Unstoppable conference in Tirana – Women overcoming barriers to success
- Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development participated in the Unstoppable conference dedicated to Women and Leadership
The multi-structured and empowering conference dedicated to Women and Leadership is organized in Tirana, from February 20th to 23rd, 2023. Organizer is the Western Balkan Fund (WBF), with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Visegrad Fund. Every February and March, the WBF with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan hosts an advocacy event by bringing in national, regional & international experts and creating a space of inspiration, connection, and rejuvenation. The purpose of #Unstoppable conference is to foster equal access to leadership in business, government, and non-profit organizations within the Western Balkans, Visegrad regions, and beyond. This event also promotes support and expands initiatives that promote equal access for women and men in development processes.
The conference includes a multitude of topics across the human rights spectrum, enhancing knowledge and strengthening the network of professionals coming from WB6 and V4 regions also unites diverse stakeholders, researchers, stories, and case studies from all over the region in parallel sessions while offering many networking opportunities.
The goal of the Unstoppable is to foster equal access to leadership in business, government, and non-profit organizations within the Western Balkan and V4 regions and beyond. WBF in close cooperation with V4 partners plans to gather around 120 participant’s men and women around both regions and beyond in Tirana since we believe that gender equality should be addressed by both sides, men and women.
LOCCAR (Local Communities’ Climate Adaptation and Resilience)
According to the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans (2020), the Western Balkans is recognized as one of the regions in Europe most heavily affected by climate change. In addition, climate risks are not sufficiently covered at the local level in the documents and activities implemented. Still, there is no understanding that climate change (heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, coastline erosion, rising sea levels) affects not only the environment but also the local economy and the health of the population, due to a lack of awareness raising among the local population. In its report for Western Balkan countries, European Commission in 2021 stated that they must align with the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change.
The project Local Communities’ Climate Adaptation and Resilience (LOCCAR) aims to assist local authorities in better understanding, preparing for, and managing climate risks, as well as developing innovative solutions to build resilience. The project will also contribute to establishing sustainable regional cooperation in building climate resilience in the Western Balkans, having in mind that efficient cooperation mechanisms among neighboring countries in the focus of this project (Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina) are missing, even though the transboundary nature of climate-related risks at the local level is reality.
The objective of LOCCAR project is to accelerate climate change adaptation on the local level in Western Balkans through enhancing Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) role in the transformation towards climate resilience, by empowering CSOs visibility in policymaking, raising awareness of local decision-makers on the impacts of climate change on the local communities and supporting sustainable regional cooperation in building climate resilience in the Western Balkans.
A regional round table with the participation of main stakeholders from all three countries will be organized at the end of the project. Based on consultations with selected municipalities, Brochures/Guidelines for the local decision-makers on climate change adaptation in local strategic and policy documents will be prepared and distributed. It is expected that in total 9 selected municipalities in two rounds of meetings with municipalities.will provide their contribution. Using the digital dissemination of the Brochure/Guidelines via websites and digital platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter) of the 3 CSOs and 9 municipalities, a significant portion of the population in Western Balkans will be reached with the Joint Project’s outputs.
Project partners are Center for Climate Change, Natural Resources and Energy of the University of Donja Gorica (leading partner, Montenegro), a Resource Center for the Environment REC BIH (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development (Serbia).
LOCCAR project is financed by the Western Balkans Fund and co-financed by the EU in the frame of IPA.
Final LOCAL project publication (- Jačanje otpornosti i kapaciteta prilagođavanja lokalnih zajednica na klimatske promjene u Crnoj Gori, Bosni i Hercegovini, Centar za klimatske promjene, prirodne resurse i energiju Univerziteta Donja Gorica, Podgorica, juli 2023 )
Environmental Communication: Media Archive Reports as a Participant Science Tool
EASD presented on August 3, 2021, research paper Environmental Communication: Media Archive Reports as a Participant Science Tool (Authors are A.Mihajlov, A.Mladenovic, F.Jovanovic) at 6th International Conference on Communication and Management (ICCM2021), hosted and organized by Communication Institute of Greece.
By sharing experience, this paper justifies environmental communication through the media archive reports as participant science tool, considering that journalists/media are representing citizens (with common interests). In the case of Serbia, illustrative justification that media archive reports could be used as participative tool to supplement official observation and monitoring, is presented, showing that the same trends of citizens/journalist’s attention to environment and environmental performance and progress (in the European Union accession process) in Serbia. In timeline, when sector environment has better performance, it is bigger interest of citizens/journalists/media to environmental issues.
