Cooperation and Sustainable Development: the Politecnico di Milano and the key role of the Energy Department in the “Generation Cooperation” event
On the afternoon of 4 March, the “Generation Cooperation” meeting, organised by the UNESCO Chair in Energy for Sustainable Development at the Milan Polytechnic and CoLomba – Cooperazione Lombardia, was held in the Aula Magna of Politecnico di Milano.
The event featured a round table discussion and exchange between young people, students, institutions and NGOs on the topics of international cooperation and sustainable development. The debate was led by the students and touched on crucial topics such as the evolution of cooperation in recent years, the role of institutions and NGOs in cooperation, and the possibility and feasibility of cooperation between the non-profit and profit worlds. The debate was not only led by young people, but they were also the central theme, where the big question was how institutions and NGOs can facilitate young people’s entry into this world.
The event comes at the end of the Passion in Action innovative education course “International cooperation at the time of the 2030 Agenda: from theory to practice” led for the Politecnico by Emanuela Colombo, the Rector’s Delegate for Scientific Diplomacy and full professor at the Department of Energy of Politecnico di Milano, with the support of Francesco Tonini, a research fellow at the Department of Energy in the SESAM (Sustainable Energy System Analysis and Modelling) group, and the staff of Guardavanti: per il futuro dei bambini ONLUS.
The training activity was varied and led by experts from several NGO members of the Lombardy CoLomba network on sustainable development issues. The students were confronted with the NGOs’ experiences of international cooperation in their respective countries, brought the topics of sustainable development to some middle and high schools in Lombardy, and finally analysed how to build an advocacy process and an effective dialogue with policy makers and institutions.
Our students have acquired valuable skills in the field of international cooperation and sustainable development, recognising the crucial role they can play: it is through dialogue with all the actors involved that we can make a difference,
says Francesco Tonini.
The course is part of the “Passion in Action” catalogue of free-participation educational activities that Politecnico offers its students with the aim of giving them the opportunity to measure themselves against concrete activities, fostering the development of transversal, soft and social skills, as well as encouraging and facilitating a personalised enrichment of their personal, cultural and professional background.
The meeting is also part of the Generazione Cooperazione (Generation Cooperation) Project, an initiative promoted by various NGOs, associations and university development cooperation networks operating throughout Italy, supported and financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, in collaboration with the 070 Campaign to increase resources for public development aid
The young people and students from Politecnico di Milano who worked on the preparation of the meeting were Silvia Capponi, Gabriella Caputi, Greta De Vecchi, Maria Chiara Fusco, Loretta Maffezzoni, Vasiliki Melissidou, Luigi Rossi, Andrea Valese.
For further information please refer to the NEWS published on the Politecnico di Milano website.
