Dear Madam / Sir
I am gathering information to write a planning grant proposal to see if the EPC network could be extended to Cambodia and other countries of Indo China.
EPC network is a Swedish initiative with the support of the Environment commission of the Union of Baltic Cities and coordinated by Mr. Guldbrand Skjonberg (Nacka City Council, Sweden) who is also the vice president of the Env. Commission. Three Baltic countries are involved and 3 East African countries. In East Africa there is a target plan for 9 EPCs.
The planning mission will investigate if the 3 Indo China countries could be included into this network.
Deadline for draft: 31 Nov. 2005
Proposed Travel: March/April 2006 (pending approval)
The operational unit of the EPC network is a public center for environmental education or "Nature School" (see Swedish example : Nacka Naturskolan
http://infobanken.nacka.se/www/miljo_halsa/naturskola/centre.htm)
educating children about nature, ecology and environment (see also general global concept on "Nature school" in Internet).
Swedish approach includes with strong emphasis the demonstration of environmentally sound technologies. The target groups include school children and also adults especially from poor families who can benefit significantly from the use of ESTs (eco-sanitation, solid wastes and wastewater treatment management, renewable energy, drinking water, urban agriculture, etc; as well as topics of special local interests, eg. wetlands, disaster prepareness, ..... ).
The planning grant will enable me to visit sites in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam esp. those where ESTs are already being demonstrated. Such a site should have a physical centre with some on-going training activities and existing staff. In East Africa, cooperation was established with the city councils. Here new centres would be established and the agreement is that the local authorities provide the staff and functional space/centres. External funding (Swedish and other sources) would cover material needs.
During the proposed visit (~3 weeks), I like to visit a couple of potential sites (NGO centres, schools, exhibition centers) in Cambodia and also to contact relevant Ministries (e.g. Education, Environment) and local authority.
Kindly suggest a few names of organizations (and contact persons if available, website, brief description of what they do) for me to visit would be appreciated. I will list these in the planning grant proposal. In particular, I am interested in sites near a lake or river since many of the EPC network cities are located close to the inland Baltic Sea or Lake Victoria.
Thanks
Regards
Jacky Foo
....Chairman, IOBB www.iobbnet.org
....Vice-President; Board of Trustees for the
African Foundation for Environmentally Sound
Technology for Farms and Cities |
Cambodia
