India ( India )

India’s efforts in Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

   The first International Conference of the decade was organized by the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) at Ahmedabad, India in 2005. The conference “Education for a Sustainable Future”, an event supported by the Government of India, UNESCO and UNEP, and several other partners was attended by over 900 educators, experts and development practitioners from 50 countries. This was a civil society event which highlighted the role of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the context of the expectations for the decade across sectors. An Ahmedabad Declaration endorsed by all participants at the event articulates the spirit of ESD and a joint vision for the decade.

   UNDESD calls for involvement and participation of all stakeholders at different levels to develop a shared vision of ESD and its implementation. Consultative processes not only at international, regional, national levels but also at local and community levels have been outlined as crucial inputs to add value to, and provide a broad ownership to the whole decade.

   In January 2006, the Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO constituted a National DESD Committee comprising experts and officials from Government, Civil Society, Academia and NGOs on Education, Environment, Culture, Social Sciences, Science Communication and other related fields. The National Action Plan for DESD in India is under preparation for further consultation. CEE has reoriented several of its programmes to ESD and has special initiatives to foster the decade. These include capacity building programmes for teachers and in-service professionals in formal education, developing ESD modules for educators and facilitators in formal and non formal education, providing internship opportunities to youth in ESD, creating forums for interaction and exchange of experiences and views on ESD through website (www.desd.org) and the proposed newsletter Education for Change, documenting case studies, and the Journal of Education for Sustainable Development.

Reported by Ms. Madhavi Joshi
Centre for Environment Education