Enabling Access to Quality Education for Sustainable Development

The Covid-19 Pandemic has deepened the global learning crisis: approximately 147 million children missed over half of in-person instruction in 2020-2021, and over 24 million of those learners may never return to school. Entrenched inequities in education have only worsened during the pandemic. 

Education is the key that will allow many other sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be achieved. When people are able to gain quality education, they can break from the cycle of poverty. Education therefore helps to reduce inequalities and to reach gender equality. It also empowers people everywhere to live more healthy and sustainable lives. Education is crucial to fostering tolerance between people and contributes to more peaceful societies. 

Join us in August to learn more about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensuring inclusive, equitable quality education and promoting life-long learning opportunities for all. Learn insights into the roles that individuals, education and training institutions, stakeholders and regulating governments may play in achieving the specified education targets by 2030. 

The anticipated panel presentations will cover the following topics: 

1. Decolonizing Access to Quality Education
2. Gender and Equitable Education 
3. Education for Sustainable Development 

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Speaker 1: Beatrice Achaleke, Founder and Managing Director of GloBUNTU Books.

Beatrice Achaleke Fonya is proud African woman with over 25 years of global experience. Serial author of 23 books and publisher of GloBUNTU Books Beatrice is a proud mother of two, a lecturer, transformational public speaker, executive trainer, diversity and inclusion expert, founder of the GloBUNTU Transformational Mindshift SystemTM. She is a multiple award-winning social transfopreneur with over 18 international awards.

Some of her wards include Global Diversity Innovation Award, DC 2011, Recognition of the Federal Republic of Austria 2009, NAAAHR, Michigan 2018, Difference Makers SA 2018 etc. From 1995-2015 she lived in Europe and worked around the globe. She is founder of many organizations and companies including Diversity Leadership, the Black Women’s Community, and the International Center for Black Women’s Perspectives and convenor of the First Black European Women Congress, that resulted to the
creation of Black European Women’s Council. In this position, she worked closely with the European Commission and Parliament as well as its affiliate institutions. Additionally Beatrice lectured in several Austrian universities and facilitated diversity and inclusion processes in many European companies and organizations.

As a passionate transformational public and TedTalk speaker, Beatrice has spoken at many international and high-ranking forums in Africa, America and Europe, including the European Parliament and Commission, the UN offices in Geneva, Vienna and New York, the Austrian Presidency, Harvard University in Boston etc. In 2008 Beatrice was the first black woman to stand for parliamentary elections in Austria. In 2010 the award-winning blog “Black Women in EuropeTM “Power List 2010” featured her as one of the most influential black women in Europe. In 2014 shit happened, she gave a TedTalk, wrote the book “Follow me To Africa. In an Unspoken Conversation with Nelson Mandela.” In 2015 she radically moved back to the continent to redefine herself. Today she is the author of 23 books and publisher
of over 46 books, all about African history and identity.

Her current passion lies in coaching black kids and adult to write and own their own stories as well as in collecting, documenting and sharing African inspirational stories, creating contents that give readers a proud seance of their African identity and heritage. Since 2019 she has coached 15 kids and 12 adults to write and have their books published, most of which have been approved for school by the
Gauteng Department of Education. 16 of them are recipients of the AfriCAN Honouree Awards.

Speaker 2: Aisha Hamza, Consultant at Sahei Gender Development Initiative, Nigeria.

Aisha Hamza holds a B.sc Biochemistry, M.sc Parasitology and a Professional
Master’s Degree in Integrated Water Resource Management from University of Maiduguri. She
has worked for Borno state Government as Director for Water Quality and Hygiene Education
in rural water supply and sanitation agency (RUWASSA), from 2005 –2001, and Director of Pollution in
Borno state environmental protection agency(BOSEPA) from 2017 to date. Aisha has planned,
coordinated and organized WASH interventions in the 27 LGAs of Borno state. She is the focal person for
RUWASSA Cholera Rapid Response and focal person for BOSEPA fecal sludge management. Aisha
has experienced working with IDPs and host communities with skills on Gender Based
Violence (GBV) response, prevention and awareness; WASH related programs; Education and
prevention of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs); the SDGs; WASH in Emergencies/
Development; WASH in Schools; Menstrual hygiene management education; Sanitation
Marketing and Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS). Currently Aisha is an independent
consultant and consulting for Sahei Gender Development Initiative on Water Sanitation and
Hygiene, (WASH) and other humanitarian interventions. Sahei Gender Development Initiative is a skills acquisition centre to empower and improve income generation and self-employability of the most vulnerable.

Speaker 3: Angelica Ramoutar, Education and Outreach Coordinator at Sustainable Community Aid Network (SCAN).

Angelica is a co-op student at University of Toronto Mississauga completing an Honours Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, with a Double Minor in Environmental Management and Sustainability. 

Angelica is currently interning at Sustainable Community Aid Network (SCAN) as the Education and Outreach Coordinator. She is in charge of leading the ‘EnvironFocus Knowledge and Cultural Exchange Program’ (EKCEP), a transformative youth educational program that provides an avenue for teachers and children from developed countries and developing countries to work together in solving sustainability issues affecting continents. The goal of EKCEP is to develop self-confidence within the students in understanding their role as youths in aiding the achievement of the UN 2030 Agenda and the SDGs and their connection to poverty alleviation, self-growth and increased willingness to transfer and apply knowledge learnt in their communities. 

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Panel presentations will be followed by a live Q&A session with our speakers! 

Participants will receive a Certificate of Participation that counts as a Professional Development Credit (PDC) Activity. 

Facilitator: Obie Agusiegbe, Founder and CEO of EnvironFocus. 

It is a PAID EVENT but a limited number of tickets will be made available for FREE until August 8th, 2022. Spaces are limited– register today! 

We look forward to seeing you soon. 

If you have any questions contact project@environfocus.com 

For more information on our webinars and partnership opportunities click here: https://www.environfocus.com/environfocusknowledge/environfocus-webinars/