Background
At its 57th Session the United Nations General Assembly agreed to a recommendation from the World Summit for Sustainable Development to adopt the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development starting on January 1st 2005..UNESCO was designated the lead agency for the Decade and requested to prepare a draft international implementation scheme. The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development aims to promote education as a basis for more sustainable society and to intergrate more principles of sustainable development into education systems at all levels. The decade will also strengthen internation cooperation towards the development and sharing of innovative education for sustainable development programs, practices and policies.
The Pacific Consultative Meeting on DESD brough together 25 Pacific ESD practitioners and experts with aim of developing a collaborative mechanism for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in the Pacific islands region.
Participants identified a number if areas for potential partnership and collaboration both, in terms of implementing activities for the Decade of ESD as well as for more long term involvment with the process of ESD.
Recognizing that an educated and empowered population is a prerequisite for sustainable development, the participants spent almost a week discussing how education in the pacific can be strenghtened so that the core calues of sustainable developement can become an ingrained philosophy or way of life for all Islanders.
Participants agreed that education for sustainable development means having universal life skills, where everyone has the values, behaviors and lifestyles required for a sustainable future of the Pacific. They further proposed that the goal for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in the Pacific is:
Locally relevant and culturally inclusive education for the people of the Pacific developed and implemented by us in a participatory manner to enable us to make decisions and take actions to meet our current and future social, cultural, economic and environmental needs and aspirations.
The meeting prepared a draft framework for action as DESD in the Pacific that would be finalized in consultation with the key stakeholders in the region, including UNESCO National Commissions, educators, community leaders, media and sustainable development experts in the region. The framework will serve as the coordinating machanism for implementation of ESD in the region.
The meeting agreed to realize the vision that:
ongiong and proposed ESD initiatives be encouraged and supported regionally and locally;
FINAL OUTCOME STATEMENT 1.20PM 10th March 2006
- An ad hoc ESD Voluntary Experts Group, facilitated by UNESCO, be established to act as a focus group by promoting ESD and to guide the development implementation of the Pacific ESD Framework;
- The CROP mechanism be used to establish an ESD working GROUP, including CROP, UN agencies, NGO's and media, to help coordinate regional ESD efforts.
- The draft framework be finalized for tablingat the UNESCo june 2006 meeting in Hanoi;
- An information paper on ESD be developed for consideration by the 2006 Education Ministers Meeting, Regional Organization Council Meetings and at the Forum leaders meeting later in the year;
- A practical, action-oriented draft framework for Pacific Education for Sustainable Development be further developed for consideration and discussion by countries;
- The Pacific ESD framework becomesone of the 'early wins' under the Pacific Plan;
- Organizations and individuals voluntarily commit to prfiling their ESd-related activities through their websites and other communication and information programmes.
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