One of the most visible side-effects of Asia’s rapid growth has been environmental damage. Recent climate-related disasters in the region show that Asian policy makers must act now to protect their citizens and mitigate and reverse the impacts of climate change to secure sustainable growth for the future. A way to confront these challenges is through education for sustainability enabled by ICTs (ICTeEfS). Both ICT and EfS are high on the education reform agenda in the PCs (Indonesia, Malaysia & Vietnam). Yet in practice, the use of ICT for teaching practice and EfS is limited at best. The three PCs are also among the Asian countries, whose teaching force needs training to address the challenges posed by ICTs, and environmental threats. Our needs analysis indicated that ICT teacher training programs in the PCs often focus on the mechanics of ICT use rather than on ways to design curricular applications that would help bring about changes in the teaching and learning process for sustainability. Another area of concern is the lack of induction programs to new-inexperienced teachers after joining schools. The proposed project focuses on education, that is nationally and regionally prioritized in the Asian region. More specifically, it focuses on building teachers', teacher educators' and other school leaders' capacity in innovative teaching, learning and curriculum design by introducing and developing flexible training modalities, problem-posing and problem-based learning pedagogies. ICT-enabled in-service teacher training in advancing EfS will result in filling the current gap between school knowledge and real-life problems. There will be a shift from teacher-centered to student-centered instructional/learning, responding to the PCs educational reform initiatives. Merging ICTs with EfS will enable target groups to see technology as a tool that can empower them to address real-life problems related to environment, society and economy in the PCs and the region.

Climate projections for the Middle East and North African (MENA) region indicate warmer and drier conditions with increased frequency of natural disasters. Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable economic sectors to climate change, mainly due to the limited availability of water and land resources in the two target MENA countries (Egypt and Jordan). There is future risk of higher skills shortages in ‘niche’ areas related to the impact of climate change to agricultural sectors and food production. In particular, there is need for highly specialised scientists in the field of agriculture and food security who want to combine scientific and social or policy skills to better understand and make significant contributions to climate adaptation and mitigation in agriculture and food security. It is critical to integrate agricultural science with related subjects that impact on sustainability and food security such as geo-politics, legislation and regulation, consumer pressures, economics, agro-ecology and environmental stewardship, especially at the post-graduate level. An inter/multidisciplinary MSc programme in Climate Change, Agricultural Development and Food Security (CCSAFS) is urgently needed. CCSAFS is driven by the Bologna process and a multi-stakeholder approach advanced through a participatory or negotiated curriculum, innovative methodologies such as the 10Cs transversal skills in a problem-based learning environment enabled by ICTs, blended learning, SDGs and agro-food entrepreneurship in teaching, learning and outreach activities. Graduates will be equipped with interdisciplinary knowledge and agro-food entrepreneurship and ethics to promote sustainable agricultural production, food security and climate change adaptation. CCSAFS will help to overcome the threats to agriculture and food security in a changing climate, exploring new ways of helping vulnerable rural communities to compact hunger and adjust to local, regional and global changes in climate.

South Africa is committed to aligning itself with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The Council on Higher Education (CHE) has pointed that South African aspirations for SDGs are vested in the work and roles of academic staff. The CHE (2014) also pointed that the subject content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge of most South African university staff is poor and that this is a major cause of inadequate learner achievement and mismatch with employability needs. There is no systematic attempt to infuse SDGs in HEIs so far and most of teaching methodology applied in the partner institutions, as well as in South Africa in general, focuses on lecturing and limited use of: i) problem-based learning strategies; ii) placed-based pedagogy; ii) utilization of ICTs as enabling pedagogical tools, and other innovative teaching/learning tools suitable to address SDGs challenges. This mismatch should be bridged through the professionalisation of undergraduate academic teaching to address SDGs in multiple disciplines. HEIs in South Africa should introduce and promote cross/interdisciplinary approaches to teaching, learning and assessment, helping students develop their breadth of understanding and building knowledge and practice on SDGs. The proposed project addresses the modernization of curricula in multiple academic disciplines to infuse SDGs through capacity building of academic staff in innovative teaching and learning tools, methodologies, ICT-enabling pedagogical approaches in nationally prioritized subjects, such as biology, agricultural, environment, engineering, health. By the end of the project, there will be a significant cohort of academic teaching champions, who will drive wider changes in their HEIs and society by implementing SDGs in line with the South Africa’s National Development Plan and in alignment with the 2030 Agenda for SDGs.

The Middle East and North African region has faced one of the most critical refugee crises, with global consequences, especially for EU. Egypt has received more than 400,000 refugees from Syria alone with 30,000 of them being of school age and only 50% enrolled in public schools. While Syrian refugee children are allowed to enroll in public schools, the majority go to refugee schools organized by the Syrian community, since Egyptian teachers lack skills to tackle the needs of refugee learners. Refugee children are a unique learner group due to their prior traumatic experiences. There is need of a pedagogy focusing on refugees that most teachers, even refugee ones, do not possess. Refugee teachers in Egypt, estimated to 4,000, face considerable constraints in accessing certified in-service training. NGOs and other organizations have gone some way to addressing refugee children’s schooling, but their interventions are very limited and not tied to educational pathways that lead to certified lasting programs. Both Egyptian and refugee teachers should undergo training to gain awareness of the refugee experience as well as the cultural backgrounds of refugee learners so that they can be responsive to refugee needs and sensitive to trauma reactions. These problems and challenges could be tackled through the development of an innovative in-service teacher certification program enabled by blended learning, established in the faculties of education. ReTeCp responds to a cross-cutting priority by giving access to refugee teachers to the Egyptian HEIs through a post-graduate diploma focusing on these issues. By the end of ReTeCp project, about 700 teachers, including refugee teachers will be trained and in the next 4-6 years years all refugee teachers and an increasing number of Egyptian teachers will be undergoing life-long certified training that will highly contribute to the right of refugee children for quality education (SDG4) in the host countries.