East Asia ESD Coordination and Capacity Building Workshop
Hangzhou, China
28-31 October 2008
The East Asia ESD Coordination and Capacity Building Workshop held in Hangzhou, China was conducted for countries in the UNESCO Beijing Cluster. The workshop was the fourth 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 20 participants contributed to this event, including ESD focal points from the senior policy level in China, Japan, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea, in addition to representatives from UN Agencies, NGOs and academia.
Workshop discussions were guided by the Asia-Pacific ESD Astrolabe (draft 4), a tool for building capacity for ESD and coordinating ESD initiatives at the national and subregional level.
Lessons Learned
In the UNESCO Beijing Cluster common properties for dynamic ESD programmes at the national level are beginning to emerge, such as the integration of political will, co-ordination and involvement of key educational stakeholders, encouraging action at school level to promote change and addressing national sustainable development priorities.
Workshop discussions also emphasized the following additional factors, or lessons learned, required to move ESD forward in the Beijing Cluster:
- Inter-ministerial co-ordination is a primary component to building an enabling framework for ESD at the national level.
- ESD can engage key stakeholders by linking to existing initiatives, such as TVET and EFA.
- Processes for integrating ESD content into core subjects, as well as how content is used in schools which reserve space for local content, need to be investigated and shared. Including ESD in national curricula reviews can be a starting point for related research.
Country Presentations
Prior to the workshop, national delegations were asked to prepare a presentation to share the following: 1) their national sustainable development priorities, 2) an example of ESD in action, and 3) challenges and lessons learned towards implementing ESD to date.
China
Japan
Mongolia
Republic of Korea
Partner Presentations
ACCU
ESD-J
IGES
SDC
UNEP
Workshop Resources
Sustainable Development Issues (examples)
ESD in the Asia-Pacific Region: Taking Stock and Setting Direction
National Sustainable Development Priorities: A Basis for ESD Coordination and Monitoring
The Head, Heart and Hands of ESD
Example Issues, Skills, Values and Learning Characteristics for ESDMonitoring – National ESD Monitoring System Development
Monitoring – A Quickguide to Developing National ESD Indicators
Monitoring – Country Update Progress Report 1-4