Website: www.unece.org/env/esd
The negotiations for the Fifth Ministerial 'Environment for Europe' Conference, which took place in Kiev in 2003, saw the emergency of a UNECE initiative on education for sustainable development. At the Conference, Ministers gave the green light to draw up a regional Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development.
It was a challenging exercise for everybody. Both education and sustainable development are complex issues. Therefore, it was crucially important to develop the Strategy through a participatory process involving governments, UNESCO, NGOs and other stakeholders. Environment and education ministries cooperated closely in the drafting process, noting the political, economic and social diversity in the region, the text of the Strategy had to be made flexible enough, so that its implementation could be adapted to each country's priorities, specific needs and circumstances.
In the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, less than two years after the Kiev Conference, Ministers and other officials from Education and Environment Ministries from right across the ECE region adopted the Strategy at their joint High-Level meeting. Various stakeholders, including international organisations, business, non-governmental organisations, regional environmental centres and research institutions took part in the meeting and provided valuable contributions. The Meeting also launched the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development in the region.
The objective of the Strategy is to incorporate key themes of sustainable development in all education systems. These themes include a wide range of issues: poverty alleviation, peace, ethics, democracy, justice, security, human rights, health, social equity, cultural diversity, economy, environmental protection, natural resource management.
The next milestone in the process is the implementation of the Strategy. Countries agreed to develop indicators to assess the implementation, organise thematic and sub-regional workshops and compile good practices in education for sustainable development.
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Education
: Sustainable Development
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UNECE-IREEDD Industrial Restructuring, Energy and Enterprise Development Division