USM PENANG, 22 December 2025 – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is one of the higher education institutions in the world where a Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been established.

Known as RCE Penang, it is among the first seven to be established in the world, in fact.

RCE Penang is presently under the supervision of the Centre of Global Sustainability Studies (CGSS) at USM, while still maintaining its connection to the global RCE network, which is coordinated by the United Nations University (UNU) Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (IAS) in Tokyo, Japan.

With ESD as its main focus, it conducts a variety of programmes at different levels and to different target groups.

One section of RCE Penang is the RCE Sejahtera Youth (RSY). It focuses on schoolchildren and youth groups as the main target groups to disseminate the message regarding sustainability.

Among its activities are organising a carnival on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and going to schools to hold projects such as writing SDG-themed storybooks and producing SDG storytelling videos. The storybooks and videos could then be utilised as educational resources.

The outputs produced have touched on issues regarding SDG 4 (Quality Education), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 14 (Life Below Water), and 15 (Life on Land).

As mentioned in its year-end report, the projects done by RSY have succeeded in meeting all the proposed objectives.

The RSY members (university students) have been involved in managing and transferring knowledge to the respective target groups while fostering SDG literacy as well as promoting creativity, which in turn would result in strong networking and generating support from institutions.

RSY, under RCE Penang can be contacted through social media at Instagram: @rcesejahterayouthofficial, Facebook: RCE Sejahtera Youth USM

Text: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin/Photos: RCE Sejahtera Youth (RSY)