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In September 2020, Bonn became the third German city to join the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities. The international network promotes the exchange of ideas and concepts on lifelong learning and the implementation of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
The international network currently includes 294 cities from 76 countries. The members share a common vision: the inhabitants of their cities should have the opportunity to learn throughout their lives, regardless of age, origin, social status, gender and educational background.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations form the framework for the work of the Global Network of Learning Cities. These primarily contribute to the implementation of Goals 4 ("Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all") and 11 ("Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable"). In Bonn, the development of the learning city fits into the context of the municipal sustainability strategy. This sets the framework for municipal action until 2030 and the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in Bonn. The motto of the learning city of Bonn is: Shaping a Sustainable Bonn: with books, bytes and citizen participation.
On September 17, 2021, the Learning City Bonn was presented at an event in the Haus der Bildung. Due to the pandemic situation, this could only take place on a very small scale.
Below are some insights into other Learning City Bonn projects and publications.
Expert forum "Transformation now: The mission of education"
The first Learning City Bonn expert forum entitled "Transformation now: The mission of education" on February 4, 2022 was met with great interest with more than 140 participants. Due to the pandemic situation, it was held digitally via Zoom. The event was hosted by the coordinators of Learning City Bonn: Stefan Wagner, Head of the Office for International Affairs and Global Sustainability of the City of Bonn, and Dr. Ingrid Schöll, Director of the Adult Education Center Bonn.
Stefan Wagner, Head of the Office for International Affairs and Global Sustainability, and Dr. Ingrid Schöll, Director of the Bonn Adult Education Center (VHS Bonn), hosted the expert forum.
The expert forum made direct reference to the new UNESCO Decade Program "Education for Sustainable Development for 2030", which was presented at an international and national conference in spring 2021. It assigns education a strong, transformative role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
In his plenary presentation, Stefan Rostock, Team Leader ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) at Germanwatch, explained this mission using numerous quotes and emphasized the challenge of addressing lasting structural changes with education for sustainable development and working with the "whole institution approach" and the handprint.
Slide from the PowerPoint presentation by Prof. Dr. Scheersoi, Vice-Rector for Sustainability at the University of Bonn.
Prof. Dr. Scheersoi, Vice-Rector for Sustainability at Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität Bonn, presented to the plenary session how the university, as a large institution with around 40,000 students and 8,000 employees, is strategically embarking on the sustainability path with "Boost" (Bonn Program for Sustainable Transformation). She explained that sustainability is located directly at the management level of the university, the eight-member Directorate. This is where the Vice-Rectorate for Sustainability - the first of its kind in Germany - was established in May 2021 and is supported in its work by its own staff unit. Sustainability management is operated on an institutional level and encompasses the areas of research, teaching and university operations. The aim is to anchor a culture of sustainability at all levels.
Five workshops dealt with the question: "How sustainable are we as an educational institution and how could we improve?" Other workshops presented approaches for impact-oriented learning opportunities for sustainable action towards climate neutrality. Below are the topics of the workshops with links to the slides and documentation.
Bonn is the third German city in the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC), which aims to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda by offering lifelong learning opportunities, among other things. The Learning City Bonn, which builds on the city's sustainability strategy and has adopted the motto: "Building Sustainability in Bonn on Books, Bytes and People", is also pursuing this goal
The expert forum was aimed at all those who are active in formal and informal education and who see education as shaping society.
Learning City Bonn is coordinated by the Adult Education Center and the Office for International Affairs and Global Sustainability of the City of Bonn.
Sustainable digital practice boxes: handout for lecturers and trainers
...taming digitalization... and shaping it is the greatest challenge of the 21st century.
Prof. Dirk Messner, then Co-Chairman of the German Advisory Council on Global Change, now President of the Federal Environment Agency
Sustainable digitalization is digitalization that is embedded in the values and norms of society and respects planetary boundaries. In order to contribute to the implementation of sustainable digitalization, the Adult Education Center Bonn has developed a modular further education offer for lecturers as part of the Learning City Bonn and makes it available to Adult Education Centers and other institutions of further education.
The key question here is: How can lecturers be supported in considering and teaching aspects of sustainable digitalization? We see sustainable digitalization as a cross-cutting topic that can be applied with different focal points depending on the course and format. Lecturers are addressed both as further education actors and as multipliers. Sustainable digitalization topics have been identified: Participation, climate and resource protection, privacy, self-determination and well-being.
