The 2020s is a critical decade for guiding the world towards transforming it into a more sustainable one. Currently, countries are not on track to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, further exacerbated by the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, accelerated efforts and increased support are needed to achieve SDGs, mainly in developing and emerging countries. Many of these countries rely heavily on development partners' support to attain various global goals. The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region consists of eight countries, including Nepal, with such needs. Besides other supports, strengthening these countries' teaching and research on SDGs and strengthening evidence-based planning, policies, and practices will contribute to their sustainable transformation. Teaching and research is an instrument for societal change, which is crucial to make sustainable transformation happen. Students are change agents. Effective teaching strategies, appropriate curriculum, courses, and research projects/thesis enable students to apply and disseminate learned lessons in their professional life. Learning on global circumstances, sustainability challenges, and research methods will prepare students to generate and understand science-based evidence for sound policymaking in the future. To obtain these long-term impacts, university faculties need to be supported and trained on effective teaching and research methods around sustainability. Such supports from North-South and South-South cooperation helps share knowledge, indigenous experience and best practices to gain mutual benefits. Although the current pandemic further highlighted the need to promote such collaboration, many developing countries like Nepal have received limited benefits from South-South partnerships. In these contexts, ForHimSDG envisions strengthening teaching and research on SDGs in the HKH region by fostering North-South and South-South cooperation for promoting sustainable mountain development. We will achieve this vision by developing and realizing higher education partnerships between institutions in Germany (i.e., PIK), Thailand (i.e., AIT), and Nepal (i.e., KU). Further, ForHimSDG will extend this partnership with other institutions in the HKH regions, mainly members of the Himalayan University Consortium (HUC), building a ForHimSDG network.
ForHimSDG goal is to strengthen teaching and research on the SDGs in the HKH region based on its planned outcomes. In brief, ForHimSDG will co-develop and implement introductory and advanced courses related to global sustainability. Further, it will build research capacity in the HKH region based on North-South and South-South research exchanges on topics related to sustainability. ForHimSDG will form a network to sustain South-South cooperation and develop new joint projects on topics related to sustainability. For broader outreach, the project will transfer the co-developed courses to other universities in the HKH region, publish its outcomes in scientific journals together with press releases and conduct a policy workshop.
PIK supports the implementation of the courses at AIT and KU, research exchanges, and is responsible for the overall coordination and management of the project.
