The United Nations General Assembly adopted a Resolution on the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD)” in December 2002, and designated UNESCO as the lead agency for the international efforts of DESD. The Government of Japan, as the country that raised the resolution, intends to continue taking initiative in actively promoting DESD in the international community. In 2003, the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO submitted a list of proposals concerning items to be included in the IIS agenda and activities to be undertaken by UNESCO. With the belief that UNESCO will further develop its leadership role, it has now compiled a new list of proposals aimed at promoting international initiatives on DESD.

Proposals by the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO Regarding the Further Promotion of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

BACKGROUND

 As the world faces a variety of difficult issues, sustainable development has become a fundamental challenge to ensure the survival of present and future generations. Its achievement will depend on changes in our socio-economic systems as a whole, coupled with efforts at the individual level to reform people’s knowledge, skills, values, behavior and lifestyles. Education is practically our only tool to affect the individual evolution of human beings, and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a crucial instrument to ensure the implementation of reform.

 The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) was proclaimed by the General Assembly to begin in 2005. UNESCO, which was designated as the lead agency for the promotion of the Decade, adopted an International Implementation Scheme (IIS) in October of the same year. This was followed by the launch of a number of projects by several countries and territories.

 DESD, however, must represent a big step towards concrete action to realize sustainable development. The challenges lying on the road towards sustainable development were identified long ago. After considerable debate, the international community has come to recognize sustainable development as a crucial and urgent matter that concerns humanity as a whole. However, real action has been slow. UNESCO and its Member States must ensure through DESD that education leads to concrete action that will bring about sustainable development.

 UNESCO has achieved significant results by explaining to the world the importance of education in reforming societies. It has formulated proposals regarding teacher training, lifelong learning, education for international understanding, and has continually paid attention to enhancing the potential of human resources in developing countries. Recently, UNESCO has been leading international cooperation on fundamental concepts such as Education for All (EFA) and the UN Literacy Decade (UNLD). In the field of culture, it has played a leading role in safeguarding the World Heritage, the Intangible Cultural Heritage and cultural diversity, and secured the adoption of several treaties. DESD has the potential to become an initiative of equal, if not superior, importance in terms of its significance for future generations.

 The end of 2009, which will mark the midpoint of DESD, will see the publication of a review and intermediate report. We must now swiftly examine the objectives stated in the International Implementation Scheme (IIS), define a roadmap and strategy to achieve them, and proceed with concrete action. In 2003, the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO submitted a list of proposals concerning items to be included in the IIS agenda and activities to be undertaken by UNESCO. With the belief that UNESCO will further develop its leadership role, it has now compiled a new list of proposals aimed at promoting international initiatives on DESD, based on the following thoughts and perspectives.

IMPORTANT THOUGHTS AND NEW PERSPECTIVES ON ESD

1.The implementation of ESD overlaps considerably with activities required in the field of education, namely developing the ability to identify an issue, fostering a capacity to learn, think and act individually, and cultivating a rich human character.

 Two perspectives on ESD can be emphasized: the first is nurturing human character, which includes the development of individual character, self-discipline, ability to judge, and sense of responsibility; the second is fostering individuals who respect the relation and connections that exist between themselves and other people, society, and nature as a whole.

 With respect to methods of learning and teaching, it is important to stimulate concrete action by arousing interest, deepening understanding, nurturing a willingness to participate and the ability to solve problems. We must privilege a participative approach that does not simply rely on the transmission of knowledge, and emphasize a heuristic and practical approach through personal and physical experience, as well as the importance of cleverly stimulating the learner to act voluntarily.

 ESD will allow us to rediscover the essence of education, and is expected to provide us with an effective approach to solve the challenges faced today by Japan and other developed countries in the field of education. These challenges include raising children’s interest in study and promoting norm consciousness through a common effort at the regional, family and school level.

2.We must raise the visibility of ESD within the international community, and define measures that allow a greater participation of individuals in ESD.

 Education for Sustainable Development exists in parallel with other UN 10-year programs on education such as Education for All and the UN Literacy Decade. However, it is less visible than the other two. Humanity is endeavoring to realize sustainable development through a number of approaches on the social, economic and technological level, but the fundamental understanding that education has a decisive and essential role to play in this respect is not sufficiently understood. This idea must be spread further among the leaders of each country and the international community as a whole.

 EFA aims to provide children and adults with the opportunity to access basic and compulsory education. The world’s governments and international organizations are widely participating in this initiative with the objective of conquering individual and regional problems such as poverty and diseases. EFA relies on providing wider opportunities to study, as well as on the qualitative improvement of adequate education for each region and country. In this context, ESD must be firmly recognized as an important program that contributes to raising the quality of education, one of the objectives of EFA.

 ESD can be defined as one component of EFA, in the same way as the UN Literacy Decade. UNLD is linked to the first level of EFA, which focuses mainly on developing opportunities for education. On this basis, we should consider ways to develop greater participation in ESD by linking it, through the provision of educational materials and programs, with the second level of EFA.

3. Each region and country must reinforce assistance measures to understand the contents and methods of ESD and to promote ESD initiatives.

 Debate over the specific contents and methods of ESD - defining the knowledge, values and actions needed for sustainable development, in addition to learning and teaching strategies - is not making sufficient progress. The International Implementation Scheme also fails to present concretely what needs to be done, beyond stating that action must be based on regional and national circumstances.

 National debates and understanding on the contents and methods of ESD, and the adoption of specific measures, could be effectively spurred by developing model programs and educational materials, and by widely disseminating information about the different types of initiatives already under way in each region and country. Such information may for example include: programs tailored for the needs of developing countries (i.e. development of curricula and educational materials); programs for developed countries; programs contributing to the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs); programs in connection with EFA; etc.

