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I began my study at Nusa Cendana University (Undana) in September 2013. I joined the Certificate of Tropical and Rural Development (CTRD): Policy, Management and Practice. The CTRD is a semester-long ‘niche program’ at Undana. The course provides students and development practitioners with the theoretical frameworks, contextual understandings and practical tools and experience needed to work in international development, especially in tropical, rural and remote areas.
Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the certificate program allows for students to choose subjects from a range of Masters’ Degree disciplines such as Environmental Science, Social Sciences, Public Health, Animal Sciences, Agricultural Science and Public Administration amongst others. Exposure to a wider range of disciplines allows students to gain a more holistic perspective towards development in an increasingly complex global environment – while focusing on tropical and rural niche contexts. To learn more about the CTRD you can follow this link.
My experience through the CTRD helped me gain new opportunities overseas. My experience enabled me to join a ‘Global Voices’ delegation. Global Voices is an Australian organization which supports students from Australia to join delegations which attend a range of international conferences on issues like economics, trade, security and defence as well as environment and sustainable development.
My opportunity took me to the first ever United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) which was held in June 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference allowed us to join a meetings with UNDP, UN-Habitat, and UNEP. While there we learned from conference other participants and also shared some of the findings from our own research. My research was about rural and remote community-driven development (CDD) in NTT. The UNEA was attended by the Director of UNEP – Achim Steiner, President of Kenya - Uhuru Kenyatta, Indonesian Environment Minister – Balthasar Kambuaya and the Secretary General of the United Nations – Ban Ki Moon.
Through the conference we learned about a range of environmental ideas in the lead up to the end of the Millennium Development Goals and the beginning of the Sustainable Development Goals as part of a new Post-2015 Development Agenda. These ideas included the illegal trade of wildlife and timber, the environmental rule of law, financing a green economy, as well as sustainable consumption and production.
After learning more about the environment and wildlife at the conference we were given the chance to go outside of the capital city into rural Kenya to see the country’s rich biodiversity. We were very lucky to get this opportunity to see the nature and wildlife of Kenya. These are some of the many animals we saw during our Safari in Kenya.
Our experiences through the conference and visiting rural areas also gave us a stronger appreciation of the environment and the importance of protecting wildlife and the ecosystems which they call home.
The MITRA Hijau or MITRA Green Movement is part of the environmental pillar of MITRA. MITRA or Mahasiswa Indonesia Timur Relasi Asing – also known as the Eastern Indonesian Students Foreign Relations Association aims to empower students in Eastern Indonesia through three main pillars. Languages, Internationalization and Environment.
MITRA also works with Equal Student Exchange (ESE) to share information about overseas study and scholarship opportunities for students from developing countries – especially those in Eastern Indonesia. If you are interested in learning more about these programs like MITRA Hijau you can join the MITRA Hijau facebook group here. To learn more about the Kampus Hijau movement within MITRA you can join the Kampus Hijau Facebook Group.
