The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) has demonstrated that education can play a vital role leading to sustainable development. The UN DESD closed with an International Conference in Nagoya, Japan in November 2014 with the declaration of the Global Action Programme (GAP). The GAP has identified five priority areas to advance the Education for Sustainable Development agenda and enable strategic focus and foster stakeholder commitment. CEE is a key GAP partner to the priority area ‘Advancing Policy’. Every country and region would need to develop their own GAP agenda bringing in local perspectives and initiative.
In September 2015, the UN also launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an outcome of global consultative processes. It is important for ESD communities to look specifically at each goal and determine how education can play an effective role in helping achieve this.
An international conference entitled 'Education as a Driver for Sustainable Development Goals' is being organised by the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), in partnership with UNESCO, UNEP and the Government of India.
The Conference will be organised from January 11-13, 2016. It aims at bringing together global experience and expertise to highlight and strengthen the role of education in realising the SDGs. It will be an opportunity to build upon the learning from the UN DESD and recognise Education as a key enabler.
The SDGs are applicable to the world as a whole. Increasingly, the emphasis has moved away from a solely economic view of development to a larger view that includes the three pillars of sustainability – environmental, social and economic. With this new emphasis comes also the recognition that policy instruments or technological solutions are not going to be enough and that behavioural change is crucial in achieving Sustainable Development. Thus the role of education in its broadest sense including training and capacity building, communication and creating public awareness, scientific research, sharing and access to information and networking; and partnerships become a key strategy for achieving the SDGs.
The objective of the Conference is to bring together the global experience and expertise of using Education as a way of achieving SDGs and showcasing the India experience in doing so.
Expected Outcomes
To apply the learning of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development to develop programmes to achieve the SDGs
To look at how the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD can play a major role in the SDG strategy
To develop synergies and partnerships
For more details, contact Conference Secretariat at
Email: esdgconference@ceeindia.org
Website: www.ceeindia.org/esdg