Members from various universities worldwide attended the 2023 WUACD Board Meeting on Friday, July 7th. The WUACD Board Meeting was hosted by Prince of Songkla University, one of the outstanding universities in Thailand’s southern region. The meeting explored the collaborative programs conducted among the members of WUACD.

The purpose of this hybrid board meeting was to introduce the units of the Universitas Airlangga SDGs Center, as well as welcome new WUACD members from Griffith University in Australia and O.P. Jindal Global University in India. During the meeting, WUACD also highlighted the progress made by the Academic and Mobility Programs on the issues of community development, including the New Colombo Plan, Southeast Asian Neighborhoods Network (SEANNET) 2.0, International Conference on Academia-Community Engagement, and the Summer Program WUACD. This program enables Universitas Airlangga students to collaborate with Universiti Malaysia Terengganu and Hiroshima University, making valuable contributions to the community.

Throughout the event, several presentations were given by coordinators covering different subjects. Professor Shaoliang Chang focused on food security and circular economy in the economic field. Professor Syed Mizanur presented a low-cost education model through an online education program that esteemed university members can participate in. The presentation emphasized that community development activities are still essential tasks to be accomplished in order to effectively execute the action plan with a focus on community development. The last subject addressed was health, with Dr. Niko discussing the well-being of humans, plants, animals, and the environment.