Partnerships for the Goals

UNESA provides SDG education for the wider community

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA) runs educational outreach on sustainability for local communities and for its alumni: in 2025 and 2026 its lecturers and students trained villagers in water-saving aquaponics and eco-enzyme waste treatment (SDGs Center, 2025a) (S2 Fisika, 2025), taught city residents and schoolchildren to grow food and manage water and organic waste, and its alumni ran a webinar series on quality early childhood education (Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, 2026).

UNESA educational outreach on sustainability, 2025 and 2026

Local community

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA) runs educational outreach on sustainability for local communities. On 28 October 2025 its lecturers, with Universitas Islam Lamongan, ran the programme Ecopreneurship di Kawasan Urban Farming (ecopreneurship in urban farming) in Rejotengah village, Deket, Lamongan, an area short of clean water in the dry season. Led by Dr. Durrotun Nafisah, the team taught residents living around the local factories to build round fish ponds with closed water circulation that feed hydroponic vegetables, and trained them in managing household wastewater, making natural fish feed, managing harvest income and marketing the produce online (SDGs Center, 2025a).

Physics lecturers of UNESA's Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, led by Dr. Rohim Aminullah Firdaus, trained residents of Sukoruo village, Trenggalek, in 2025 to make and apply eco-enzyme to reduce pollutants in the liquid waste of home tempe industries, as part of the 2025 programme of the Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM) (S2 Fisika, 2025).

On 12 May 2026 the Faculty of Food Security, with the zakat foundation Yayasan Baitul Maal PLN, began training residents of Menanggal, Surabaya, in urban farming: Prof. Isnawati taught them to raise seedlings of vegetables, papaya and tubers in small media, polybags and large pots, and the residents joined the faculty's programme Jadikan Pekarangan Ketahanan Pangan (Jaran Kepang, turning home yards into food security) (Fakultas Ketahanan Pangan, 2026).

UNESA students also teach schoolchildren. On 26 September 2025 students in the Surabaya Mengajar programme taught pupils of grades 4 to 6 at SDN Gunungsari I Surabaya to turn organic waste into eco-enzyme (SDGs Center, 2025b), and on 20 November 2025 sociology students, with the foundation Yayasan Menabung Air, taught pupils of SDN 1 Karah Surabaya how biopori infiltration holes absorb rainwater and compost organic waste, and dug the holes with them (S1 Sosiologi, 2025).

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA) implemented the UNESA International Community Development (UICD) 2026 program in Desa Kalianyar, Kecamatan Ijen, Kabupaten Bondowoso, Indonesia, on 5-7 February 2026. The program empowered local communities through sustainable agriculture and livestock management, waste-to-compost processing, food security initiatives, and entrepreneurship and digital marketing training for local businesses and youth. Funded through the LPDP EQUITY scheme, the initiative supports SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), as identified by UNESA’s SDGs Center. The program aligns with UNESA Rector Regulation No. 13 of 2023 on University Cooperation, which provides an institutional framework for university cooperation. UICD demonstrates UNESA’s contribution to community empowerment and sustainable development through practical knowledge transfer and locally oriented capacity building (SDGs Center 2026).

Participants of the UNESA International Community Development (UICD) 2026 program in Ijen, Bondowoso, supporting local community empowerment and sustainable development.

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA), through UNESA Global Engagement (UGE), engaged five international students receiving the Indonesian Government’s Kemitraan Negara Berkembang (KNB) scholarship in an educational activity at SD Al-Hikmah Surabaya in October 2025. Serving as project judges, the students interacted with elementary school pupils and exchanged perspectives on environmental, technological, and social issues, while promoting intercultural understanding. The initiative supports SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) by extending international learning beyond the university into the wider community. It aligns with UNESA Rector Regulation No. 13 of 2023 on University Cooperation and the broader framework of Indonesia’s Presidential Regulation No. 111 of 2022 on the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which promotes contributions from multiple stakeholders towards sustainable development (Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 2025).

KNB scholarship awardees engage with students at SD Al-Hikmah Surabaya through educational activities and intercultural knowledge exchange, supporting SDG 4 and SDG 17.

Alumni

Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA) runs educational outreach on sustainability for its alumni. From 8 to 27 June 2026 the alumni association of UNESA's Master of Early Childhood Education (Ikatan Alumni S2 PAUD UNESA) ran a webinar series on innovation and contemporary perspectives in early childhood education with seven speakers from its alumni and practitioners. Participants, mostly early childhood teachers, alumni and prospective students, received certificates of 32 learning hours per session. The sessions covered child and teacher wellbeing, practice-based innovation and keeping learning rooted in local culture, which relates to SDG 4 on quality education (Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, 2026).