Advancing the Partnership to promote Education for Sustainable Development in Relation to the World of Work

A key outcome of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development was the establishment of a special United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, from 2005 to 2014. This decade has the primary goal of making sustainable development central to education and training, across all sectors, by refining and promoting the transition to a sustainable future through all forms of education, public awareness and training. UNESCO was designated the lead UN agency for the Decade and has catalysed key initiatives in all parts of the world. (More information: http://www.unesco.org/education/desd )

The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, as the UNESCO body responsible for supporting education, training and capacity building, for sustainable development in relation to the world of work, has been undertaking several initiatives including organising a series of international consultation meetings in 2007. These meetings aim to engage very closely with the private sector to explore ways in which education and training for sustainable development can be integrated into their training and capacity building endeavours in corporate environmental management and corporate social responsibility.

Companies with a strong record of engagement in education and training for sustainable development were invited to attend these meetings to present case studies of their activities in these areas. The outcomes of these meetings recognise the need for new paradigms of both development and learning for the world of work, and declared education and training for (and through) the workplace to be the “master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all and help achieve sustainable development”. More information, including the final reports, is available at TVET and ESD: Lessons from the Private Sector.

Recently, with InWent as a key partner, UNESCO-UNEVOC has organised The International Experts Meeting on Corporate Social Responsibility and Education for Sustainable Development: Advancing the Partnership in Bonn. It was held on November 6 and 7th 2007. The main purpose was to review and prioritise the suggestions from those previously held International Consultation Meetings, and to develop a strategy for implementing these priorities.

It was hosted by InWEnt, in partnership with UNESCO-UNEVOC (Bonn); the DESD Secretariat (UNESCO, Paris), and the International Hydrological Programme (UNESCO, Paris), in association with the Asia Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development – APEID (UNESCO, Bangkok) and supported by the Japanese Funds in Trust for ESD.

Some 24 participants attended this meeting, which included representatives from the corporate sector, regional/country representatives from the education sector, TVET and ESD experts representing different Regions, and International Agency representatives.

The meeting made several recommendations for engaging more closely with business and industry to explore ways in which learning-based approaches to sustainable development can be disseminated more widely across the corporate sector, and ways to build the capacity not only of the multinational companies but also of small and medium enterprises, especially in developing countries, economies in transition and areas emerging from conflict, to utilise ESD as part of their CSR and sustainable development work.

Download

Final Report (pdf, 770KB).