ESD：Education for Sustainable Development

 At the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the common recognition was reaffirmed that “Education” is the foundation for achieving Sustainable Development (SD). Thereafter, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) proceeded to investigate on the role of “Education” in sustainable development.

 The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg in 2002 supported the proposal for a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and agreed to recommend that the UN General Assembly “consider adopting DESD starting in 2005.”

 Three months later, the draft resolution of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development was submitted by the government of Japan and co-sponsored by 46 countries, and adopted with an unanimous vote.

Japanese Cooperation for ESD

 Japan actively cooperates in ESD based on the DESD Action Plan adopted by UNESCO, with connections with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO), Ministry of the Environment, and other related agencies.

 The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO) has been contributing to ESD in the form of Funds-in-Trust to UNESCO since 2005.

 The Japanese National Commission for UNESCO holds meetings for a working group under the specialized committee on Education. JNCU submitted “A Proposal to the UNESCO’s International Implementation Scheme on the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development” to UNESCO.

ESD activities in Japan

 As a follow-up to the UNESCO Global Action Plan on DESD, the government of Japan held a liaison conference of ministries initiated by the Cabinet Office and drew up the Japanese Action Plan on DESD in March 2006.

Good practices

 DESD,launched in 2005,will mark its important at the end of 2009. In this opportunity,we collected Japan's ESD good practices to be useful for those who world start ESD.