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ESD Coordination and Capacity Building Workshop- Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam
4-8 August 2008

The ESD Coordination and Capacity Building Workshop held in Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam was conducted for countries in the UNESCO Bangkok Cluster. The workshop was the second 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 18 participants contributed to this event, including ESD focal points from the senior policy level in Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, in addition to key actors working with ESD in South East Asia.

Workshop discussions were guided by the Asia-Pacific ESD Astrolabe (draft 2), a tool for building capacity for ESD and coordinating ESD initiatives at the national and subregional level.

Workshop Agenda
Programme
Workshop Report

Lessons Learned
Several countries in the UNESCO Bangkok Cluster are just beginning to engage in ESD and workshop discussions emphasized several factors, or lessons learned, required to move ESD forward in the Bangkok Cluster, such as:

  1. Establishing government and donor support - ESD requires the full support of the government to move forward. To gain the full support of donors and stakeholders, ESD not only needs to be included on the national agenda, but also incorporated into budgeting frameworks and national development plans.
  2. Internalizing ESD within budget structures - ESD needs budget support and budget ownership for ESD needs to be advocated for within the relevant line ministries starting with education. Integrating ESD into national policies, plans and frameworks is also seen as crucial in for engaging the donor community.
  3. Inter-ministerial involvement -  An essential need exists for inter-ministerial involvement in ESD in order to link ESD to existing initiatives and prioritize and finance ESD programmes. 
  4. Identifying non-ESD branded activities - ESD already exists in many related initiatives and development philosophies in Asia (HM the King of Thailand’s sufficiency economy, the philosophies of Viet Nam’s Uncle Ho, Bhutan’s GNH, …). ESD can link to these philosophies to raise awareness for sustainable development through related activities, whether the activities are branded with the “ESD” label or not.
  5. Specific strategies – The following practical steps were acknowledged to move ESD forward at the national level which could be adapted to meet the needs of different Member States.
    a. Identifying an ESD coordinator/focal point
    b. Setting up coordinating group for ESD
    c. Sharing and training on ESD with partner groups
    d. Identifying, among all national SD priorities, the most pressing  thematic priorities on which to initially focus ESD
    e. Set targets for SD priorities
    f. Developing ESD activities to address priorities
    g. Developing a monitoring system / Study and integrate existing M&E systems into a new monitoring system
    h. Implementing ESD activities
    i. Reviewing ESD activities annually

Country/Partner 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.

Cambodia
Lao PDR
Singapore
Thailand
Viet Nam
SEAMEO

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