The first major international conference on "Education for Sustainable Future", marking the beginning of United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) (2005- 2014) was held at Centre for Environment Education (CEE), Ahmedabad during 18th – 20th January 2005.

CLEAN-India had the opportunity of co-hosting one of the workshops on "Youth and Education for Sustainable Development".

The workshop had a rich representation of participants from several countries, UNEP, South Asia Youth Environment Network (SAYEN) and other organizations. Over the course of the workshop, the participants reiterated the key roles of Youth in Sustainable Development and developed recommendations and road maps for DESD.

A review meeting on an ongoing project " Linking Climate Adaptation to the Poor" was held in Dhaka on 15th January, 2005. The project makes an effort to understand the role of traditional coping measures initiated by the communities to increase their resilience against adverse impacts of climate change. Under IDS/DFID programme, Climate Change Centre, Development Alternatives, selected two sites in the drought prone state of Rajasthan.

Development Alternatives was also a part of "An international Workshop on Community Level Adaptation to Climate Change" held on 16-18th January, 2005 in Dhaka. Field level experiences on community level adaptations from all over the world (22 countries, including both developing and developed) were presented and discussed by experts in the workshop. Development Alternatives presented its study on Rajasthan in the Workshop.

The month of November and December was very crucial for the PACS Programme as there were two major reviews which were conducted on the Programme. Firstly, the midterm reviews of the Programme followed by the management consultant review. The findings of the review will help in further strengthening and refining strategy of the PACS Programme. A Partnership Workshop was organised in New Delhi at the Qutub Hotel on the 13th January 2005. PACS has completed three and a half years of implementation.

Project Selection Committee (PSC) met on the 14th and 15th January 2005. 23 projects were put forward for the PSC for approval. Out of these 23 projects, one has been rejected, two are in abeyance and 20 are approved. A quick glance at the 20 approved projects reveals that the themes and target communities of the projects reflect locally relevant and thematic issues.

As far as the programme's outreach is concerned, a fundamental shift has been made in the outreach efforts of the Programme. The shift has been towards a more interactive approach where the MC now commits time with credible and suitable CSOs to develop projects. The strategy for facilitating the involvement of suitable CSOs has remained flexible and mindful of the emerging needs and priorities of the Programme. Some of the activities undertaken to enhance outreach efforts include:

TARA scaled new heights of achievement during the months of December -January 2005 adding a lot of FIRSTS in its Cap:

  1. TARA HMP supplied New Year calenders to Ministry of Tribal Welfare

  2. New Year calenders supplied to Handicraft Ministry along with the gifts for dignitaries by TARA HMP

  3. TARA HMP gains entry in Gillette & Perfetti with its office stationery items

  4. First TARA MCR machine is sent off to Thanjavur/Nagapattinam for rehabilitation of Tsunami victims