Introduction
Learning Exchange Grants
Regional Learning Exchange Workshops and Meetings
Learning Exchange Reports
Equator Initiative Youth Exchange

Equator Initiative Learning Exchange Program

Introduction

The first phase of the Equator Initiative focused on recognizing and rewarding successful local communities that are devoted to poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation. The Equator Prize 2002 celebrated and honored the exemplary work of these communities and brought global attention to the vital role that they play in protecting the world’s biodiversity.

These workshops have so far included the highly successful Community Kraal, held in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. In 2003, the Equator Initiative was actively involved in the Global Biodiversity Forum's Sustainable Development and Livelihoods Workshop. This workshop took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh and drew Equator Prize 2002 finalists from South and Southeast Asia in addition to researchers, academics, national government policy-makers, and parliamentarians from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Fiji.

As part of the Phase II agenda, the Equator Initiative's Learning Exchange Program will facilitate the development of community-level partnerships and enable peer-to-peer interactions for the exchange of local expertise and knowledge.

The Learning Exchange Program is primarily designed to address the following themes:

• Lessons from successful projects,
• Eco-Enterprise set-up and management,
• Local partnership development,
• Financing strategies, and
• Partnership building
  

Learning Exchange Grants

Learning Exchange Grants are an essential component of Equator Initiative’s Learning Exchange program and seek to:

• Draw lessons from community-level experience, and support the spread of successful community-level strategies and innovations among CBOs and NGOs, host governments, development aid agencies, and others working on a larger scale.
  
• Build partnerships and networks of local stakeholders to support and strengthen community, CBO, and NGO capacity to address biodiversity conservation and promote sustainable development.
  
• Provide a grant that encapsulates a bottom-up holistic learning package focusing on biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. This will encourage learning exchange between communities and also help disseminate valuable information.
  
• This capacity development and learning process seeks to allow local stakeholders to influence the formulation of national and international plans and policy.
  

Regional Learning Exchange Workshops and Meetings

Over the coming year, the Equator Initiative will host regional workshops meetings in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Each of these will draw grassroots practitioners from the respective regions and will provide a platform for them to share best practices and promote community-to-community exchange and learning.

The first of these meetings, the Sustainable Development and Livelihoods Workshop was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh drew Equator Prize 2002 finalist from South and Southeast Asia in addition to researchers, academicians, national government policy makers and parliamentarians from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Fiji.

Additional workshops and meetings include:

• 14 – 18 July 2003
  Learning from Community Action: biodiversity and the MDGs, Nairobi, Kenya
  
• 8 – 17 September 2003
  World Parks Congress, Durban, South Africa
  
• Autumn 2004
  Sharing lessons: Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Reduction, San Jose, Costa Rica

Learning Exchange Reports

Community-to-community Learning Exchanges in Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Reduction: Six Exchanges in Eastern Africa
UNDP CSO Division and Equator Initiative, April 2006

Equator Initiative Youth Exchange

The Equator Initiative Youth Exchange (EIYE), implemented by Canada World Youth, is a significant component of the Equator Initiative’s Learning Exchange program. The Equator Initiative Youth Exchange brings together youth from the Equator Prize - winning communities of East Africa – specifically from Kenya and Tanzania (Il Ngwesi Group ranch, Honey Care Africa Limited, Suledo Forest Community HASHI).
The first EIYE began in September 2003 and took the form of an in-depth exchange program. Partners seek to facilitate learning and information exchange through educational and work experience in the countries involved. The exchange is also intended to promote skill development and inter-cultural dialogue and create a long term network among African youth and the various communities they visit. The Program is especially geared towards youth committed to reducing poverty in their communities through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

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