Ahmedabad conference recognizes education as key driver for sustainable development

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More than 600 participants from 22 countries came together at an international conference, Education as a Driver for Sustainable Development, held in Ahmedabad, India from 11 to 13 January.

The conference was organized by the Centre of Environment Education (CEE) in partnership with UNESCO and UNEP with support from the Indian government to bring together global expertise and share the Indian experience in strengthening the role of education in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations last September.

Charting a new course for the next 15 years

“The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development charts a new course for people, for peace, for the planet, for the next 15 years. Taking this forward requires new ways of thinking and interacting with others and the world, and this is why education must be our starting point, to shape new values and behaviours for the century ahead,” said the Director-General Ms Irina Bokova, in a video message at the opening ceremony. 

The conference brought together participants from civil society, academia, and education institutions as well as ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) stakeholders and included a series of working groups organized in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. For the education Goal 4.1 workshop on Quality Education the group discussed issues including formal school education, early childhood care and development, higher education and Technical Vocational Education and Training, youth empowerment and capacity-building of teachers.

As a follow-up framework of the United Nations Decade for ESD, the importance of UNESCO’s Global Action Programme (GAP) to accelerate progress across all of the SDGs and its leadership and partnership approach in this field was recognized at the workshop. One of the GAP partners in Priority Action Area 2 to promote whole-institution/whole-school approaches to ESD, ACCU presented papers on the fruitful outcome of their international collaborative learning projects, the ESD Rice Project (2011-15) and ESD Food Project (2015-) in Asia and the Pacific. The two projects aim to nurture children to contribute to sustainable development as change agents through the common theme of rice/food.

Having coordinated these projects at schools from elementary to secondary levels, Ms Miki Saito, Trainer, Project Management and Education Specialist of ACCU, said that “their learning transformed them and society little by little. Participatory and locally-relevant learning connect youth and adults to work collaboratively.”

Technological solutions not sufficient

In moving away from a solely economic view of development to one that includes the three pillars of sustainability; environmental, social and economic, participants recognized that policy instruments or technological solutions are not going to be sufficient and that education is critical in achieving sustainable development. 

The outcome document, the Ahmedabad Plan of Action, notes that education and all its institutions need to urgently transform to ensure sustainable development. Its two objectives are to reorient education and learning so that everyone can acquire the knowledge skills, values and attitudes to contribute to sustainable development and to strengthen education and learning in all agendas, programmes and activities that promote sustainable development.