The practice boxes include the following modules (for starters)
Ecological backpack of the smartphone"
"Always on? Teaching in a climate-sensitive way"
"Digitally inclusive - enabling diversity online"
"Downsizing"
"Sharing is caring"
"Fun together instead of social distancing"
#StopFakeNews
"Living well with ambiguity and contradictions"
"If you don't pay anything, you are the product!"
The practical boxes are each structured according to the same system, which relates to the teaching/learning situation and the challenge of sustainable digitalization. They present practice-oriented options for action, tips and impulses for transferring the topic to your own contexts. References for further reading are provided. The practical boxes can be selected as required.
From acting to talking: Field ambassadors - training course for planting the garden of education
Promoting biodiversity, nutrition and agriculture are closely interlinked and important building blocks on the path to climate neutrality. As the conscious use of soil as a resource and climate-friendly nutrition are becoming increasingly important, Learning City Bonn - led by the Adult Education Center Bonn and the Office for International Affairs and Global Sustainability - launched the "Garden of Education" as a practical learning project in May 2022. The garden was planted as part of a field ambassador course led by an experienced master gardener, which was open to all interested parties. The course offered the opportunity to actively participate in the creation of an ecologically high-quality, participatory kitchen garden through their own actions, observations and learning, with the prospect of being able to implement this idea in their own educational environment or private sphere.
The field ambassador course was divided into six four-hour workshop modules:
Module I: Soil cultivation and fertilization
Module II: Sowing and cultivation
Module III: Mixed crops and crop rotation
Module IV: Wild herbs and weed control
Module V: Beneficial insects and pests
Module VI: Harvesting and winter sowing
The practical workshops imparted a basic understanding of ecological processes in the garden and the interactions between soil, plants and other living organisms, as well as basic knowledge of what needs to be considered when creating and maintaining an ecologically valuable, species-rich and climate-conscious self-sufficient/utility garden.
In addition, there were six further dates for an open garden meeting. These were aimed at both the maintenance and further structural development of the garden. The gates of the Garden of Education were opened to all interested parties for two hours at a time. The master gardener was available to answer questions and provide instructions.
Now that the Garden of Education has been established, it will be further expanded as a practical learning space with further open garden meetings and numerous offers, also in cooperation with the Biostadt Bonn.
Key ideas of the Learning City Bonn
Impulses from the international network can help Bonn to develop the idea of the city as a "learning organism" under the guiding principle of sustainability. The goal: Bonn is a city with democratic inhabitants who think sustainably and act in a future-oriented manner. Education, and informal learning in particular, is a key to unlocking the potential of people and institutions to find solutions for a sustainable city.
Experiences and suggestions from other learning cities should help to make local providers and sponsors of early childhood and extracurricular education, adult education and other non-formal education more familiar with each other in order to support and promote each other's skills. This applies in particular to education for sustainable development.
In order to be able to offer appropriate and attractive educational opportunities to as many Bonn residents as possible, these should become more digital and inclusive. New processes and methods of knowledge transfer should contribute to this.
Why did the city apply for membership of the GNLC?
Because she knows that Bonn has a diverse range of educational opportunities from a wide variety of providers. It wants to make this (more) visible and support and accompany them in getting to know each other (even) better, learning from each other and promoting each other. The educational stakeholders make an important contribution to Bonn as a location for sustainability, which the city would like to acknowledge and make better known.
At the same time, it would like to motivate them to focus (even) more on how existing educational offers can become more inclusive and digital. It hopes to be able to identify "blind spots" in the city's educational offerings through more intensive networking of local stakeholders and to work together to find solutions to close existing gaps.
Membership is also a further building block in the city's external image/branding ("Bonn as a UN city/Sustainability Hub"). It promotes networking with UN bodies (e.g. UNESCO-UNEVOC; German Commission for UNESCO; UNRISD, etc.) as well as municipalities and institutions worldwide.
What do we as education providers gain from getting involved/participating?
The city would like to use its own activities to help local education providers exchange ideas more intensively and learn from each other. It invites people to (co-)develop ideas for new urban offers.
Membership of the network also enables Bonn's education stakeholders to present their good examples and approaches internationally. It also creates contact and exchange with international actors who work on and with similar topics and issues and are willing to share ideas and experiences with Bonn actors and (jointly) develop them further.
On October 26, 2023, the publication "Lifelong Learning for Health in Cities: A Guide", in which various Learning Cities participated, was launched in Gwangmyeong, Korea.
From October 30 to November 3, 2023, the GNLC will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a hybrid Global Learning Festival. You can find the program here (opens in a new tab).