This article benefited from the European Union funded project “ENV.Net Factoring the Environmental Portfolio for WB and Turkey in the EU Policy Agenda” (2017/394-372). The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. Also, authors would like to express gratitude to Media archive Ebart, Belgrade, Serbia for contribution in data collecting. Data used in this paper were gathered through the research on nexus media-environmental issues in Serbia, which was based on initial idea jointly developed by respective journalist Velimir Ćurgus Kazimir (1948-2018), Media Archive Ebart founder and this paper co-author Andjelka Mihajlov, co-founder of Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development.
By this presentation Prof Mihajlov, as paper presenter, also informed and inspired climate actions in contribution to the European Climate Pact , empowering citizens to shape a greener Europe…..participants of this Conference was great ‘communication network” for this. To note that in July 2021 Prof Andjelka Mihajlov, Environmental Ambassador for Sustainable Development, was acknowledged by European Commission DG Clima as European Climate Pact Ambassador , among others for Green skills .
Ref.: Environmental Communication: Media Archive Reports as a Participant Science Tool (Authors: A.Mihajlov, A.Mladenovic, F.Jovanovic) , Abstract Book “Communicating in a ‘Modern’ Word” , 6th International Conference on Communication and Management – ICCM 2021, page 30, Edited by Communication Institute of Greece (COMinG), ISBN: 978-618-81861-9-4 (2021)
WEBINAR – Regional Forum of Sustainable Development (RFSD) for the UNECE Region : we participate
As a representative of the Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development (EASD), on 28th of January 2019 (3:00 – 4:00 PM) Honorable member Danko Aleksic participated in the webinar entitled “Civil Society Participation at the Regional Forum of Sustainable Development for the UNECE Region”. Invitation for the webinar was distributed through the EEB network.
The first agenda item was introduction of the RFSD and the UNECE. This year, the RFSD, which is the regional conference in preparation of the High-Level Political Forum, will take place in Geneva 21-22 March. CSOs are among envisaged categories of Forum’s participants. The Forum will be aligned with the theme of the High-Level Political Forum i.e. “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality” whereas SDGs under review this year are: SDG 4, SDG 8, SDG 10, SDG 13 and SDG16.
Among other, agenda item was introduction to the UNECE Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (RCEM) – a civil society platform aimed to enable stronger cross constituency coordination and ensure that voices of all these constituencies in each sub-region of UNECE are heard in intergovernmental processes at regional and global level.
The 2018 Vienna UN Conference
The 2018 Vienna UN Conference was organised by ACUNS in January 2018 for the diplomatic community, civil society, NGOs, academics, business leaders and media representatives to discuss actions, potentials, and challenges linked to SDG 5: ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.’
EASD Honorable President participated on January 10, 2018, at Opening Session and Session on Empowering Female Leaders. She is ACUNS Expert; EASD is Institutional ACUNS member.
Participants share best practices and explore potential future collaborations in this multi-stakeholder forum, while spotlighting the International Gender Champions – Vienna initiative.
In the spirit of SDG 17 (specifically, Target 17.17: ‘Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships’) an intriguing mix of international stakeholders participated in the 2018 Vienna UN Conference.
European Western Balkans Interview: Andjelka Mihajlov, Environmental Ambassador for Sustainable Development
European Western Balkans Interview: Andjelka Mihajlov, Environmental Ambassador for Sustainable Development
Prof dr. Anđelka Mihajlov, Environmental Ambassador for Sustainable Development, is a Full Professor at Faculty of Technical Sciences, the University of Novi Sad and Coordinator for environment and green economy at the Public Policy Institute. UN and EU expert, scientist and consultant. She has more than 300 published scientific papers. In last 20 years, her frameworks of the professional orientation are the environment and sustainable development.
European Western Balkans: What are in your opinion, the biggest ecological problems in Serbia?
Andjelka Mihajlov: The decades in which values and prosperity were/is created based on the principles of traditional economic models not managed to change ever-growing excessive consumption of natural resources and to fight marginalization of environmental issues. This is diagnosis for all over the Western Balkan region. My opinion is, that despite some good and very good snapshots and flagship cases relevant for environment sector, the highest environmental problem in Serbia, as well as in all countries in region, is “position” of sector in agenda of development: not among priorities and priority concerns.
