91ÑÇÉ«

Welcome to the April 2026 edition of the 91ÑÇÉ« UNESCO Chair Newsletter.

April is often framed as a moment to raise awareness for the planet with Earth Day being celebrated on 22 April. This year, the context is more complex than ever. Environmental challenges are increasingly shaped by the ecological footprint of both war and rapid technological development, including artificial intelligence. Awareness alone is no longer enough. The question is how education translates concern into everyday practice, and how institutions move from isolated initiatives to more coherent approaches. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) continues to play an enabling role across agendas, but its value depends on how it is taken up in concrete ways across teaching, research, and institutional practice.

There is positive action happening for ESD, especially in advancing education transformation and whole-institution approaches, with a stronger focus on collaboration, innovation, and practical action. In this issue, we share selected events, opportunities, and resources for April and beyond. Please feel free to share this newsletter with colleagues and networks.

Charles Hopkins and Katrin Kohl
UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Education towards Sustainability, 91ÑÇÉ«

On 19 March 2026, 91ÑÇÉ«'s UNESCO Chair marked the last step of a significant recognition for Charles Hopkins: He was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in Ottawa with the Governor General of Canada presiding over the ceremony.

At a time that is marked by escalating global conflict and growing pressure on multilateral cooperation with sustainability and education often pushed to the margins, this distinction recognizes decades of leadership in advancing ESD. Warm congratulations!

The 2025 Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Annual Report highlights Charles Hopkins as the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, recognizing his decades-long leadership in advancing ESD globally.

Throughout the month of April, 91ÑÇÉ« will highlight how the community is engaging with complex sustainability challenges across teaching, research, and campus life. Earth Month, and especially Earth Day, on 22 April offer opportunities to reflect on these efforts. This includes hands-on initiatives, such as tree planting and campus clean-ups, as well as learning opportunities like the Microlecture Series in Sustainable Living and student-led projects linked to the SDGs.

The 91ÑÇÉ« community has received new Indigenous-led land acknowledgements, gifted by the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. The acknowledgements are supported by guidance and resources to encourage meaningful and consistent use across the community, recognizing them as living practices grounded in respect, relationship-building, and reconciliation.

The last conversation of the series of post-2030 dialogues hosted by the Bridge 47 Community will take place on 9 April 2026 at 2pm CET / 8am ET. Conversations aim to inspire collective reflection on the role of education beyond 2030. This new SDG 4.7 platform provides a shared space for international, cross-sectoral dialogue on the future of SDG 4.7, fostering inclusive discussion and joint meaning-making.

Applications are still open for the International Green Gown Awards 2026, a major global recognition of sustainability leadership in higher education. The awards honour innovative initiatives that demonstrate how universities and colleges are advancing sustainable development through teaching, research, operations, and community engagement. Institutions across the globe can apply on or before 10 April 2026.

The Academic Network on Global Education and Learning (ANGEL) is hosting a session on partnerships in global education and learning on 15 April 2026, 1–2:30pm CET/8-9:30am ET. The event brings together researchers, institutions, and practitioners to explore how partnerships can support knowledge exchange, joint research, and capacity building, strengthening connections between academia, policy, and practice for global education.

The Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Society invites members and friends to the 5^th Dr Wu Lien-Teh Award for Leadership in Public Health 2026 and Annual Public Lecture, recognizing Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak as this year’s award recipient. Congratulations!

The event will take place on 18 April 2026 at 2-5pm MYT at the Penang Institute in George Town (Malaysia). The lecture will focus on steps towards sustainable public healthcare in the context of the SDGs.

Celebrate Earth Day with UNESCO! Join the upcoming webinar on 22 April 2026 at 2-3pm CET / 8-9am ET that will explore pathways to advance greening education across systems and institutions. Engage with global perspectives, practical examples, and emerging tools supporting implementation and policy alignment.

Celebrating Earth Day, the Global Action Days 2026, coordinated by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), will take place from 22 April to 6 May 2026. The initiative invites schools, universities, and communities worldwide to engage in hands-on activities that support sustainability learning and collective action.

