CEP to study the British Council’s contribution to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to make recommendations about future programming up to 2030.

The UK Government played an important role, with other actors around the world, in developing and promoting the SDGs and is committed to supporting the achievement of the goals.  The British Council, as the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities, has a major part in this effort. CEP has been commissioned to write a baseline study on where and how a selection of the British Council’s programmes and projects are making an active contribution to achieving the SDGs. 

CEP will be undertaking a desk review of twelve programmes and projects, mapping their links to the SDGs and developing three case studies. 

The main objectives of this project are to:

• map a selection of determined SDG targets and indicators against a selection of current or recent British Council programmes;
• identify and reflect upon consistent themes, examples of strengths and good practice in delivery and potential gaps;
• make recommendations for future programming and for incorporating the SDGs into British Council monitoring and evaluation processes.

The project will be delivered between September and November 2016.

CEP’s Paula Orr is managing the project.

Photo credit: “Untitled21″ by Jo Munday on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross speaking at the British Environmental Psychology Society conference

CEP’s Dr Clare Twigger-Ross is giving a keynote talk titled “Environmental Psychology in practice: challenges and opportunities” at the British Environmental Psychology Society (BrEPS) annual conference on Friday 23rd September. Clare’s talk will be drawing on CEP’s recent work on the Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder evaluation and the Health and Social Benefits of Nature.

The conference is titled “Healthy and Sustainable places: providing evidence based solutions to real world problems” and is being held at the University of Surrey Environmental Psychology Research Centre on the 22nd and 23rd September. This year’s conference focuses on two key themes:

• Environment, health and well-being: including areas such as environmental stress and restoration, place attachment and aesthetics.
• Sustainability: including areas such as sustainable lifestyles, environmental attitudes and behaviour, and environmental risk.

Photo credit: ‘Jökulsárlón’ by Arian Zwegers on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CEP is to develop a methodological framework for the identification of emerging risks to the environment for the European Commission

CEP is leading a team, including Milieu , that has been commissioned by the European Commission’s DG Environment to develop a methodological framework for the identification of emerging risks to the environment.

The project will support the fifth Priority Objective of the 7th European Environmental Action Programme (EAP) which aims to improve the knowledge and evidence base for Union environment policy, and in particular the goal to ensure by 2020 a ‘greatly improved’ understanding of, and ability to evaluate and manage, emerging environmental and climate risks. This will aid timely and effective policy action at EU level.

CEP will be undertaking research, developing a methodological proposal and facilitating relevant stakeholder participation.

The specific objectives of this project are:

• To provide an overview of state-of-the-art approaches, tools and best practices linked with the identification of emerging risks that could apply in the context of protecting the environment.
• To develop an inclusive and participatory methodological framework for the systematic identification of emerging risks to the environment in the EU.

The project will be delivered between September 2016 and June 2017.

CEP’s Owen White is managing the project.