“Welcome to the International Launch of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. This event marks the beginning of an initiative of great importance to all who care about education, human development, the natural environment, and the well-being of future generations”, said Professor Steven Rockefeller at the opening of the Expert Panel discussion that preceded the Official international launch of the DESD.
Some 160 participants filled Conference Room 6 at UN New York Headquarters to take part in a very lively and inspiring discussion on key issues in the implementation of the Decade: issues, challenges and opportunities; generating support and sustaining commitments to the Decade; linking Education for Sustainable Development into existing development frameworks (EFA- Education for All, MDGs- Millenium Development Goals) identifying the roles and engagement of Governments, NGOs, civil society including the private sector; and monitoring and assessment of our efforts.
Amongst the panelists was Gunter Pauli of the Zero Energy Research and Initiatives (a very inspiring presenter and one of the designers of Kobunaki Ecovillage in Japan as well as being involved in Gaviotas), Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, Permanent Delegate of Greece to the UN, Dr Pamela Puntenney of the CSD Education Caucus and Mary Joy Pigozzi, Director of the Division for the Promotion of Quality Education at UNESCO. For over two hours we held a rich dialogue with a recurrent theme on the need for the sparking of a public debate that will go beyond the three official pillars of sustainability- social, environmental and economic, in a search for a set of values and principles that will inform the actions of the DESD. In short in order for the Decade to be relevant it should be values-driven - a renaissance period for education.
It is expected that the DESD would be implemented in thousands of 'on the ground' local situations, involving the integration of the principles of sustainable development into a multitude of different learning situations, including formal and informal education. In this context over the next ten years we in GEN expect to be working closely with UNESCO, the lead agency of DESD, designing and delivering programmes to complement, correspond with, and assist in setting standards for the decade.
Some of the planned programmes include our Ecovillage Designer Education (EDE)- a timely and important global educational initiative officially inaugurated in the spring of 2004 at the Findhorn Ecovillage, by a group of twenty-three distinguished ecovillage educators from around the world. This curriculum is intended to serve the purpose of educating for the transition to a globally sustainable culture. Under the umbrella of the DESD, one of the first pilot programmes is intended to take place in Cuba, later this year, in a partnership between EDE and MAB/UNESCO.
May East March 2005
Useful links:
www.unesco.org
