UNESCO GAP Meeting “Looking into the Future of ESD, together”

2018.05.08

From 25-27 April the UNESCO meeting “Looking into the Future of ESD, together” was held at the Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development at the University for Peace in Costa Rica.

This was the Third Partners meeting of the UNESCO Global Action Programme on ESD and had the purpose to review and discuss the draft UNESCO position paper on the future of ESD and to plan the work of the Partner Networks until the end of 2019. This meeting was held thanks to the financial support of the Japan Fund.

Prior to that, UNESCO drafted a position paper on the future of ESD through a series of experts’ meetings as well as a desk review of related literature and results of the mid-term GAP implementation. GAP Key Partners were invited to provide feedback and ideas for further revision of this paper. The meeting also offered a great networking opportunity for the 100 participants gathered.

At this occasion, partner organizations of Priority Area 4 of UNESCO’s GAP on ESD, Empowering and Mobilizing Youth, reunited together, similar to all other Priority Areas, to find future collaborations and ways to strengthen the communication within the network. Opportunity was given to address the programme and purpose of the ESD Youth Conference “Youth Saves the Planet” to take place in Paris between 14- 16 May. This UNESCO Conference will bring together ESD Youth Leaders trained from 2016- 2017 on the ESD Youth Leadership training created by the Earth Charter International. Objectives of this youth conference include an agreement on a network mechanism for ESD Youth Leaders to facilitate collaboration and to continue scaling up activities; to engage ESD Youth Leaders and young journalists with media and communication outlets; and to provide input to the draft position paper on the future direction of ESD.

Workshop on Education for Sustainable Lifestyles:

On 24 April took place the Workshop on Education for Sustainable Living: Advancing teaching and learning for responsible consumption. Victoria Thoresen, who works at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and PERL, organized this workshop jointly with the Earth Charter Center for ESD.  It aimed at sharing experiences with education for sustainable living and examples of best practice from around the world. Educators from Costa Rica were invited to join participants from different parts of the world, who came to Costa Rica to participate at the UNESCO GAP Meeting.