World Decade of "Education for Sustainable Development"

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In welcoming the recommendation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002) by the General Assembly United Nations (UN) by order of 20 December 2002, the years 2005 to 2014 the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development ( Education for Sustainable Development declared). This is to signal that education and learning processes are the driving force for change and thus the basis for moving closer to sustainable development . The coordinating body is UNESCO . In Germany, the UN Decade is implemented by the German Commission for UNESCO (Bonn).

aims

The overarching goal of the decade is the integration of the values ​​and principles of sustainable development in all educational areas (related to all age groups) in all member states and worldwide. Through education and training awareness should be strengthened, that the behavior of each person has consequences for the lives of many other people around the world. Ultimately, this is intended to stimulate changes in people's behavior that serve to create a sustainable future in terms of a sustainable and just society. Specifically, the national governments should be encouraged to implement the decade by integrating the model of sustainable development into the respective national education systems and strategies. Furthermore, more public attention is to be drawn to the decade by the national governments and civil society actors are to be involved.

The tasks of UNESCO and national governments in general are:

  • enable access to good basic education,
  • to align existing educational programs with ESD,
  • increase public awareness and understanding,
  • and offer training.

implementation

As a guideline for the implementation of the goals of the Decade, seven general strategies were developed in an International Implementation Scheme (IIS), which should support the development of national and regional implementation strategies and at the same time should be part of every regional or national strategy. The seven strategies are:

  • Vision building and advocacy
  • Advice and ownership
  • Partnerships and networks
  • Skills building and training
  • Research and innovation
  • Use of information and communication technologies
  • Monitoring and evaluation

Bonn Mid-Term Conference 2009

The "World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development - Starting Shot for the Second Half of the UN Decade" took place from March 31 to April 2, 2009 in Bonn. The UNESCO - "lead agency" of the Decade - and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of the Federal Republic of Germany organized the conference in cooperation with the German UNESCO Commission. During the conference, the first five years of the implementation of the Decade were evaluated and strategies for the second half were developed. In addition to representatives from UNESCO member states, UN specialized agencies, and multilateral and bilateral development cooperation organizations, representatives from civil society and the private sector took part.

International Workshop 2012 Bonn

In February 2012 the international workshop "Horizon 2015" took place in Bonn. 50 experts from five continents discussed the future of the world decade. They called on the United Nations to ensure the continuation of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development beyond 2014 and recommended that the UN General Conference adopt a resolution as soon as possible.

The UN Decade International

Since the development and implementation of specific programs are completely transferred to the regional or national level, it is possible that contradicting ideas of sustainable development may be represented. There is no global approach that has been agreed internationally. Like many of the Decades adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development is not binding. The implementation is voluntary and therefore in this case at very different levels in the various countries, if at all. On the one hand, it is primarily a question of the budget. Since there is no financial support from the UN to implement the Decade, the financing varies widely. In Germany, implementation is best financed at around € 300,000 a year. For example, New Zealand has € 25,000 available, while other countries have no budget at all. On the other hand, the type of implementation also depends on the different social and economic starting positions of the respective countries in general and the related primary problems. The tendency can be stated that in the poorer countries the focus is more on basic education, while the implementation in the richer countries is about ESD in the narrower sense.

The UN Decade in Germany

In July 2003, the German UNESCO Commission (DUK) adopted recommendations for a national action plan for the World Decade with the “Hamburg Declaration”. In May 2004, a German National Committee was convened to implement the goals of the World Decade, made up of representatives from the fields of education, science, business and culture, as well as members of the German Bundestag and the Federal Government. "The task of the National Committee is to bring together the various contact persons, projects and initiatives named in the 'Hamburg Declaration' of the German UNESCO Commission to form an alliance 'Sustainability Learning' and to develop and update a national action plan for the World Decade." of the national action plan there is also a unanimous Bundestag resolution from 2004. The action plan is to be updated annually, since the UN Decade for ESD is understood as an open process. However, the latest version is the 2nd version from November 2005. For the implementation of the decade in Germany, 4 goals were formulated:

  • The further development and bundling of activities as well as broad-based transfer of good practice
  • Networking the actors involved in education for sustainable development
  • Improving public awareness of education for sustainable development
  • The strengthening of international cooperation

The National Committee has also set annual topics for the coming years of the decade, although other topics are also welcome at any time. The following annual themes were set: 2007: Cultural diversity, 2008: Water, 2009: Energy, 2010: Money, 2011: City, 2012: Nutrition, 2013: Mobility, 2014: No topic of its own, so there is room for a general conclusion in the final year Merging the previous topics and an outlook remains.

The National Committee honors recognized ESD projects. The officially recognized projects are summarized in a database that is constantly growing. Mostly they are local projects and initiatives whose methods and ideas can also be adopted by others. In addition to numerous projects for schools and kindergartens, there are also concepts here that are aimed at vocational trainees and trainers or are active in the fields of extracurricular training and informal learning.

