DFAT Australia Awards Event
Fort Scratchley was the setting for a recent learning and networking event on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which saw 150 Australia Award recipients from NSW and ACT join a small contingent of New Colombo Plan Alumni and guests from University of Newcastle and the City of Newcastle.
The event was a collaboration between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and CIFAL Newcastle. It focused on the work of CIFAL Newcastle and academics with engaging with the SDGs including gender equity and disaster risk reduction and the challenges in Australia and the Indo-Pacific region.
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle , Professor Alex Zelinsky, provided a welcome to all, and the panel of experts included our CIFAL Newcastle Executive Director Professor Rob Sanson-Fisher, Prof Penny Jane-Bourke, Director, Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education and Global Innovation Chair of Equity, and A/Prof Ifte Ahmed. The panel discussions were facilitated by Mr Crispin Conroy, Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade NSW State Office.
The discussion focused on SDG challenges in Australia and across our region and best practice for implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction as well as gender equity in Higher Education.
After the event and invaluable discussions Australia Awards scholars, New Colombo Plan alumni and members of the academic and business communities continued to enthusiastically participate with these topics with the opportunity to further learn and engage while networking over lunch.
