Environment in current actions
The environmental theme is a cross-cutting theme of the Education and Health and Domestic Workers regional campaigns. There is, in fact, a real desire on the part of the network to approach its activities in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.
Education and Health: School gardens and kitchens
At the level of the regional campaign Education and Health, the IDAY network proposes to act through two axes of intervention:
> on the one hand, the environmental education of the schoolchildren, i.e. preparing the children and the young people to the environmental challenges and making them responsible as citizens. Each school can decide to adapt, to move, to take up challenges according to its possibilities. Becoming a Sustainable School means preparing its students for the challenges of climate change and reducing its footprint on its immediate environment as much as possible;
> on the other hand, ecological school equipment, which allows the school to adapt to the increasing drought in some sub-Saharan areas, and promote equipment that respects environmental standards and promotes renewable energy
Axe 1 – Environmental education
The SDGs specifically refer to environmental education through target 4.7 “By 2030, ensure that all students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for sustainable development, including through education for sustainable development and lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and the contribution of culture to sustainable development. ”
Numerous studies and research suggest that children should be targeted as a priority (Feisinger 1997; Jakobson and Mc Duff 1998; Rivas and Owens 1999; Kellert 2002). Children are particularly receptive to messages related to the environment and climate change. They are also one of the best ways to reach adults. Children build and develop positive attitudes and a keen interest in the environment at an early age and carry them to an age where they can be actors and decision-makers. The role of school education here is essential because it allows to reach a large number of children[1].
The objective of this axis is to promote eco-responsible behaviors among schoolchildren and educational teams, through awareness-raising actions in schools.
The results that are expected over the next 5 years :
- To make an inventory of the actors at the national and regional level, active in the environmental education sector;
- Collect lessons learned and good practices from these actors;
- To initiate collaborations with expert actors;
- Identify the existence and appropriate existing modules in environmental education;
- Initiate pilot actions by the network in environmental education.
In Burkina, Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, Niger.
The school garden appears to be an ideal entry point for introducing environmental notions, which can be adapted according to national or local concerns (low-energy oven in the school canteen, promotion of composting, agriculture without chemical fertilizers and pesticides, introduction to biodiversity and climate change, etc.).
In this context, the concept of « school environment clubs »is emerging in this new strategy, aligned with the principle of the “school garden club” which takes charge of the life of the school garden. The environment club is thus responsible, after being trained and capable, to lead awareness sessions within their school and direct actions of environmental preservation.
The school environment club’s methodology is to value the word and the innovative ideas of the children themselves: they deploy their creativity in the service of their environment. Far from imposing ready-to-use tools, the club is a space where children and youth are conscious and active actors of their future.
DUO for a Change program:
Our youth are the change agents of tomorrow’s world, let’s help them prepare for it through a dynamic of global thinking. DUO for a Change is a program of IDAY that connects via a Facebook group classes of young people, from primary or secondary schools, from partner schools of the coalitions participating in this program. They exchange practices, experiences and creations related to the environment and climate change. The message sent to the participating students is: “Together, discover how to become an actor of change”.
Find this program by clicking here
Axe 2 – Green school equipment
Children spend an important part of their day at school. They deserve welcoming buildings, allowing hygiene, safety for young girls, and the development of the youngest through play. The school must have water, hygiene, cleanliness and safety facilities. Adequate infrastructure is an essential element contributing to the retention of children in school, especially girls.
School infrastructure needs occupy an important place in the investment budgets of financial partners. In view of the above considerations, and of the will of the members of the IDAY network to participate in the collective commitment for the protection of the environment, IDAY has decided to act also on the equipment and infrastructures of its partner schools.
The objective of this axis is to promote equipments respecting the environmental standards and favouring the renewable energies within the schools.
The results that are expected over the next 5 years:
- Take stock of existing innovations and technologies at the national and regional levels;
- Collect lessons learned and best practices from these actors;
- Initiate collaborations with expert actors;
- Initiate pilot actions by the network in terms of equipment / renewable energy
In Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon.
Given that climate change is already producing droughts and aridifications in some areas of sub-Saharan Africa, the adaptation of school infrastructures for a better water supply and irrigation could also be integrated.
Status of experiences within the network
Mali : has an experience through one of its members on environmental education and particularly waste management.
Kenya : the country is facing the problem of delayed rains and drought. IDAY-Kenya proposes to launch an action with secondary schools in remote areas to
- do irrigation;
- promote energy saving stoves (contributes to the reduction of deforestation).
[1] DIALLO & YOGO (2017). Étude stratégique sur l’éducation environnementale en milieu scolaire dans la région sahélienne. Récupéré sur http://www.oss-online.org/rep-sahel/images/Docs-2017/Annexe-11-tude-stratgique-sur-lEE-et-lCC-au-Sahel_version-REPSAHEL.pdf
Domestic Workers
Within the framework of this regional campaign, the idea is that the environmental theme be addressed during the training of young people.
The objective is to promote eco-responsible behaviors among young people in training, through environmental awareness, by making them aware of the impact of the use of certain products, for example, or of a reasonable water management.