Sharing Knowledge of Poverty-Environment Action through Learner-Centred Approaches to Sustainable Development

 

Guest blog by: Michael Stanley-Jones, Fellow, Environmental Policy and Governance, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health & Claire Egehiza, University West, Sweden

“Integrating learner-centred approaches into sustainable development curricula ensures practical and lasting impact across developing regions.” – Enzo di Taranto Capozzi, author, diplomat and climate-tech entrepreneur

What happens to almost two decades of knowledge when a major international development programme comes to an end?

Our recent chapter in Springer Nature’s Curriculum Development for Sustainable Development: Theory and Practice (2026) explores this question through the experience of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Poverty-Environment Initiative and Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals (2005–2018, 2018-2022) across more than 30 developing countries. Titled “Sustainable Development in Practice: Applying a Learner-Centred Approach to Sustainable Development e-Curricula,” the chapter tells a story of institutional collaboration and of how knowledge can continue to create value beyond the lifetime of a programme.

Launched in 2018, following the success of the UNDP–UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative, Poverty-Environment Action continued to place environmental sustainability, inclusivity and poverty reduction at the heart of the sustainable development agenda. Building countries’ capacity to meet environmental sustainability and poverty eradication commitments was central to transforming development pathways and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Poverty-Environment Action operated at country, regional and global levels through a two-pronged strategy: deepening and broadening support for poverty-environment and climate mainstreaming. This meant both strengthening efforts within countries to integrate environmental and climate objectives into development planning, budgeting, monitoring and finance, and sharing country-level experience more widely through knowledge management, technical assistance, South–South cooperation and engagement with regional and global actors supporting SDG implementation.

As the active phase of Poverty-Environment Action neared its conclusion at the end of 2022, its partners faced a critical challenge: how to preserve and continue sharing the knowledge and experience accumulated over nearly two decades of work.

From Knowledge Generation to Knowledge Sharing

UNITAR, UNDP and UNEP responded by developing an interactive, multimedia online capacity-building platform designed to support continued learning and experience-sharing around the world. Rather than allowing knowledge to remain dispersed across reports, project documents and individual experiences, the initiative brought it together in a form that practitioners could continue to access and use.

The online capacity-building platform was comprised of seven complementary components:

1. An updated handbook: The practitioner-oriented Sustainable Development in Practice: Integrating Environment, Climate and Poverty Reduction handbook brought together key themes, lessons and methodologies from the Poverty-Environment Initiative and Poverty-Environment Action, as well as related nexus programmes, notably the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE).
2. A public peer-review process: A public peer-review process supported development of the handbook and was launched at the Poverty-Environment Action Global Retreat, held online and in person in Nairobi in September 2022.
3. Field case studies and video interviews: Country-level case studies and video interviews documented the experiences and impacts of poverty-environment action, bringing practical examples and lessons from the field into the learning resources.
4. Expert video interviews: Expert interviews highlighted the contribution of the poverty-environment nexus approach to addressing environmental, climate, gender and poverty-reduction challenges in national policymaking.
5. Self-paced UN CC:e-Learn training modules: Online, self-paced training modules were developed from the handbook, country case studies, video interviews and related resources, making accumulated knowledge accessible beyond traditional capacity-building activities.
6. Peer review of the UN CC:e-Learn courses: The courses underwent peer review through two interactive webinars and a survey, giving participants an opportunity to provide feedback directly to the course design team.
7. A dedicated web environment: A dedicated environment on the Green Policy Platform brought together key knowledge products developed through the Poverty-Environment Initiative and Poverty-Environment Action, including UN CC:e-Learn courses, articles, guidance documents and videos, supporting continued access after the programme ended.

Putting Learners at the Centre

The experience was then translated into two specialised self-paced e-learning courses developed by UNITAR in collaboration with UNDP and UNEP. Introduction to Sustainable Development in Practice provided a two-hour introduction for a general audience, while Advancing Sustainable Development in Practice offered an eight-hour course for practitioners, following the eight chapters of the 2023 handbook.

Since their launch on the UN CC:e-Learn platform in July and October 2023, the two courses had enrolled a combined 43,311 learners and issued 13,522 certificates as of April 2025.

Synthesizing nearly two decades of experience across more than 30 countries into a single, scalable package of digital learning tools was a uniquely complex endeavour. By combining normative guidance with stakeholder interviews, country case stories, videos and expert insights, Poverty-Environment Action created a multi-layered knowledge strategy that connected institutional experience with practical learning.

Ultimately, the Poverty-Environment Virtual Capacity-Building Platform stands as a powerful proof of concept for the wider United Nations system, demonstrating the value of cross-agency partnerships in extending sustainable development education. By adapting the classic ADDIE model – Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate – to distance learning, the e-learning courses extended poverty-environment learning to communities that conventional, on-the-ground capacity-building activities could not reach.

The project also placed learners’ needs at the centre of curriculum development. Extensive stakeholder outreach helped shape the content, with government officials, practitioners and community stakeholders contributing their knowledge and perspectives. Field-based interviews and case studies brought real-world experience into the learning process, while interactive activities encouraged learners to engage with problems rather than simply receive information.

The resulting learning experience has reached tens of thousands of learners worldwide, extending poverty-environment knowledge far beyond traditional United Nations capacity-building channels. More broadly, the experience demonstrates that sustainable development education must do more than transfer information. It needs to help people understand, question, connect and apply knowledge to complex environmental, economic and social challenges.

The Bigger Lesson

The story of Poverty-Environment Action therefore does not end with the conclusion of the programme. Its knowledge continues through the people who can access it, learn from the experiences gained, and apply these in new contexts.

A programme may have a beginning and an end. Learning does not have to end.