4.Values promoting social change must be incorporated in ESD

 One concept underlying sustainable development is intergenerational equity, or in other terms meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Our Common Future, Brundland Commission, 1987). Another important aspect is social change, whose objective is not only to hand over today’s wealth to future generations but also to improve their standards of living. Social change is the key to achieving development while simultaneously preserving the environment.

 As a crucial component of social change, innovation has the potential to play a decisive role in sustainable development, as it has in the evolution of humankind to this day. The contents and methods of ESD must incorporate the aforementioned concepts, aim at the simultaneous realization of development and environmental conservation, and go beyond restraining actions that harm the environment: they must become guiding principles for positive action.

5.We must aim at realizing an education that follows the evolution of consensus on sustainable development

 The academic disciplines at the basis of our education are increasingly fractionating and no longer correspond to the importance gained to this day by the concept of sustainability. An illustration of this can be found in one of the thrusts of ESD, which states the need to reorient existing education programs.

 ESD requires the assimilation of new knowledge, values and actions through a plain understanding of man, nature and society before they are treated separately by different disciplines. However, revising our academic disciplines is not an easy matter, and the actual contents of education - school education in particular - depend on the achievement of a certain degree of common understanding.

 We must reach a consensus on the effective knowledge, values and actions needed to achieve sustainable development, while taking into account the reorientation of academic disciplines. The substance of this consensus must be shared at the national, regional and international level.

 In parallel, we must develop a mechanism to incorporate the substance of consensus in general education, and to allow education to reflect its future evolution.

PROPOSALS TO UNESCO

 Based on the points explained above, the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO strongly recommends UNESCO to:

1. Formulate a concrete picture of educational programs on ESD that may serve as a reference at the national and sub-national level, and then proceed to develop this image and disseminate it. Concrete measures should include:

1) Developing an international consensus on the latest scientific research and other information to be incorporated in educational programs with the participation of the education community, academic institutions and researchers; quickly establishing research forums for the development of model educational materials and curricula;

2) Establishing networks with various centers dealing with ESD, including Regional Centres of Expertise designated by United Nations University, and regularly feeding the outcomes of their research to the above-mentioned forums for further analysis;

3) Collecting and sorting comparative information on national and sub-national knowledge, values and actions regarding sustainable development, and then disseminating that information through dedicated websites to allow each country and community to understand their mutual differences;

2.Develop a wide range of initiatives to promote the interest and participation of countries and individuals involved in ESD. Concrete measures should include:

1) The continuous dissemination of messages that reflect the progress of ESD and its evolution, and that are capable of influencing the international community. This could be achieved by organizing meetings that stimulate political leadership and by spreading ESD among the world’s opinion leaders;

2) Organizing large numbers of customized workshops at the regional level to promote regional activities on ESD, with the participation of regional bureaus from other international organizations, national governments, representatives of the industry, NGOs and other partners;

3) Urging the swift definition of national priorities and implementation of related programs through the adoption of national action plans.

3.Promote international cooperation on ESD. Concrete measures should include:

1) Promoting substantial consultations within the UN Inter-Agency Committee to ensure international consensus on DESD, and accelerating the implementation of the DESD Communication Strategy;

2) Recognizing that ESD contributes to improve the quality of education, one of the objectives of Education for All, and also supports the attainment of the Millenium Development Goals; including ESD in concrete plans for cooperation among UN agencies;

3) Understanding the qualitative and quantitative progress on ESD achieved by each country, and encouraging effective international cooperation; in particular, promoting cooperation on the training and education of human resources in countries where the progress of ESD is slow, while taking into account the activities of UNESCO regional bureaus and national commissions for UNESCO.

4. Promote the monitoring and evaluation of DESD. Concrete measures should include:

1) Deciding on strategies to monitor and evaluate DESD internationally, as well as on the formulation of necessary indicators; conveying this information to Member States and obtaining international consensus in time for the compilation of the intermediate review, to be published at the end of 2009;

2) Conducting research on the positive effects of ESD, and sharing that information among Member States.

5. Gain a detailed understanding of current progress on ESD in each country and community through National Commissions for UNESCO, and ensure that such information can be shared among Member States. This information is fundamental to formulate educational programs, encourage the participation of additional countries and communities, promote international cooperation, and promote monitoring and evaluation, among other activities.

6. Strengthen its capacity to support ESD. Concrete measures should include:

1) Clearly defining UNESCO policy on DESD in the 2008-2013 Medium-Term Strategy and in the Program and Budget, while accelerating the concrete definition and implementation of the UNESCO Action Plan for DESD;

2) Reinforcing the capability of UNESCO headquarters and regional offices as well as cooperation between different sectors in order to accelerate DESD-related projects;

3) Encouraging additional voluntary contributions from other Member States for the promotion of DESD.

AFTERWORD

 The Japanese National Commission for UNESCO intends to continue supporting UNESCO activities. We emphasize the need to set up a mechanism to ensure that the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for ESD are used in sufficient accordance with the tenor of these proposals. We also intend to continue actively supporting ESD-related projects in Japan, and provide timely updates on outcomes that may contribute to UNESCO’s activities.

 Concretely speaking, measures taken in Japan will include:

1) examining contents and methods for ESD, and elaborating educational materials and curricula that may serve as models;

2) examining ways to recover perspectives that were lost with the fractionation of academic disciplines, and examining methods to reinstate them in education and learning;

3) reinforcing partnerships with UNESCO-related groups, NPOs deeply involved in ESD, and other partners;

4) organizing international conferences on DESD.

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(Office of the Director-General for International Affairs)