IGEE at Yonsei University

Ban Ki-moon Center for

Named after the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Ban Ki-moon Center for International Cooperation was established in 2017 along with IGEE. Ban Ki-moon decided to join Yonsei University’s efforts for sustainable development because he believes universities play a vital role in tackling climate change and other global challenges through education, research, academic resources, and field activities.
The Ban Ki-moon Center for International Cooperation focuses on exploring effective and lasting solutions to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030.

· Forum & Lectures

The Ban Ki-moon Center for International Cooperation hosts the Global Engagement & Empowerment Forum (GEEF) annually as the only platform for addressing the SDGs at the university level in Korea. 

The Ban Ki-moon Center for International Cooperation plays a major role in educating global citizens through several meaningful SDGs courses. One such course, Understanding Sustainable Development with Ban Ki-moon, opens every semester to enhance the SDG awareness of Yonsei University undergraduate students. 

Moreover, the online course is established in an open format. Sustainable Development in the 21st Century with Ban Ki-moon/Learnus which is designed as an introductory course on the SDGs for the public.

· Social Engagement Fund, SEF

To support a wide range of research activities that contribute to achieving the SDGs, the Social Engagement Fund (SEF) program was launched in July of 2018. Students and researchers around the world were called to submit research and project proposals that placed emphasis on implementing and evaluating the impact of the SDGs, which could also result in a tangible output alongside the composition of knowledge. The entries were then screened by a number of expert panels. 

As a result, two student teams were awarded $5,000 each and three researcher teams won $10,000 each for their year-long projects. In all, $40,000 in grants were given out to support SDG-related research, which was made possible by donations from the private sector. Three student teams were supported through the SEF (total of 15 million KRW) in 2019, and they accumulated data and knowledge in the field to promote the achievement of SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5, 10.

· Partnerships & Collaboration

The center’s growing international network of partners include its two sister organizations: the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens in Vienna, Austria and the Ban Ki-moon Institute for Sustainable Development at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Kazakhstan. These three institutions have agreed to bring together their unique and complementary sets of expertise to collaborate toward furthering the SDGs.

The Ban Ki-moon Center for International Cooperation also teams up with NGOs and other organizations on a variety of projects. The center’s collaborating organizations include the United Nations, the World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund, the Korea International Cooperation Agency, and the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

· SDGs Monitoring System

The Ban Ki-moon Center for International Cooperation conducts SDG reporting and monitors how Yonsei University's activities (Curricular, Extra-curricular, Academic, Administration, Research) are committed to the 17 SDGs through the working group. Based on this task, we are also trying to enhance SDG awareness throughout the campus.