Cities need to become more sustainable due to climate change and dwindling resources. To achieve this, the IHS short course on Green Cities and Eco-efficiency is exploring options to improve cities' environmental efficiency and sustainability. Meet four fresh graduates of the course and find out more about their IHS experience.
Greenery projects in Morocco
Aicha El Bachra is an Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Consultant from Morocco with a Master's degree in Management and Energy Audit.
Several projects related to the greenery concept are currently being set up in my home country, Morocco - says Aicha. She participated in the Green Cities for Eco-Efficiency short course to acquire various new knowledge and tools related to the concept of green cities and realise an action plan for the bigger cities in Morocco. She highlights the topics of waste and water management, circular economy, green building and green cities action plans that will help her strengthen her professional career while deploying them correctly to make her country more sustainable.
'The Netherlands is a good example of urban planning, and I enjoyed the whole country, the experience, and the people.'
Sawadogo Aime Ludovic is a civil engineer from Burkina Faso. He works in the private sector and is also a scholar of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizen for implementing a green city project in his community. He is one of the 25 UNODC’s YouthLED Integrity Advisory Board Members, working for anti-corruption and climate resilience.
Sawadogo joined the short course to learn green city planning, share his experience with peers from all around the world and make connections in the Netherlands to achieve sustainable development goals. During his time at IHS, Sawadogo discovered new skills for planning cities and also learned about IHS Green City Conceptual Framework, Green Building Certification, and the Siemens Green City Index for planning cities. He enjoyed working with professionals from different backgrounds and appreciated their friendship and collaboration.
Helping people to become more environmentally sensitive
Gifty Nyarko obtained a Master of Science in Development Planning and Management. She is currently a Spatial Planner and the Head of the Physical Planning Department in the Sunyani West Municipality in Ghana.
Gifty recently became the Head of two merging Departments in Ghana, so she wanted to equip herself with new urban tools to help her deliver in her new role as a spatial planner in urban greenery and urban design. She chose IHS because it offers short professional courses with real-life experiences for professionals like her. At IHS, Gifty got to learn more about problem analysis and action planning tools and how to prepare a green city action plan. Now, she can design a green city action plan for her municipality and work with other professionals to solve social problems and help people around her become more environmentally sensitive.
'We must educate people first about the importance of making our city greener'
Dina Rachmayati comes from Indonesia. She works at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Regional Infrastructure Development Agency, with an educational background in Civil Engineering.
Dina joined IHS to expand her knowledge on building a green city. While studying at IHS, she examined various indicators that are needed to take action by public and government agencies. She is very excited to apply the Green City Performance and Action Plan tools in Indonesia. However, the lack of data on cities could be a challenge. She believes that measuring Green City Performance is the first step to identifying and communicating the position of Indonesian cities to the government. Dina emphasises the need to educate people on the importance of green cities. 'In developing countries, we face many problems related to the environment and basic needs infrastructures. People need self-encouragement to change their way of life to make a green city.'
This experience was very valuable for us. Thanks, IHS!
Dina Rachmayati
Join our upcoming short courses with the Orange Knowledge Scholarship
The Orange Knowledge Programme (OKP) is a full scholarship available to professionals working in (urban) development from many developing countries offered by Nuffic. Luckily, many of our short courses are eligible for this scholarship in diverse topics such as green cities, local economic development, climate change and sustainable urban development. Find out more about the programme via the link below.
