Application for Grants Municipal Partnership Programme

PROJECT

Application for grants Municipal Partnership Programme

Project name:
Integrated Management Processes for ESD / Ref (to be filled in by the ICLD):
Amount applied for:
Year 1:
Year 2:
Year 3: / Lenght of project (1,2 or 3 years):
Swedish applicant organization:
The City of Umeå / Cooperation partner:
Cau Giay District of Hanoi, Vietnam
Project leader(must be employed by applicant organization):
Cathrin Alenskär / Project leader (must be employed by partner organization):
Nguyen Thi Tao
Address:
Skolgatan 31 A, City Hall / Address:
N485 Nguyen Khang Cau Giay Ha Noi
Postal code: 901 84 / Postal code:
City: Umeå / City and country: Ha Noi, Vietnam
Telephone: +46 (0)90 16 2280
+46 (0)70370 55 73 / Telephone:
+844982562239
Fax: +46 (0)90 16 32 09 / Fax:
E-mail: / E-mail:

Main area of cooperation (choose ONE):

Local governance, and
government administration / Municipal technical services
Environment/Climate
Urban planning / Social issues
Local economic development / Education
Health and medical care / Cultural and leisure activities

I confirm that the application contains the following (mark with an X):

Completed application form including cover sheet

Signature from person at managerial level in the applicant organization

Letter of intent signed by an authorized signatory in the partner organization (one for each project application as well as for Management and Coordination Subsidy OR one joint where each project and Management and Coordination Subsidy is described)

Completed application containing all the points, 1-14, as shown below

Completed budget according to template

Have also applied for Management and Coordination Subsidy (or next point)

Have ongoing Management and Coordination. State ref:

Havesentasummaryofproblem description, objectivesandexpectedresultsin accordance withspecifictemplate(Appendix 3), electronicallytoICLDinSwedishandEnglish. (The summary will later be submittedtoSida)

Completed electronic budget submitted

Mark with an X if you wish to get the decision from ICLD in English:

Note! For the ICLD to consider the application it must contain all of the above mentioned points.

Applicant has read the rules and guidelines for the grant including the budget guidelines which hereby is confirmed:

Signature by project leader in SwedenSignature by person at Managerial level in Sweden

…………………………………………………..…………………………………………………..

Name and titleName and title

…………………………………………………..…………………………………………………..

Place and datePlace and date

…………………………………………………..…………………………………………………..

The City of Umeå and Cau Giay District of Hanoi

Integrated Management Processes for ESD

Background

At the ICLD´s seminar for municipal partnership (week 11, 2011), the City of Umeå presented its efforts to introduce and work with the concept “Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)” in all municipal schools, with the goal of certifying all schools in the municipality. Representatives from Vietnam showed interest in Umeå´s method to initiate and work with ESD. The parties agreed to write an application for the inception phase.

Since then, and within the framework of the inception phase, further discussion on partnership between the City of Umeå and Cau Giay District of Hanoi, has been arranged.

Before describing problem identification, and challenges, for the partners, this background will include information on organizations, approaches and experiences in the City of Umeå and Gau Giay District of Hanoi, which are of relevance for understanding the mutual benefits of this partnership and aims of this project. As this brief description will reveal both cities have structures, interest and experience of working with ESD, and in this project the ambition is high. However, the need for improvement is still there, since local authorities and other stakeholders need to enhance ESD on a scale and depth far more committed than before. This perspective is also something supported by UN:s decade for education for sustainable development, which started 2005.

City of Umeå and School of Environment

The Umeå preschool and the school´s basic values as expressed in the curriculum, along with ESD, is the basis for the realization of the Umeå City Council as well as pre- and primary school board goals and priorities.

The strategies underlying the performance and improvements help to create a culture for children that enhance learning, communication and democracy.

This cultural attitude of both management and operations is constantly searching for how the activities can be improved and developed in relation to the school´s basic values. Transparency, openness, dialogue, participation, influence, management, development and quality improvement are the characteristics sought.

Strategies for implementation are:

-Systems thinking, which means too always strive for networking, learning in and from the context, and to seek cooperation of all interested parties.

