Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

Highlights on the Progress
These documents highlight developments of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) which are only a small reflection of the extraordinary number of activities, events, networks and support for the DESD from countries, regions, civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and stakeholders from all over the world.

Progress Report by the Director- General on the UNDESD (presented at the 177th Session of the UNESCO Executive Board)
UNESCO, August 2007

Regional Launch of DESD for the Arab Region in Bahrain
17 – 18 September 2005

Arab States Regional Initiatives

The regional launch of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) took place in Bahrain on 17-18 September 2005. Countries in the region have begun to exchange views and dialogue in order to define the roles of different stakeholders for the DESD. A regional strategy is being developed in the form of an Arab Agenda for the Decade.

Consultations

Third Arab Conference on Education on Education and Sustainable Development, 24-26 April, 2006, Beirut, Lebanon
The conference was one of the first regional forums organized by the Arab region, following the regional launch of the DESD in Bahrain on 17 - 18 September 2005, and attended by Ministers and many other distinguished speakers from the Arab region.

Projects/Initiatives

Launching of the First Regional Flagship Project on Water for ASPnet schools in the Arab region
The meeting, held in Abu Dhabi (UAE) brought together UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network National Coordinators and teachers from UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine and Qatar. During the meeting, draft activities for three levels (from Early Childhood to Secondary) were presented by the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi. During the pilot phase, these three level- activities were experimented in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria and UAE, each choosing six ASPnet schools for the project. The Environment Agency provided the pedagogical content of the Flagship project. Some of the results of the meeting included the election of the UAE National Commission as the Regional Coordinator for the three coming years by the participants of the launching event, as well as the elaboration of a work plan for 2007-2010 focusing on Fresh Water Quality and Quantity.

Regional Workshop on Enhancing Teachers’ Competencies in Sustainable Development
The UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Beirut in cooperation with the DESD Secretariat and UNESCO Offices in Cairo, Doha, and Rabat and Alexandria University in Egypt organized a Regional Workshop on Enhancing Teachers’ Competencies in Sustainable Development at Alexandria University in Egypt on 7 - 9 May 2007. The workshop included discussions and consultations on the regional strategy on DESD for the Arab region.

Europe and North America Regional Initiatives

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Strategy

This regional strategy prepared to facilitate the introduction and promotion of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was developed through a participatory process involving governments, international organizations, NGOs, the academic community and other stakeholders. The strategy was adopted at the UNECE High-level meeting of Education and Environment Ministries in Vilnius, Lithuania, to launch the DESD in the region on 18 March 2005. At this meeting, the Task Force on Education for Sustainable Development recognized that the various ongoing projects in the region, in relation to ESD should be taken note of and used in support of the implementation of the Strategy. At the same time, it agreed that there are still challenges in implementing ESD effectively, including strengthening cooperation among governments and stakeholders, improving education systems to address the interdisciplinary nature of ESD, improving and streamlining formal, non-formal and informal learning, and mobilizing adequate institutional and material provisions for ESD.

Many countries have established formal interdepartmental cooperation mechanisms, while others have setup working groups for the implementation of the strategy that include several governmental bodies and stakeholders such as NGOs, businesses, regional authorities and heads of educational institutions. A Steering Committee for the UNECE ESD Strategy with specific responsibility for overseeing its implementation in the region has been created. Each country has committed to translate the UNECE Strategy into national languages, create national coordination bodies and establish focal points and national action plans.

Consultations

International Workshop “Education for Sustainable Development Worldwide- Commonalities and Differences” organized by the German Commission for UNESCO, the State Government of North-Rhine Westphalia and other partners, with support from UNESCO and Japan ESD Funds-in-Trust, was held on 28-29 November 2006 in Bonn, Germany. The event reflected on how to make ESD heard in the political arena, nationally and internationally and develop a viable response to the challenge of having a clearly defined concept of ESD.

Nordic Conference on Sustainable Social Development, Oslo, Norway, 26-27 October 2006, looked at the question of “how can Nordic countries continue to develop the Nordic Region in a more sustainable direction?” One of the workshops focused on the UN DESD through the theme “Learning to change our world” during which best practice examples on initiatives for building competence towards the future that focus on environment, fair distribution and participation were presented. The workshop was chaired by the Ideas Bank (http://www.idebanken.no/index.php) which promotes innovations that lead to a better environment and stronger communities, globally as well as locally.

International ESD Conference, Lisbon, Portugal 14-15 December 2006 was organized to look at ESD in the national perspective and highlight some dimensions, practices and case studies in Portugal, as well as looking at ESD in Europe. Portugal has created an ad hoc group composed of different stakeholders that produced a document on both strategies and directions for action in various fields connected with ESD at the national level.

Projects/Initiatives
Mediterranean Education Initiative for Environment & Sustainability with an emphasis on water and waste (MEdIES). This initiative on EE and ESD was launched by MIO-ECSDE* in Johannesburg during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD, 2002). MEdIES is one of the major initiatives for ESD in the Mediterranean region and its Network of Educators is continuously expanding. Up till now (September 2007), 39 institutions in the region are participating in the initiative. MEdIES aims to facilitate the educational community in a systematic and concrete way to contribute to the implementation of Agenda 21 and MDGs through successful application of innovative Education Programmes on the topics of waste water in countries around the Mediterranean basin. Through the implementation of common activities and projects and close collaboration of Northern and Southern Mediterranean countries, the ultimate goal of the initiative is the development of a methodological framework to be adapted and further implemented in other regions of the world.

