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UFS Book Launch Invitation - 2024 State of Nation: Quality of Life and Wellbeing

23 May 2024

The Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Francis Petersen, invites you to attend the upcoming book launch of State of the Nation: Quality of Life and Wellbeing.

Celebrating its 20^th year of existence, this HSRC flagship publication serves as an invaluable, independent scholarly resource offering insights into the current state of South Africa. The theme of the 2024 edition, Quality of Life and Wellbeing, underscores the commitment to understanding and addressing critical societal issues. Edited by Profs Vasu Reddy, Narnia Bohler-Muller, Zitha Mokomane, and Crain Soudien, this edition builds on the preceding editions, focusing on HSRC priorities of poverty and inequality in novel and relevant ways.

During the launch, UFS scholars and editors will hold an interactive session and panel discussion; we look forward to your participation, which will help to enrich the conversations.

Date: Thursday 13 June 2024

Time: 15:00 to 16:30 (guests required to be seated by 14:45)

Venue: Equitas Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus

RSVP: https://ufsweb.co/3QGWpXY before 10 June 2024

Contact: For more information, please contact Pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za

ONLY MS Teams for Qwaqwa and South Campus staff (upon request to the RSVP address)

Books available for purchase at the event venue. Card payments will only be accepted.

News Archive

Course on sustainable development recognised at COP 17

2011-12-07

Some participants of the PED Nexus Programme during a field trip are from left: Jacques van Zuydam, Chief Director: Population and Development at the national Department of Social Development; Prof. André Pelser, course coordinator (UFS); Prof. Sosten Chiotha, Director, LEAD Southern and Eastern Africa; and Dr Nola Redelinghuys, course facilitator (UFS).

The University of the Free State (UFS) received a nod of approval at the COP 17 Climate Change Conference in Durban for a short course it presents in partnership with the Chief Directorate Population and Development, United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA), LEAD International and SANParks.

The UFS received an honourable mention in a press release from the Department of Social Development for the short course entitled ‘Leadership Training in Sustainable Development: The Population, Environment and Development (PED) Nexus’. The release was issued as part of COP17. It mentions that the course is recognised in a publication of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as one of ten innovative experiences and best practices in population and development in the developing world.

Prof. André Pelser, UFS Professor in Sociology, says the university played a key role in the development and implementation of the course. The UFS has been presenting the course since its inception in 2005. Similar courses under the banner of the PED Nexus, although in a totally different format, are also presented at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and the University of Cape Town. A total of 21 courses have been presented nationwide since 2005, of which the UFS has hosted eight. More than 230 participants from all over the world have been trained in these eight short nine-day courses.

The PED Nexus Programme focuses on the interrelationships of population, environment and development and its significance for sustainable human development and is closely linked to the implementation of the national Population Policy for South Africa. The press release reads that the programme is implemented in the form of short courses that target professionals and managers in governments at all levels as well as non-governmental agencies responsible for the implementation of programmes related to sustainable development.

Prof. Pelser and Dr Nola Redelinghuys, also from the Department of Sociology, have recently been tasked by the National Department of Social Development to upgrade the course outline. The next course will run from 17-25 April 2012. As in the case of pervious courses, the first six days will be hosted on our main Campus in Bloemfontein, whereafter course participants and their facilitators depart to the Golden Gate Highlands National Park for the practical part of the course.

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