Projects

The first goal is to end poverty in all its forms. 10% of the world population still lives in extreme poverty and cannot fulfil basic needs such as health, education, clean water or sanitation. Poverty can be caused through unemployment, social exclusion, natural disasters, diseases and other causes. The world needs to end poverty in order to give social protection for the ones in need and to economically grow.

Projects

In Year 3, during the exchange programme  'Managing Projects in a Globalized World', students work together on a research project for real clients. Depending on the location of their client, the students spend the latter half of their semester working in their client’s country. A project that addresses SDG 1 is in partnership with the AFAD (Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances), a regional federation of human rights organizations focussing on the issue of enforced disappearances. Their current project with our students, named 'Enhancing the Victim’s Collective and Sustained Response to Enforced Disappearances and the Persecution of Asian Human Rights Defenders', involves researching the documentation, campaigning and lobbying at national, regional and international levels.

Student experience

Luzia from Austria: 'My last project started with 7 weeks of preparation in the Netherlands followed by going to the Philippines and working on our project. My team worked together with AFAD, who works for people and their families that have been kidnapped or disappeared. We were looking into how we could (financially) help the relatives (mostly women) that are left behind, how they could financially survive and help with their mental health. Financial support is important, as most of the time the husband of the family disappears. They're usually the one with an income. This is why women need support with figuring out their new role within the family. If I described my project in a few words, it would be: bringing some light into the darkness.'

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries should provide nutritious food for all the population and generate a decent income, while supporting people-centered rural development and protecting the environment. However, soils, freshwater, oceans, forests and biodiversity are being rapidly degraded and climate change is putting even more pressure on the needed resources. A profound change of the global food and agriculture system is needed in order to nourish the 821 million people who are hungry today, and the additional 2 billion people expected to be undernourished by 2050.

Projects

In Year 3, during the exchange programme 'Managing Projects in a Globalized World', students work on a research project for real clients. Depending on the location of their client, the students will spend the latter half of their semester working on their projects in their client’s country. A small project that addresses SDG 2, involves the development of the educational concept Sustainable International Learning Community (SILC) with local partners in Bukomansimbi, Uganda. SILC is built on three pillars – learning through global citizenship, sustainability through an SDG programme and community through connections and young talent development – and the objective of the project is to further develop the concept by making it applicable within the local context.

Student experience 

Luca from Germany: 'Last year I did my minor in Uganda, which started with the first 6 weeks in Zwolle for preparation, followed by 6 to 9 weeks in Uganda. The project itself was mainly about building up networks with universities to create a knowledgeable exchange, but we also worked on a school gardening project in order to improve the planning, structuring and budgeting for this project. The school farming project is an ISFM garden, which is a specific kind of sustainable way to grow crops. The end products we delivered, were a lot of reports, and a plan and concept for the farm, in order to contribute to a better farming in the school.'

SDG3 is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for the population. In order to achieve the target of less than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030, improvements in skilled delivery care have to be made. Not only child and maternal mortality is a huge problem, but also the premature death due to incommunicable diseases in general. To reduce those death rates, more efficient technologies for clean fuel used during cooking and education about using tobacco is needed. By focusing on providing more efficient funding of health systems, improved sanitation and hygiene and increased access to physician’s, significant progress can be made in helping to save lives.

Projects

As a Year 2 course, 'Project Management for Change' focuses on theories and approaches relevant to developing project management skills for social change projects. For this course, students carried out research for local clients from the Zwolle region. For the municipality in Zwolle, students looked into local energy transition, how citizens could be more energy conscious and how to work towards a cleaner energy network. The task was to look into the social part of energy transition and how the municipality can cooperate with smaller local initiatives. The result was a report about trends and predictions, and students gave advice on how to move towards certain trends.

A project that addresses SDG 3 is in partnership with the AFAD (Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances), a regional federation of human rights organizations focussing on the issue of enforced disappearances. Their current project with our students, named 'Enhancing the Victim’s Collective and Sustained Response to Enforced Disappearances and the Persecution of Asian Human Rights Defenders', involves researching the documentation, campaigning and lobbying at national, regional and international levels.

Student experiences

Amy from England/the Netherlands: 'My last project was about making the Spoorzone climate adaptable. It was so interesting to get a closer look into how they are planning and all the things they are thinking of to make our future better. The project mainly focused on how to make people healthy and happy. My personal takeaway from this project was how much there is to think about and how many factors have to be taken into consideration before a small change can happen. The final product we delivered to the client was an advisory report and how things could be improved. This project helped me to really think outside the box.'

Luzia from Austria: 'My last project started with 7 weeks of preparation in the Netherlands followed by going to the Philippines and working on our project. My team worked together with AFAD, who works for people and their families that have been kidnapped or disappeared. We were looking into how we could (financially) help the relatives (mostly women) that are left behind, how they could financially survive and help with their mental health. Financial support is important, as most of the time the husband of the family disappears. They're usually the one with an income. This is why women need support with figuring out their new role within the family. If I described my project in a few words, it would be: bringing some light into the darkness.'