BALTIC 21 is a joint, long-term effort by the 11 countries of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, CBSS. These include Denmark, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. These countries differ widely as far as economic, social and environmental preconditions are concerned, but they agree on the long-term goals they wish to attain for the region as a whole. The emphasis is on regional co-operation, and the work is focused on seven economic sectors (agriculture, energy, fisheries, forests, industry, tourism and transport) as well as on spatial planning and on education. The overriding objective of Baltic 21 is to contribute to achieving sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region in a 30-year perspective. Long-term aspects, regional co-operation, sectoral responsibility, openness, democracy and transparency, are the pillars of the Baltic 21 process. Baltic 21 complements international, national and local initiatives in the Baltic Sea Region. The essential objective of the Baltic Sea Region co-operation is the constant improvement of the living and working conditions of their people within the framework of sustainable development, sustainable management of natural resources and protection of the environment. Sustainable development includes three mutually interdependent dimensions – economic, social and environmental.

The Green Pack is a multimedia Environmental Education curriculum kit primarily intended for European Primary School teachers and their students. The Green Pack Programme goal is to build capacities, transfer know-how and establish the basis for further developments in the field of ESD. The Green Pack, initiated in 2001, includes a variety of educational materials such as a teacher’s handbook with lesson plans and fact sheets for students, a film collection with animated clips and educational films, an interactive CD-ROM with extensive information on various environmental topics and a dilemma game. The Green Pack has been used to teach 12,000 teachers and 1.5 million students in six countries in the Central and Eastern Europe. The Green Pack is currently in available in 11 country versions (including an English version). The Programme is being monitored by the Regional Environment Centre for Central and Eastern Europe.

The Bologna Process and Education for Sustainable Development
The Bologna Process involves 46 European countries striving to unify higher education institutions throughout Europe. The most important goal of the project is to create a common European Higher Education (and research) Area by 2010. This common space shall provide students, instructors, and the administration of high education institutions greater flexibility through the structural convergence process, but without doing away with national uniqueness and variety of education systems. In the Bergen Communiqué of 2005, the European Education Ministers declared to strengthen their course in bringing about a common higher education area building upon the principle of sustainable development. The involved participants agreed that European higher education institutions carry a joint responsibility to find the best answers to present and future social challenges on a national, regional, and international scale. Many of the goals brought forth in the Bologna Process, especially with regard to the European qualification framework, form a solid foundation for strengthening the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within the national higher education systems and academic disciplines.

Latin America and Caribbean Regional Initiatives

The Latin America launch of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) took place during the Ibero-American Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro (31 May-2 June 2005). A Caribbean DESD launch took place during the Conference “Education for Sustainable Development: New Approaches for the Future”, held in Kingston, Jamaica (18-20 October 2005).

Consultations
Latin America Regional Mobilization Meeting
Promoting action and implementation in connection with the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) was the objective of a Latin-American meeting entitled “Building the Education for Sustainable Development,” held in San Jose, Costa Rica from 31 October to 2 November 2006. The event was organized by the Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development at UPEACE and by UNESCO, with financial support from the Japanese ESD Funds-in-Trust and the collaboration of United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), AVINA, the Ministry of Public Education of Costa Rica, the Ministry of Public Education of Mexico, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, the National University (Costa Rica), the UN University for Peace, the Paulo Freire Institute, Fundacion Mundo Sustentable and Banco da Amazonia. The meeting which brought together 180 participants from 23 countries, provided a space to share experiences and build alliances. It further aimed to strengthen the links between the UNDESD, the challenge of HIV/AIDS prevention through education, and the search for alternatives to increase literacy rates throughout the region. The event was divided into plenary sessions and working groups, which involved all participants. During the plenary sessions, panels of experts discussed topics related to the challenge of incorporating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into formal and non-formal education; how to articulate a common regional agenda for ESD; and how to achieve an inter-disciplinary focus when dealing with sustainability.

One of the panels included the participation of Vice-Ministers of Public Education from several countries, who expressed their support for a more active incorporation of ESD in their educational curricula. In a parallel process, a drafting team developed the first version of a regional strategy document, entitled Building Education for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, using the panels and working group’s contributions. This draft strategy was presented on the last day of the event, and participants had a brief chance to make preliminary comments on the draft. The organizers established an online forum, where participants, and other people in the region, would have the opportunity to make more observations and develop the strategy in a participatory way. The first version of the regional strategy document, was posted online for comments. The strategy was developed in a participatory manner, through an online forum for people around the region to make observations and suggestions. By creating a consensus at the regional level, there should also be a greater commitment for action. This online forum closed in March 2007 and the regional strategy was finalized.

Teachers Colleges meeting on ESD
Principals, deans and lecturers of 16 teachers’ colleges of Jamaica, Belize and Turks & Caicos gathered in Montego Bay, Jamaica on 28 – 29 June 2006 to discuss how to re-orient teacher education to address sustainability. The meeting is held as the first of a series of workshops planned by the Joint Board of Teachers Education of the University of the West Indies, in cooperation with CIDA/Government of Jamaica ENACT Programme and UNESCO, to contribute to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD) in the Caribbean. At the meeting, the UNESCO Guidelines and Recommendations to Address Sustainability were discussed, and teacher educators explored ways to infuse Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in teaching and learning curricula. As a follow-up, a second Northern Caribbean workshop of the Re-orienting Teacher Education for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean project was held on 22-23 August 2006 in Kingston, Jamaica.