-A process-oriented approach which means that management always is focusing on the mission, creating involvement between different levels through further dialogue andconsolidating decisions, creating forums for learning, working together and deciding by consensus.

-To develop the pre- and primary school administrations into a learning organization. The objective is that the administration is capable of self-creating, acquiring and disseminating knowledge and to have the ability changing their behavior as a consequence of new knowledge and new insights.

-To manage, develop and innovate advanced forms of assistance to teachers, principals and the common management level.

Umeå´s school management and part of the school have experience of international exchange, for example Teg´s central school for several years with the Seychelles and Stöcke School with Petrozavodsk and Archangelsk in Russia.

The school of environment and representatives from the primary and secondary school are cooperating with Nordic countries regarding ESD, e.g in the network of “environmental pedagogues in Nordic countries”. The school of environment; has received many study visits from Japan and Argentina and is involved in an ongoing process together with other partners in Holland, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary and Italy. In 2010 representatives from the school of environment and the school of education of Umeå took part in a study visit to Guatemala organized by the “the Global School”, which is a resource within International Programme Office.

The school of environment is presently doing a pre-study aiming at starting up at cooperation with Norway, Finland and Denmark to create a Regional Center of Expertise (RCE) regarding ESD, in the framework UN:s decade for learning for sustainable development. The pre-study is financed by the Nordic Council.

Cau Giay District and Cau Giay District Department of Education and Training

Cau Giay District Department of Education and Training (Cau Giay Doet) acts as a consultative department for Cau Giay People´s Committee in undertaking and carrying out the state management function in all aspects of education and training. This involves forming and identifying aims, programs and contents of education and training; setting quality standard for administration and education officers, teaching staff, school facilities and equipments; setting and executing regulations for examinations; awarding diplomas and degrees for students; ensuring the best quality of education and training on the large scale. The number of schools in the district has increased 69 with 40000 students and over 2000 teachers.100% children who are 5 years old go to attend kindergarten, and 34 % attend nursery in comparison with 85 % and 24 % of those of Hanoi respectively. Students of primary and junior high school students attend day schools. Cau Giay Doet was ranked the first in the rate of students passing the entrance exams to senior high schools for the last 6 years. In these 6 years, Cau Giay District education quality always stands at the top of Hanoi city.

Cau Giay DoET also participated in many projects such as Children Right (funded by Sida); Asia communication (funded by British Council): Connecting classrooms (in 2008) and Connecting classroom online (since 2010) – cooperate with some schools in England (Cardiff, John Leggot College), Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Changing textbooks for primary and secondary students (funded by Educational Ministry).

Every year Cau Giay District (Cau Giay People´s Committee and Cau Giay Doet) spends 30% of district budget on education: building and upgrading schools with the aim to improve teaching and learning quality, offering a friendly, warm and safe environment for students. Up to now, 100% schools in Cau Giay district have been built strongly and modernly. Classrooms are well-equipped with modern facilities: TV sets, projectors, DVD players and audio systems. The rate of standardized management staff is increasing with 98,4 % at kindergarten, 99,3 % at primary and 72,3 % at high schools.

With the decision 295/QD-TTg (11/11/2005) about the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, Cau Giay Doet organized many activities include integrating curriculum and outdoor activities. Especially, from 2011 Cau Giay Doet cooperated with Action for the City (local NGO) and Global Action Plan International to implement the ESD program for junior high school. This program is organized in two schools (Cau Giay and Trung Hoa) in pilot stage to show the good ESD model. Their approach is through seven topics (waste, water, energy, eco-wise consumptions, plant, relationship and health) students will change their behavior more sustainable at household, school and community with four criteria: empowerment, action-orientation, autonomy and continuation.

Problem identification and mutual challenges

In this section, the problem identification and analysis of mutual challenge for this project is framed within the other project; Sustainable strategies for sustainable education, which focus on capacity building of the school management and it´s associate organizations (School of Environment and Cau Giay District Department on Education and Training), and also on the development of strategic plans for ESD in the district and cities.

In order to add values to that project, the parties also want to integrate a partnership between two selected schools in both cities, which have experience of ESD and have the capacity to support the general purpose of the project Sustainable strategies for sustainable education.

