Follow Us:

Central Asia ESD Coordination and Capacity Building Workshop

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
17-19 June 2008

The Central Asia ESD Coordination and Capacity Building Workshop held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan was conducted for countries in the UNESCO Almaty Cluster. The workshop was the first in a series of consultations, sponsored by the Japanese Funds in Trust, to assist UNESCO Member States in the Asia-Pacific region in building additional capacity for ESD leadership, programme coordination and monitoring.  Approximately 30 participants contributed to this event, including ESD focal points from the senior policy level in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in addition to representatives from UN Agencies, NGOs and academia.
 
Workshop discussions were guided by the Asia-Pacific ESD Astrolabe (draft 1), a tool for building capacity for ESD and coordinating ESD initiatives at the national and subregional level.

Workshop Agenda
Programme
Workshop Report

Lessons Learned
ESD in Central Asia is seen as a new paradigm where education not only serves the labour market, but aims to foresee changes in the labour market and promote balance beyond economic growth. ESD also needs to go beyond the education sector to acknowledge, especially, the linkages between ESD and science.

Workshop discussions emphasized several factors, or lessons learned, required to move ESD forward in the Almaty Cluster, such as:

  1. The need to focus ESD on thematic priorities in order to guide partners in education to address relevant SD issues in the national and sub-regional context (e.g. access to fresh water). Identifying thematic priorities will also guide coordination of ESD actors and their scale/scope of involvement in ESD and enable Member States to develop structured monitoring and evaluation processes for the Decade and ESD more generally. 
  2. To promote an enabling environment for ESD coordination at the national level, the following strategies could be useful:
    • Establishing a national ESD committee with stable actors, including experts and members from civil society (NGOs, private sector, UN agencies, national farmers association, etc.), in addition to ministerial representation;
    • Nominating a national ESD coordinator in addition to focal ESD points in different Ministries and leading organizations;
    • Having an EFA-like document, similar to the Dakar framework, to promote action and assist coordination at the national and subregional level;
    • Analysing current documents (e.g. policies, action plans, etc.), finances and activities to identify gaps and where more emphasis on education is needed to address SD priorities;
    • Linking to and building on the structures of ongoing education initiatives such as EFA; and developing programmes for ESD based on the needs of Member States.
  3. In terms of ESD monitoring, a need exists to: 1) coordinate the activities of different actors at the national level before ESD can be monitored; and 2) develop a process for collecting data across ministries and different sectors.
  4. In terms of curriculum development, ESD would best be integrated into the curricula through existing subjects, as opposed to developing a stand-alone course, as curricula are already overloaded with materials and teachers lack the time to learn an entirely new subject.

Workshop Resources
ESD in the Asia-Pacific Region: Taking Stock and Setting Direction
National Sustainable Development Priorities: A Basis for ESD Coordination and Monitoring
Monitoring – Developing National ESD Indicators
Monitoring – A Quickguide to Developing National ESD Indicators
Monitoring – Country Update Progress Report 1-4