EWB: Serbia expects one of the most difficult chapters in the negotiations with the EU, Chapter 27 relating the environment. In what extent is Serbia preparing for the opening of this chapter?
Serbia is having now 14 years of commitment to EU membership. In environmental sector it was, and it is a great challenge, especially having in mind “grey and brown environmental heritage”. In the frame of these more than ten years of actions, I could tell that improvement is respectable. However, a lot of issues remain unsolved.
In 2012 Serbia became a candidate for EU membership, and on 21st of January 2014 officially opened accession negotiations. Environmental negotiation process in Serbia started with Explanatory screening in September 2014, and followed with bilateral screening in November 2014. Screening report is expected by EC sometimes in 2015. Progress towards EU in the sector Environment (and Climate Change) vary from limited progress (2005), to moderate advanced (2006), little progress (2007, 2008, 2013,2014), some progress (2012), progressed well (2011), the establishment of ambitious legislative program (2002-2004), and to good progress (2009,2010).
And coming back to the question, Serbia is prepared and preparing to open negotiation in Chapter 27, with strong message from my side: it is crucially important to include people/experts with appropriate knowledge, skills and experience, as well as to effective coordinate actions with other sectors.
EWB: What will pose as a major challenge in this chapter?
AM: One of the main challenge is to harmonize socio-economic development with EU’s Resources-Efficient and Low-Carbon Policies and to implement in national legislation, already transposited EU environmental acquis at large extend.
I would like to underline a few national strategic documents: Strategy towards EU accession (2005), National Environmental Program (2010), with Action Plan (2014/15) and the 2011 National Environmental Approximation Strategy. The last one sets three goals: full and high quality transposition of the EU environmental acquis; maintenance of effective and affordable environmental infrastructure and services; and institutional arrangements for efficient approximation.
EWB: How much are events such as IV International Miteco Forum important in this process?
AM: I should acknowledge the intention of the Miteco Forum to bring professionals and experts to the floor, together with governmental official, international organization representatives and all interested in subject. I am very happy that I had opportunity to share reflection from 2014 European Resources Forum, just finished in Berlin, where I participated. I talked on Panel, promoting sustainable use of natural resources in hand with climate change actions. The part of my presentation was short introduction of the Seventh Environmental Action Program to the Miteco Forum audience.
And one more value of Miteco Forum – this is starting to be growing “family gathering” of professionals interested in environmental and waste issues. My pleasure is to see among them, my colleagues, followers, former and current students and civil society fellows.
EWB: What do you think is a good model for solving the problems of industrial and hazardous waste in companies that are in the process of restructuring?
AM: It is known, that personally I “entered” environmental sector through “hazardous waste door”. For years I was technical expert on Basel convention issues.
I do support main principles of preventive measures and environmentally friendly measures for and future generations’ well-being.
I do not support “one model fit all” in solving historical and existing pollution, mainly related to the industrial and the hazardous waste, in companies changing ownerships.
Environmental Due Diligence and environmental liability tools, combined with technical feasible solutions, could serve as the guideline frame. For now, when country do not have licensed hazardous waste facility, technical feasible solution is the export of hazardous waste (as it is practice in Serbia). It has to be understand, that when changing the ownership of company it should go hand-in-hand with proposed solutions and decision who is paying.
EWB: What are benefits of Serbia joining the European Union when it comes to the field of environmental protection?
AM: With EU accession and membership, Serbian citizens should have great benefits to share the same, high environmental values.
Empowering the environment sector, including promoting knowledge based actions and straightening expert capacities, as well investment in infrastructure that supports all aspects of sustainable development (sustainable/green growth) with socially sensible job creation, are challenges we are facing. We should “position” environment sector much higher in the agenda of development!
Andjelka Mihajlov was a member of the Serbian Government as the Minister for Protection of Natural Resources and Environment from June 2002 to March 2004, commencing significant reforms in the environmental sector in the country, with significant results in international and regional cooperation. In 2006, UN Environment Program identified her as the woman “environmental leader of the Western Balkans”. Prof. Mihajlov headed the expert team which prepared the Study on Green Economy for Serbia which was the basic platform for participation of the Serbian delegation at Rio+20 UN Conference in Brazil. In the period from 2005 to 2010, she was the member of the Environmental and Social Advisory Council to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. She is a member of the National Committee for UNESCO and the Committee for Environment and Sustainable Development of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. She is national mentor for Foundation for Environmental Education with the seat in Copenhagen