes, the project aims at putting together the experiences of the two partners and proposing learning materials that are outside of their usual work programme, as well as to reach new audiences in the civil society. The project will improve the availability and the dissemination of information on environment/SD outside the governmental, academic and international organisations targeted so far.
Each of the partners can dedicate 20%-40% of a staff person over 5 months to the project, in addition to the requested GIAN funding.
Immediate results expected through the project are :
• a set of data and information on environment/SD available at national, regional and continental scale;
• a set of accessibility tools, including interactive graphs, maps and tables available on Internet as well as on a CD-ROM, available for distribution at the WSIS PrepCom-2;
• training material including an e-learning course on key environmental/SD indicators for 3 thematic domains;
• a presence at the WSIS PrepCom-2 (17-25 February 2005, Geneva, Switzerland) for testing and disseminating the training material;
• improved access to data and information on environment/SD for the general public;
• raising awareness on key factors and indicators on environment/SD.
All the results could also be proposed later at other events like the United Nations University meeting "Innovations to Bridge the Digital Divide" (April 2005, Tokyo, Japan), and possibly at the Inter-Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 10-Year Review of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (Mauritius, 26-30 January 2005). They could also serve other initiatives like GVU http://www.gvu.unu.edu/, or the Earth Council LearnSD http://www.learnsd.org/.
For UNEP, the outputs of the project could be disseminated to all the GEO partners, in particular to the collaborating centres of the Africa Environment Outlook (AEO).
At the local level, the training materials will be converted into a course that will be offered to the students of the new masters on Sustainable Development of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences (University of Geneva).
The help of the Geneva International Academic Network is asked due to the urgency of the preparation for WSIS-PrepCom-2, the flexibility of financial support through Small Grants as well as the numerous positive outputs for the partners and other departments at the University of Geneva.
La contribution du RUIG pour ce projet s'élève à CHF 41'900
Equipe de recherche
Dr. Hy Dao , Coordinateur, Département de géographie , Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales (SES) , Université de Genève (Unige) .
Mme Nicole Efrancey , Membre principal, Hautes études commerciales (HEC) , Université de Genève (Unige) .
Prof. Alain Haurie , Membre principal, Hautes études commerciales (HEC) , Université de Genève (Unige) .
M. Stefan Schwarzer , Membre principal, Réseau Mondial des Centres d’Information sur l’Environnement - Europe (GRID - Europe) , Division de l'alerte rapide et de l'évaluation , Programme des Nations Unies pour l'environnement (PNUE) .
M. Jaap van Woerden , Membre principal, Division de pré-alerte et d'évaluation environnementale (GRID/DEWA/UNEP) , Programme des Nations Unies pour l'environnement (PNUE) .