Background: The Asia Pacific Initiative was launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in September 2002 as a type II partnership. Under this flexible and open arrangement, extensive cooperation between universities and research institutions in the region has been promoted to support the development of innovative educational activities utilizing information and communication technologies (ICTs) on a range of topics including human development and security, environmental sustainability, biological and cultural conservation.
Over the past four years, a number of seminar courses have been organized and each year the scale of activities has increased so that they now span the entire Asia Pacific region. Further, from 2005 onwards, as a contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDEfSD), the UNU and its partners have been promoting the establishment of Centres of Expertise in the region to support educational activities related to sustainable development. Taken together these activities represent an emergent Global (and regional) Learning Space on Environment, Health and Human Security.
The API Partnership Workshop provided an excellent opportunity for the API Partners to share experience and insights on the progress to date, identify new joint courses, and explore the long-term sustainability of the initiative.
The API Partnership Workshop was Chaired by the Hans Van Ginkle, the Rector of the UNU, and Norman Okamura, Director of the Telecommunications and Information Policy Group of the Social Science Research Institute, College of Social Sciences, University of Hawaii.
[Workshop Program .pdf]
