Sustainable development occurs when people can live peaceably and equitably under democratic government in healthy environments. COL helps countries use learning technologies to make a difference in the areas of gender, health, environment and governance and can advise on the educational use of media and ICTs.
Human Environment Sector Initiatives:
Gender and Development
- Using ODL and other technologies to foster the full participation of women and to address unequal gender relations that prevent equitable development.
- Developing ODL materials and training that address issues of gender in development.
Health, Welfare and Community Development
- Equipping and training government agencies, NGOs and community groups to use video and audio technology for local production of educational materials related to health, welfare and community development.
Environmental Education
- Expanding environmental education at all levels.
- Adapting and using existing ODL programmes.
- Developing learning materials for sharing across the Commonwealth.
Good Governance
- Developing and adapting ODL materials and training to strengthen democracy and good governance through the public sector, the educational system and NGOs.
Educational Use of Mass Media and ICTs
- Using policy, strategy, capacity-building and models to promote the educational use of mass media and ICTs through broadcast, cable and satellite channels, community radio, village cinema, telecentres, community media centres, ICT kiosks and the Internet.
Impacts:
Policy: COL promotes policies that support its successful model of health education through media empowerment. This means policies for collaboration with NGOs for peer health education and access to mass media for health messages. In the area of gender equity, COL's work with the Commonwealth Secretariat on boys' underachievement will produce policy recommendations. Policy for greater use of distance learning for the professional development of the public sector workforce will help the drive to better governance. Policies for environmental education in schools will ensure optimal use of the excellent learning materials that are being developed.
Systems: Various types of capacity enhancement are occurring. The expansion of the Media Empowerment programme means training for newly involved NGOs and refresher courses for those in the established programmes. ODL is a force for gender equity because ODL institutions attract higher proportions of women as both students and staff. COL places special emphasis on training women in the management of ODL. System capacity enhancement is the focus of COL's extrabudgetary programme that teaches effective communications skills to hundreds of staff members of international agencies.
Models and Materials: The Media Empowerment model creates health messages that have an impact on behaviour. Conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organization and various NGOs, the model will be extended to more countries.
These activities create and use a variety of materials, including videos on healthy living, training materials for caregivers to vulnerable children, materials for governments and institutions on gender mainstreaming, and a course on legislative drafting. The Gender Toolkits that COL developed with the Commonwealth Secretariat will be used by more countries during 2006-2009. In the 1990s, COL and UNESCO invested US$1 million in materials for environmental education. They are enjoying a renaissance as derivative learning products are used for distance learning at secondary and tertiary levels in response to government policies for strengthening environmental education. An example is the Green Teacher initiative in India.
Partnerships: COL works with the World Health Organization to identify NGO partners for its Media Empowerment activity and maintains close links with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation on matters of gender and governance.
