Bond University has joined top-tier universities including Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), by signing a partnership with UN-Habitat for promoting global urban sustainability. The partnership promotes cooperation in the areas of education, research, professional development, knowledge management and policy advice. Bond University is only the second university in Australia to achieve this level of partnership with UN-Habitat, which is the United Nations’ agency for promoting socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities.
Dr Jorge Ochoa
“Our recent partnership UN-Habitat is already bringing enormous benefits to Bond University and will provide further opportunities for our staff and students in research, education and training, international exchange, and other activities,” says Bond University academic, Dr Jorge Ochoa who is responsible for the partnership. “We look forward to developing common research agendas as well as receiving the UN endorsement of our curricula for ensuring the delivery of top class sustainability graduates”.
“UN-Habitat will also benefit from this partnership by having access to knowledge, research and learning products and expertise on a range of themes and issues of sustainable urban development produced at Bond University” said Dr Ochoa. “Bond University is an important partner to UN-Habitat, as we produce the leaders, managers and planners required for providing innovative, sustainable practices to urban environments”.
Dr Jorge Ochoa has recently returned from the Philippines after participating in a training event offered exclusively to UN-Habitat’s consultants and partners. The training was the first of its kind and has been offered with the intent to place trained consultants in developing countries to advise national and local governments on climate change action plans. Dr Ochoa says he is privileged to be part of such a ground breaking program and partnership.
The hands-on training in the Philippines was part of the UN-Habitat’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative, and was limited to only twenty specialists. As part of the training, Dr Ochoa took part in city consultations and visited areas vulnerable to climate change in the Philippines. The overriding objective was to report to UN-Habitat authorities current and projected climate change exposures as well as what adaptation measures could be implemented in the affected cities.
“My participation in this training event has placed Bond University as a key UN-Habitat partner for offering consultancy services to developing countries in the Asia Pacific region in the field of cities and climate change” says Dr Ochoa, “This is an example of what this partnership can offer our staff and students, and how Bond University can contribute to designing solutions towards global urban sustainability”.