Policymakers from over 20 countries explored new frontiers at Global Academy on the Green Economy

In her opening remarks Rie Vejs-Kjeldgaard, ILO Director of Sustainable Enterprises, Productivity and Just Transition and member of the PAGE management board, highlighted the diversity of the stakeholders coming from all over the world with different social and economic contexts. She spoke on behalf the PAGE management board.

The PAGE Management Board is responsible for making management decisions at the global level, such as workplan approval and selection of countries. Membership of the PAGE Management Board includes director-level representatives of PAGE agencies.

“The main purpose of the academy is exactly to bring together that diversity of experiences and insights, so that we can learn from each other […] share our different entry points to the green economy. […] All of us have a key role to play.”, she said.

The Academy paid due attention to the challenges faced by green economy policymakers worldwide in navigating environmental and social policy commitments in a time of complex socio-economic contexts and multidimensional crises. A central aspect of the Global Academy was the quest for policies and strategies that deliver not only on environmental objectives but also on social justice, resilience, and equality.

“Germany has been supporting PAGE since the beginning. (…) [The Academy] is a great format that PAGE has set up because it relies on PAGE main philosophy of peer-learning”, said Dr. Veronica Tomei, Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection, Germany and member of the PAGE steering committee. She spoke on behalf of the PAGE steering committee during the opening of the event.

The United Nations resident coordinator in Mongolia Topan Mishra connected online to open the academy. In his intervention, he underlined the collaboration of PAGE with the UN Resident Coordinator Offices and UN Country Teams to support countries to advance a job-rich green economic transformation within and across countries. “Such collaboration – which leverages the full expertise and convening power of the UN System and UN Country Teams – is essential if we are to succeed in moving from a recovery to a systemic recalibration of our economies.”, he said.

Topan Mishra highlight PAGE’s work in Mongolia – supporting the country’s National Green Development Policy. “PAGE has helped Mongolia to integrate Inclusive Green Economy priorities into national and sectoral plans, and strengthened the institutional capacities of and catalyzed action by public institutions, research institutes, civil society, and private sector partners. […] PAGE has facilitated South-South collaboration and peer-to-peer including between Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan on green finance.”

He concluded that there is a need for more  initiatives like PAGE that unite the UN and countries to accelerate progress the 2030 Agenda.

In the spirit of new frontiers, the Academy offers a unique opportunity for inspiration and guidance through global knowledge sharing, comprehensive and peer-reviewed training materials, quality programmes and resources, and different learning methodologies.

The event is led by the ILO and supported by the other PAGE agencies. It brings participants from the private sector, public sector, and civil society. The training was tailored to individual and organizational needs.

For the first time, the Global Academy on the Green Economy offered a blended format that combined two weeks of on-line training through webinars and self-guided learning modules with a 1-week face-to-face segment at the ILO training centre in Turin. The face-to-face segment ended today with South-South learning sessions and a knowledge fair featuring knowledge products developed by the PAGE partners, collaboration with UNRCO Economists and used in PAGE countries and beyond.

In Turin, PAGE also held a workshop for the National Coordinators and UN agencies Focal Points involved in the implementation of the Partnership and managing PAGE work at country level. The workshop aimed to collect experience-sharing and input around operational and substantive aspects of PAGE’s work at country and global level.

PAGE National Coordinators are responsible for managing all activities on behalf of all PAGE agencies with national and local-level partners. The National Coordinators support PAGE engagement and policy coordination related to PAGE in their countries, including identification of linkages with important national and international processes, such as the Sustainable Development Goals.