The development of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in general and the implementation of the UN Decade in Germany and internationally

1972: Founding of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) at the first environmental conference in Stockholm.

1987: Publication of the Brundtland Report: It is a perspective report on sustainable, environmentally friendly development on a global scale that played a decisive role in the international debate on development and environmental policy.

1992: Conference on Environment and Development of the United Nations in Rio de Janeiro (UNCED) and Agenda 21: At the conference, over 170 governments decide on a development and environmental action program for global sustainable development: Agenda 21.

2002: World Summit Rio + 10 - Johannesburg and proclamation of the World Decade of "Education for Sustainable Development": The United Nations decide to proclaim the years 2005 to 2014 as the World Decade of "Education for Sustainable Development", with the resolution to make intensive efforts to achieve the model to anchor sustainable development in all areas of education worldwide.

2003: Hamburg Declaration by the German Commission for UNESCO: Appeal to the federal government, the federal states, municipalities as well as economic institutions, research and teaching institutions and civil society to come together to form an “Alliance to learn sustainability”.

2004: German UNESCO Commission is charged with implementing the UN Decade in Germany: On the basis of a unanimous decision of the Bundestag, the German UNESCO Commission is charged with implementing the UN Decade in Germany. To this end, it appoints a national committee as the central steering and coordination body. At the invitation of the National Committee of the UN Decade, around 100 important initiatives in education for sustainable development come together once a year for the Round Table of the UN Decade in Germany. The German UNESCO Commission is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the implementation of the UN Decade.

2005: Publication of the 1st National Action Plan with the aim of anchoring the idea of ​​sustainable development in all areas of education: The National Action Plan is published by the German Commission for UNESCO and defines as the overarching goal of the UN Decade the anchoring of education for sustainable development in all areas of education. It is updated regularly.

2007: International conference in Berlin and launch of the Internet portal www.bne-portal.de: As part of the German EU Council Presidency, the international conference "UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development - Europe's Contribution" takes place in Berlin. The aim of the conference is to identify the European contribution to the global project UN Decade "Education for Sustainable Development" and to take into account Europe's global responsibility. Over 200 representatives from all EU countries, from other regions of the world and from international organizations take part in the conference. As a further contribution to the UN Decade, the German UNESCO Commission is realizing the Internet portal for education for sustainable development.

2008: First nationwide days of action and new version of the National Action Plan: On the initiative of the National Committee of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, the nationwide days of action on Education for Sustainable Development with more than 320 different events take place for the first time.

2009: World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development: The World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development kicks off the second half of the UN Decade. UNESCO (Paris) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research are organizing the conference. The cooperation partner is the German UNESCO Commission (Bonn). 700 participants from all over the world take part in the conference.

2011 New version of the National Action Plan (German / English): In addition to the updated sub-goals, the third version of the National Action Plan of the UN Decade "Education for Sustainable Development" in Germany also contains the strategy for the second half of the decade jointly developed by the actors. The focus of the action plan is also a collection of the most important policy papers that were published in the run-up to the decade or that were drawn up in the course of the decade.

February 2012 International Workshop “Horizon 2015”: 50 experts from five continents call on the United Nations to ensure the continuation of the UN Decade of “Education for Sustainable Development” beyond 2014 and recommend that the UN General Conference adopt a resolution as soon as possible.

April 2012 Funding of follow-up activities to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) should be initiated: With its resolution of April 26, 2012, the German Bundestag calls on the Federal Government to support follow-up activities to the current UN Decade. Education for sustainable development (ESD) puts people in a position to acquire the values, competencies, knowledge and skills that are required today for the design of a sustainable society in accordance with the model of sustainable development, according to the CDU / CSU, SPD, FDP and Alliance 90 / The Greens approved the motion.

June 2012 Rio + 20 summit and the key role of education for sustainable development: In the final document of the Rio + 20 summit, the importance of education for sustainable development is emphasized several times. Important tasks are assigned to the educational institutions. But also beyond the education sector, the UN member states should ensure that ESD becomes even more conscious of the people. Particular emphasis is placed on UNESCO as a driving force in this area.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ UNESCO portal: UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) ( Memento from September 28, 2005 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. ^ UNESCO portal: Objectives and strategies ( Memento of February 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ UNESCO portal: Objectives and strategies ( Memento of February 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ ESD portal: International Implementation Scheme ( Memento of December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 336 kB)
  5. ↑ BMBF Federal Ministry of Education and Research ( Memento from January 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ ESD portal: UN Decade in Germany ( Memento of December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) and ESD portal: Hamburg Declaration ( Memento of December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 9 kB)
  7. ↑ ESD portal: The National Committee ( Memento of December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ ESD portal: The national action plan for Germany ( Memento of March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 7.32MB)
  9. ↑ ESD portal: annual themes ( Memento from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ UN Decade database (project examples)
  11. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )