Marching together midway towards DESD 2014

TOKYO, Japan — Winter cold in this cosmopolitan city of 12 million people is plummeting down. But during our UNESCO International Forum at the Shibuya district last December 2-5, it was Indian summer at 190 C. Our elegant venue at the Elizabeth Rose Hall of the UN University complex carried the sign “240 C room temperature”.

The International Forum on ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) Dialogue 2008 is the midpoint event of the Decade of ESD (DESD) 2005-2014 to prepare for the UNESCO World Conference on ESD in Bonn, Germany by March 2009.

Organized by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and the UNESCO National Commission of Japan, it was held a few kilometers away from the Shibuya Excel hotel where about 30 UNESCO regional directors and secretaries-general of Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America regions stayed together with European officials of UNESCO’s High Level Panel of the UN DESD.

World crises working against sustainable development

Now three months before the Bonn Summit, Carl Lindberg, the Swedish member of the High Level Panel of the UN DESD observed, together with UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) Regional Environmental Affairs officer Mahesh Pradhan that the world crises are working against “education for sustainable development”: political conflicts, financial breakdown, climate changes and energy downgrade.

A world immersed in a consumer society is now reminded that hunger can be prevented if more efforts are directed to production. Meantime, the well-developed countries have to learn to consume less and share more. (If we tighten our belts and eat less, there will be a decrease in colon cancer, which is quite common today.)

As we seek the real solution let us reflect seriously on the saying of World Wildlife Fund: “The forest needs insects to exist. The ocean needs planktons to exist. Planet Earth needs us to exist.”

The Cosmic Curriculum to sustain ESD

There is a Cosmic Organization, which mankind must understand and preserve in order to survive. The basic material needs of people are food, clothing, shelter, transport, etc. They are provided by the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms. As early as primary school, children can understand the lesson of the “four blankets of planet earth”: lithosphere (land), hydrosphere (water), atmosphere (air) and biosphere – all the life that permeates each sphere. Mankind has the main responsibility to preserve the biosphere, otherwise human survival is not possible. UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) upholds this.

Mr. Pradhan and Kartikeya V. Sarabhai, founder of the Centre for Environment Education in India recalled the Ahmedabad Declaration 2007 which states, “Our vision is a world in which our work and lifestyles contribute to the well-being of all life on Earth. …respect and honor the Earth and its life-support systems and we can adapt this wisdom to our fast-changing world. …The ever-increasing human production and consumption is rapidly undermining the Earth’s life-support systems and the potential for all life to flourish. Assumptions about what constitutes an acceptable quality of life for some, often means deprivation for others…”

Overview of Asia Pacific DESD

Sheldon Shaeffer, Director of the UNESCO Bangkok Regional Bureau for Education, opened the first session on Asia Pacific Review of DESD Mid-Decade with Derek Elias, Chief of the ESD unit of the Bangkok Bureau.

Being his last speech, for he would be retiring after December, Mr. Shaeffer who has directed the Bangkok office for the past eight years cautioned the assembly to avoid doing ESD in bits and pieces. We must understand and integrate the various UNESCO sectors, which enrich it whether it is human rights, climate change, gender equity, inclusive education, etc.

The Bangkok Bureau selected 32 experts and established the ESD review team (of which I am a member) to develop the ESD Performance Indicators to help evaluate and monitor the lengthy process of integrating the spirit of self-sufficiency into each member state. As a result the astrolabe time frame of activities was created towards 2015 DESD. Derek Elias, the DESD lead person of Asia Pacific, held workshops in cluster countries of Asia Pacific to use it. Like the ancient astrolabe compass, which guided mariners in the past to the right route in the ocean, the DESD 2005-2014 astrolabe can help member states measure their ESD performance in blocks of time: awareness raising 2005-2006, engaging stakeholders until 2008, and developing leadership to strengthen the monitoring system 2006-2011.

By 2008-2011, a national coordinating system should have been established. What will take sometime is re-orienting (not overlooking) curriculum and the corresponding teacher education 2007-2013. To wrap things up is technical and financial support 2009-2015.

Creating DESD as a movement

Dr. Mary Joy Pigozzi, director of the Division for Quality Education of UNESCO Paris, is on leave to work with the Academy for Educational Development (AED) in Washington DC. Using a PowerPoint presentation, she clearly analyzed how ESD is working out in the world.

To create a DESD movement: (1) consensus should be arrived at on an overall framework. For example, the Philippine SEACLLSD (Southeast Asian Center for Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development) has redefined education. The paradigm shift in education refers to the psychological meaning of education as “a process of becoming” and therefore adults must “help the child become”; compared to the traditional education, that considers the child an empty jar that must be filled up by an all-knowing adult.

Sustainable development is inherent energy within a person. It is first evident in the capacity of an infant’s absorbent mind to learn to speak the language of the birthplace and walk independently without a teacher. From 6-12 years an inherent enormous reasoning power enables the child to master a culture-loaded curriculum. This intelligence is transformed to creativity at 12 to 18 years highlighted by economic independence. At 18-24 years, he is ready to acquire a career enabling a person to live in harmony with others.

(2) Allow work within the framework using the 80% rule or the majority rule. Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao consultations have been conducted with government and non-government organizations. Exchange of visits and consultation meetings with the 10 Southeast Asian countries has been done to make them understand the ESD curriculum implemented from preschool to professional high school at the Center’s National Laboratory; (3) Encourage colleagues, even if you do not understand them 100%; (4) Use “levers”; (5) Reward effort; and (6) Gradually consolidate results.

‘Too many ESD conferences, but few substantial inputs’

Samuel Lee, secretary general of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO and the founding director of APCEIU (Asia Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding) stated that “there are too many ESD conferences in the past four years. I am sorry to say that there are few substantial inputs. Member States are still groping. They still lack conceptualization and lack adequate strategy into the curriculum.”

He added, “I have tried to promote ESD. There is no need for a new definition. We have already inculcated ESD into the various subjects, such as gender, water, climate, and HIV. But, there is lack of ESD curriculum. Thus, there is misunderstanding – Some think ESD is environment. Thus, there is over emphasis of environment. The ESD agenda is excessively broad.”

The DESD vision of the ‘new man’

The International Forum on ESD Dialogue 2008 recalls the comprehensive and strategic framework provided by the International Implementation Scheme (IIS), which was adopted by the 172nd Executive Board session 2005. It recognizes UNESCO’s global leadership role based on the IIS over the past four years, as well as the valuable contribution of other UN agencies. It also recognizes that education plays an important role in achieving sustainable development worldwide. Further, it reaffirms that DESD promotes quality education for all, and contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In conclusion, it congratulates the Member States on the many initiatives they have implemented during the course of the DESD.

The Philippine initiative, specifically the bid to be the SEA Center for Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development as a Category 2 Center under the auspices of UNESCO, aims to elevate mankind. It also envisions the “NEW MAN who will no longer be the victim of events, but thanks to his clarity of vision can direct and mold the future of mankind.”

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