On 6-9 May 2026, the International Hybrid Conference on Crisis and Disaster Governance, Planning and Resilience (ICPCDGR 2026) will bring together academics, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in Kavala (Greece) to explore approaches to risk, resilience, and security in the context of international education. Organized by Democritus University of Thrace in collaboration with 91ÑÇÉ«, the conference focuses on crisis governance, resilience planning, civil protection, climate and technological risks, cybersecurity, and innovation in higher education. A call for abstracts is currently open until 28 April 2026.

The Global Sustainable Development Congress 2026 will take place from 22–25 June 2026 in Jakarta (Indonesia). The congress brings together leaders from higher education, government, business, and civil society to advance collaboration and action on the SGs and will be the moment of the first reveal of the new Times Higher Education .

Within this context, Charles Hopkins and Katrin Kohl will again moderate the track on Education, Gender, and Inequality, contributing to discussions on the role of education in addressing systemic challenges and advancing more inclusive and sustainable futures.

Mark your calendars for the 17^th General Conference of the International Association of Universities (IAU), taking place 3–6 November 2026 in Perth (Western Australia). The conference will feature a dynamic program exploring emerging trends in higher education.

The (IAU) has launched the . Every four years, the survey examines progress and challenges of institutions in their pursuit of sustainable development including achieving the SDGs. By capturing global trends, regional perspectives, and innovative practices, the findings provide a crucial evidence base for institutional strategies and policy development for the remaining years of the SDGs. Learn more about how your institution can take part (one response per institution) by 30 April 2026.

The was launched today at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, marking the first in the Countdown to 2030 series. The report highlights a persistent gap between ambition and progress. While enrolment has increased significantly over the past decades, 273 million children and youth remain out of school, with universal secondary completion still far beyond current timelines. The findings point to the need for context-specific approaches and nationally defined targets to advance progress on SDG 4.

Under the title Transforming higher education: global collaboration on visioning and action, UNESCO has launched a , setting out guiding principles and lines of action to support more inclusive, sustainable, and future-oriented systems. Developed through a broad international consultation process, the Roadmap presents seven guiding principles and lines of transformation, offering a shared orientation for advancing a new social contract for higher education.

Developed jointly by UNESCO and ICESCO within the Greening Education Partnership, a new global dashboard has been launched to support the monitoring and advancement of greening education efforts worldwide. The dashboard offers a practical entry point to explore how education systems are integrating sustainability across policy, teaching and learning, school environments, and community engagement.

The Ban Ki-moon Foundation’s newest publication is out. Hosted in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and Salzburg Global, the International Forum on Education for the Post-2030 Agenda in Salzburg (Austria) brought together more than 100 participants to explore a long-term vision for Global Citizenship Education (GCED) in the post-2030 Agenda. They emphasized that GCED is a practical and scalable framework for addressing global challenges, strengthening inclusion, and empowering learners and educators as active agents of change.

The Education and Academia Stakeholder Group (EASG) has released the Executive Summary of its 2026 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) Sectoral Paper. 91ÑÇÉ«'s UNESCO Chair team contributed to the drafting of the paper. The summary calls for increased public investment, stronger support for educators, and renewed focus on inclusive learning, positioning education, including ESD, as a key enabler across the SDGs.

The United Nations Youth Office has introduced Core Principles for Meaningful Youth Participation, providing guidance on how to strengthen effective engagement of young people in decision-making processes. The framework emphasizes moving beyond symbolic participation towards genuine partnerships.

The Our Shared World Report: Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future brings together research and practice to explore how education can better respond to current social and environmental challenges. Drawing on international policy and case studies, the report highlights the role of transformative learning in advancing SDG 4.7 and calls for education systems that place sustainability, justice, and critical engagement at the centre of learning.

A new opportunity linked to ESD is a free online course by UNITAR and UNDESA on . Systems thinking and foresight are core ESD competencies. They support more integrated, forward-looking decision-making across sectors. In a context of slow progress and growing complexity, strengthening these capacities remains essential for advancing the 2030 Agenda.

A recent podcast episode on Radio UZPR features the project Transforming Futures: Enhancing Practice for ESD for 2030 through Action Research. The conversation explores how action research can support educators in strengthening ESD and advance more context-responsive approaches.

Watch the recording of a conversation with Dr. Lokman Karadag and the UNESCO Chair team as we discussed how artificial intelligence is reshaping global education efforts. How can ESD respond to this emerging challenge? We explored opportunities, risks, and responsibilities as education systems begin to respond to rapid technological change the future of learning across regions.