With joint efforts of the United Nations EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP), Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST) and TongjiUniversity, the Technical Closing Workshop of China-UNEP-Africa CooperationProgram on Environment- Phase II, under the theme of “One River, One Lake, OneDesert”, was successfully convened from 1 to 3 April at the UNEP-TongjiInstitute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD), totaling 55 participants from 12 countries participated.

Since 2011, six projects underphase 2 have been implemented under this phase in 16 Africancountries in partnership with 14 Chinese institutes. More than 800 participantsfrom Africa have received training courses in different areas related to watermanagement, and combating desertification and land degradation. This technical close out workshop heldin tongji provided opportunity for theAfrican and Chinese teams to document the main outcomes of each of the sixprojects, areas for improvement, lessons learned, and next steps. 

Prof. Wu Jiang,Vice-president of Tongji University, addressed the welcome remarks during theOpening Ceremony and appreciated the continuous support from the Africanregional institutes and entities in the design and delivery of theChina-UNEP-Africa Cooperation Program over the past few years. Mr. Chen Linhao,DeputyDirector General, Department of International Cooperation, Ministryof Science and Technology of China (MOST), highlighted sincerecooperation in capacity building and technology transfer and expressed hisappreciation of the coordination and support by UNEP, understanding and cooperationby African partners and hard work by Chinese institutes. Mr. Zhang Shigang, CountryRepresentative of UNEP in China, spoke highly of UNEP’s great significance toChina’s role in the regional environmental cooperation and south-south cooperation,which put UNEP-China-Africa environmental cooperation high on its programme ofwork. Ms. Jiang Shuhua, Program Officer from MOST, along with Mr. Mohamed AbdelMonem, Team leader for Ecosystem Management from UNEP, gave an overview of thisyear’s program and highlighted Tongji’s and IESD’s strong support andimpressive efforts on this program, as a tangible contribution to the ongoing globalsustainable development.

After the openingceremony, each project manager and partners from African countries shared theiroutcomes and achievements from their project. All the participants joined thediscussion on the final summary and Conclusion document of each project, whichwill be summarized together as one general report on the whole program and publishedjointly by UNEP and MOST.

During the restof the program, african participants had an opportunity to visit Gallery ofTongji University History and Tongji Architectural Design (TJAD) so as to havebetter understandings of human, environment, society and economy, therebyaddressing the need for effective sustainability leaders in Asia and in Africa.