From 2nd to 5th June 2020, the virtual workshop “Green Economy in Practice” was carried out by the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, on behalf of the EU-funded Erasmus+ project EGEA ”Enhancing Green Economy in 3 countries of Asia”.
The main goal of the EGEA project is to promote “green” economy and sustainable behaviour at all levels of education in three countries of Asia (Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal and India) endorsing the role of Higher Education Institutions as catalysts of change.
The Build4People representatives of WP1 “Behaviour Change” Anke Blöbaum and Annalena Becker took part in the workshop and seized the opportunity to discuss the ongoing Build4People activities in Cambodia with researchers and practitioners of the EGEA project from different European and Asian universities and institutions.
Anke Blöbaum and Annalena Becker hosted the session “Build4People – Researching and promoting sustainable buildings and sustainable urban development in Cambodia from a people-centred perspective” and presented the research of the different disciplines within the Build4People project as well as the ongoing activities concerning the curriculum development at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
Within the session, questions were discussed extensively concerning the Cambodian context of the research and implementation approach. Questions according to the infrastructural and socio-political circumstances such as the energy system of renewable energies in Cambodia and the housing stock of sustainable buildings in Phnom Penh were compared to the experiences with the cooperating countries of the EGEA project.
Fruitful exchange concerning the process of approving and accrediting the curriculum program with the Cambodian universities happened, bringing instructive insights from their experiences in the three Asian countries. The content of the curricula that are planned by the different work packages of the Build4People project were reviewed and enriched by discussing environmental topics that are considered within the EGEA project’s curriculum activities.
The participants benefited a lot from the valuable discussions within the different sessions of the workshop enabling them to rethink and reflect on the work experiences and the cultural sensitivity of both projects’ approaches.