It is also a possibility for these schools to learn about ESD in other settings and conditions, and to support ESD initiatives on a school level.

As for the other project, this project aims to transfer knowledge between the collaborating partners - in this case between schools in the City of Umeå and Cau Giay District in Hanoi. The issues raised in the other application, are also of relevance here, i.e democratic methods for ESD within interdisciplinary work, opportunities to communicate and critical thinking for pupils. How school works is organized to involve all pupils, teachers and other staffs, how work is organized for the staff to receive training on sustainable development and how interaction with actors outside the school can be strengthened.

As for the other project, a healthy and genuine reciprocity between the partner schools requires clarity and self-expressed identity. Reciprocity is based on having an opinion or not to subordinate oneself. Genuine reciprocity is about transparency, being honest, being humble, to listen and to act with self-esteem and respect the other party as an equal.

In sum – the schools have mutual benefits by working together on ESD, and more important, they are in this project for supporting the general purpose of the strategic project for ESD.

Project objectives

The overall vision of this project is to enhance integrative approaches for ESD, i.e collaboration between important political and management levels where every level is of importance for having results in the area of ESD.Of central importance is that representatives from the schools support the general purpose of the strategic project for ESD. The schools are in this partnership for a wider purpose than improving their own school.

An added value of their collaboration in this project, is that the schools can create an outstanding example of cross-cultural learning on ESD between schools in Umeå and Cau Giay District in Hanoi. This means that these schools will take the opportunity to support and learn from each other, and to communicate this learning inwards to the schools and outwards to other schools in the cities and other settings.

The objectives of this project is to: a) enhance collaborative approaches on ESD between important political and management levels, and b)learn and communicate how ESD is planned, implemented and evaluated in other cultural, political, socio-economic settings

The specific objectives for this project are the following;

to expose teachers, staff and pupils for ESD-work in another country,
to, in a joint effort between schools in Umeå and Hanoi, communicate this collaboration on different platforms in both cities and countries,
to, and most important; give input from a school perspective to the collaborating parties in the strategic project, in order for making school management sensitive to conditions and needs at the school level were teachers, other staff and pupils interact.

It is possible to describe this project as way of giving the general collaboration between the City of Umeå and Cau Giay District of Hanoi a concrete manifestation, where ESD is practiced and communicated. We believe that these two projects mutually support the ambitions of the partnership between the City of Umeå and Cau Giay District of Hanoi.

Activities and timeframe

The partners of this collaboration have agreed on a way of working, which both municipalities consider as supporting the process and aimed at the general and specific goals for the project. This way of working has the following components;

-Workshops in which dialogue between the members of the teams is facilitated and supported in order to create a creative and trustful atmosphere. These workshops have different focus in the start, the middle and at the end of the collaboration. There is a need of identifying what needs to be discussed and solved in order for taking the project to the next level, i.e achieve necessary results step by step and making sure that this will be done.

-Follow-up and evaluation since the members of cooperation and steering committee need to make sure that the project is on the right track, but also make sure that learning and adjustment are possible and considered as necessary.

-Training and education since there is a need of enhancing knowledge and understanding for the issues discussed. In this project there will be room for shorter lectures and sessions, with possibilities for the members to discuss the content.

-Study visits and guided tours in which the members of the project can learn and discuss about the different realities in both countries, and if there are possibilities to transform these learning to something that can be applied in their own municipalities.

-Communication of what is happening in the project, in order for having accurate information to other citizens and stakeholders in each municipality, and also for others who have an interest in knowing about and learning from the project. Transparency is of central importance for legitimacy and public support.

These are the basic components which are used as tools when working towards the goals of the project. The activities is not specified in detail at the early stage of the project, since the partners have a continued dialogue on what the needs are, and what is best to do during every stage. However, in this project it is of important that the representatives for the schools take part in workshops in the strategic project, since they are expected to perform a important function in that project.After the meetings in each country, both municipalities will know what to do until they meet next time. This agreement on what to do and perform is discussed between the members of the groups, and decided by the steering committee.

2012/2013

2012: Meeting in the City of Umeå

-Training and education ESD

-Workshops on ESD in schools

-Workshops on joint communication project