Professor Gitile Naituli of the Faculty of Commerce will in 2009 take up the co-ordination and hosting of the Education in sustainable development (ESD) International Training Programme (ITP). The programme is for ESD in higher education. In 2007, Prof Naituli received the MESA (Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability into African Universities) award.

"ESD is a vision of education that seeks to balance human and economic well being with cultural traditions and respect for natural resources. Its overall aim is to empower citizens to act for positive environmental and social change," Prof Naituli says.

Prof Naituli has spoken about ESD in various fora. The latest was at University of Nairobi on 24th April where he presented a paper titled 'Re-orienting higher education towards ESD'. On 18th April, he presented a paper titled "Strengthening Capacity to Act: MESA Universities Partnership" at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda.

In November 2007, Prof Naituli presented a paper at the '4th International Conference on Environment Education' held at Centre for Environment Education, Ahmadabad, India. His paper was titled 'Education and Sustainable Development'.

Between 5th May and 18th July, Prof Naituli will participate in the advanced International Training Programme in ESD in Higher Education. The first session will be in Sweden, the second in Nigeria, and the third in South Africa. 24 academics from Africa and Asia selected through a competitive process will attend the training.  ESD is very developed in Western Europe and North America where it has been taught for the past 15 years.