Sustainable Development: Education and Environment
Ministers join forces
Geneva, 11 October 2007 -- Education and Environment Ministers
of the UNECE region met for the first time in the framework of the “Environment
for Europe” process
and, in a joint statement, reaffirmed their commitment for the implementation
of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the region. They considered
achievements, lessons learned and challenges identified in terms of implementation
of the UNECE Strategy for ESD since the Kiev Conference and agreed on the
way ahead. They were proud that all commitments made in Kiev and Vilnius
were fulfilled as a regional contribution to the United Nations Decade
of Education for Sustainable Development.
A comprehensive reporting mechanism and set of indicators was valued as
an innovative tool that helped countries to evaluate progress in the implementation
of the Strategy. The feedback of 36 national implementation reports – even
though the details of information are different – was a success. The
pilot reporting exercise was one of the success stories of the first phase
of implementation (2005–2007), showing that the countries of Eastern
Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) are well on their way to building
institutional capacity necessary for ESD. The South-East European (SEE)
countries are still in the initial stages of implementing the Strategy.
Other countries reported significant progresses.
Another milestone of the Strategy implementation was the collection of the “Good
practices in ESD in the UNECE region”, jointly published by UNECE and
UNESCO. A number of examples in formal, non formal and informal education
were collected from governments, non-governmental organizations and the business
community in North America, Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. The ministers
made commitments to promote the good practices as a key tool for ESD implementation.
Ministers agreed that the Strategy’s implementation in future should
focus on further strengthening of the initial measures and on the development
of competences, ESD content and teaching tools and materials. The implementation
should be needs driven and respond to country-specific challenges and common
interest identified by subregions. Ministers agreed that securing funds for
national implementation should be one of the priority tasks for governments.
Ministers praised the regional cooperation on the implementation of the
Strategy and agreed that the Steering Committee proved to be an effective
decision making body and should continue assuming responsibility for managing
the process at regional level.
A side-event on the role of ESD in addressing energy production and consumption
and, more generally, in enhancing public participation in knowledge-based
society also took place. A thematic high-level panel of education and environment
officials discussed the issue and stressed that to improve energy efficiency
and the environment a profound transformation of our economies and societies
is needed.
For further information on UNECE activities and the UNECE Strategy on
ESD visit the website: http://www.unece.org/env/esd/welcome.htm
or contact:
Kaj Bärlund, Director
Environment, Housing and Land Management Division
United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 2376
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 0107
E-mail: [email protected]
Ref: ECE/ENV/07/P10