World education for sustainable development conference to be held in Japan

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Kenya: Delegates drawn from the world will in November assemble in Japan to discuss an important milestone for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), marking a decade since ESD was launched.

Since its historic inception in December 2002, ESD has become a catalyst for innovation in education and the potential to shape a sustainable future will be discussed at The World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan as from November 10-12.

The meeting in Japan comes after the 2004 international ESD consultation in Gothenburg and marks the end of the ESD Decade.

Today, over 100 countries have enacted national coordinating bodies’ right from communities, schools, universities to the private sector under the guidance of UNESCO which is the UN lead agency for its implementation.

ESD has been influential in enabling communities to create sustainable local solutions to problems related to poverty and vulnerability. It touches on various issues ranging from planning, policy development, programme implementation, finance, administration, learning and assessment.

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In Kenya, ESD is being implemented through the push for vocational studies to be reintroduced in schools. Some of the schools practice movement and fitness, cultures, design and technology.

The Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD will be launched at the event whose banner is “Learning Today for a Sustainable Future.”

The Conference is aimed at celebrating the achievements and lessons learnt from the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014 (UNDESD) and set the stage for the future of ESD.

The conference is organised by UNESCO and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

ESD allows “every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future.”

It involves enriching the teaching and learning process with sustainable development issues such as disaster reduction, biodiversity, sustainable consumption, poverty reduction and climate change.

Through inclusion of sustainable development issues, individuals are able to think more creatively, imagine future scenarios and make decisions in a collaborative way.

Already, ESD has been included in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda that has 17 proposed goals aimed at reducing poverty, promoting global prosperity, advancing social equity and environmental protection.

ESD is proposed in the proposed Goal 4, 12 and 13 with the aim of ensuring that all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles and improving education, awareness raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning” by 2030.

Proposed Goal 4 (the post-2015 education goal) seeks to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all," while Goal 12 proposes “sustainable consumption and production patterns"; and the need for an urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts is proposed in Goal 13.