<P><FONT color=#33711E><STRONG>Day 2 - Session 5C:<br>Education for Sustainable Development: Youth Leads the Way</STRONG></FONT></P>
Queen’s Park 5, 2nd Floor
Partnerships for a Sustainable Future
Kate Brennan and Eammon Atkinson, The Oak Tree Foundation, Volunteer Youth Workers
This presentation focuses on Australia’s first entirely youth-run aid and development agency in the region, and how it has cooperated with UNESCO and affiliated bodies, particularly in the Philippines, East Timor and PNG. Oaktree’s mission is to empower developing communities through education in a way that is sustainable. During 2006, Oaktree launched ‘Our Generation’s Challenge’ with Mr Salil Shetty, Director of the UN Millennium Campaign, with the vision to establish a global network of young people to end extreme poverty. The seven young Australians who took part travelled to Asia on a field trip and worked with young people and their organisations, UN Agencies, the World Bank, the Government of Cambodia and business leaders. They filmed a documentary and will produce an anthology of stories of young people and development.
The presentation on young people learning through partnership for a sustainable future covers:
- the perspective of young people on education and development
- the global initiative of Our Generation’s Challenge
- the role of education for global sustainable development in developed countries, drawing on Oaktree’s management of the Make Poverty History concert for 15,000 people in November 2006
- the need for a UN Youth Agency for promoting, protecting and investing in young people, education and development
With the release of the 2007 World Development Report on Young People and Development, it is a good time to consider the opportunities for the instrumental role of young people in development, given the key role that education for sustainable development plays in this.
Download the presentation (pdf, 1.2mb)
Outcomes of the First Pacific Youth Festival – Tahiti 2006
Rainui Tirao, and James Tetuanui, French Polynesian Youth Council (CJP)
Outcomes of the first Pacific Youth Festival – Tahiti 2006 under the high patronage of UNESCO, including the Pacific Youth Charter written by the Pacific young people for the Pacific Young People (with the help of Jacqueline Groth and Lindsay Higgs). The presentation focuses in essence on initiatives related to education for sustainable development and on facilitating the further development of the Pacific Youth Charter. In addition, UPJ has started a series of interesting initiatives centered on education for sustainable development, which will also be highlighted.
Download the presentation (pdf, 120kb)
From Apathy to Empathy: Educating for Sustainability through Awareness and Action
Patricia Parkinson, The Peninsula School, Australia
The presentation focuses on how to raise awareness of ESD in students in a secondary environment and the tasks that can be undertaken, with a particular focus on the movement for sustainable education in the curriculum and greater international awareness and involvement. The education of the individual is the foundation of education for sustainability. It is not education about sustainability but education with sustainability, a process of engagement which is a life wide and lifelong endeavour. Through this process young people will be equipped to play a creative, critical and constructive role in guiding social change. Awareness of the concept of sustainability for our planet is the first vital step in understanding. Respect for the integrity of the natural world is integral to showing respect for humanity. Out of respect comes action, the challenge to imagine and create a future, the challenge of hope to create a sustainable world. The greatest challenge of our time is to create a world where all citizens live in dignity and peace in a hospitable environment that they have learned to care for. (Director General of UNESCO, 10 November 2003)
Download the presentation (pdf, 580kb)
Youth Leaders Initiatives in Promoting Education for Sustainable Development in Selected Philippine Schools
Rovie B Villa and Jeff Angelo S. Dela Cruz, Philippines Normal University
Jeff focuses on the initiatives or the projects, eco-camps, of many different institutions in the Philippines, while Rovie demonstrates a module on sustainable development. Young people, by their sheer numbers and their consumption patterns greatly affect the creation of a sustainable future. Over the last five years, several institutions and youth organizations in the Philippines have conducted ecology seminars, workshops and eco-camps to deepen their awareness in the need to have a sustainable environment. This presentation highlights initiatives / projects of schools under the UNESCO Associated Schools Projects (ASPnet), Haribon Foundation, Society of Environmental Activist and Philippine Council for Peace and Global Education. Among these projects are Tree Planting e.g. La Mesa Dam; Garbage Segregation On School Campus; World Clean up Campaign with focus on cleaning Manila Bay and Pasig River; and ecology summer camps in Cebu, Bohol and Palawan. Among the schools with strong environment education program are Philippine Normal University, Miriam College, Assumption College, San Sebastian College, Divine Word College in Mindoro, Xavier University, Mindanao State University and Mercy College in Mindanao. A module was presented on ecological responsibility using the UNESCO APNIEVE framework and tried out in many youth seminars and workshops. Samples of drawings and posters made by the youth participants were shown during the workshop. These initiatives are indications that several educational institutions have developed a core of youth leaders who act as stewards to save their local environment in order to better and sustainably meet basic needs of their families and communities. They have likewise integrated into their lifestyle the ethic of inter-generational responsibility.
Download the presentation of Mr.Villa (pdf, 370kb) and Mr.Cruz (pdf, 710kb)