Students take part in UN global event on the environment
A global webinar endorsed by the United Nations has been held by academics and students at the University of Chester.
The webinar, ‘Youth as experts in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR): Rethinking the Education system to support knowledge and awareness for sustainable Disaster Management’ was hosted by the team in Geography and Environment.
Under the convenorship of Associate Professor Namrata Bhattacharya Mis, the thought-provoking webinar included international experts such as Professor Nidhi Nagabhatla, UNU-CRIS, Belgium and Ranjan K Panda, Convenor of Combat Climate Change India, Youth4water India along with youth representation from first year Geography students Scarlett Hill and Lilia Scattergood, University of Chester.
The aim of the webinar was to highlight the importance of young people as one of the key contributors to the DRR space and how rethinking education systems can help to support that.
Talking about the importance of the webinar, the UN Special Representative and Secretary General of UNDRR highlighted “the role of youth in addressing 21st century problems”.
Scarlett said: “I’m so thankful that Namrata gave us the chance to do this and I now feel like I have a sense of confidence that I didn’t have before when it comes to sharing my knowledge in something I’m passionate about. Hopefully this opportunity will provide me with some fascinating connections for future projects and opportunities down the road for my education and career!”
Lilia said: “I thought the webinar was a fantastic opportunity and I was extremely appreciative to have been asked to participate. I feel that by taking part in this, I will now feel more confident in talking in front of an audience and it’s also helped me build more connections, which is important for future opportunities.”
Dr Namrata Bhattacharya Mis, Associate Professor (Disaster Risk and Resilience) in Humanities, Cultures and Environment at the University of Chester, said: "The role of youth in disaster risk reduction is very important, they can be the forced multipliers of agents of change through their knowledge and enthusiasm. Our education system needs to cater to this need in a holistic manner and platforms such as this webinar provides the youth the opportunity where they can share their understanding in their own perspective.