Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education

“Nothing new!” was how one of the participants described the how he felt at the end of the UNESCO World Conference of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) held from 31 March to 2 April in Bonn, Germany. The UNESCO World Conference was organised with the aim of taking stock of the achievements of the first half of the UNESCO Decade of ESD (DESD) and identify challenges that need to be addressed as we prepare for the second half of the DESD.
“That is not a fair assessment,” was the response of another participant. She explained that for individuals who have been involved with the key global environmental education conferences from Tibilisi (1977) to Stockholm (1980) to Rio (1992) and most recently in Johannesburg (2002), the key principles may not be new. I agreed, saying that for me (and possibly a significant number of ASPBAE members) who have for year been involved in adult and community education that has been holistic, participatory, contextual and transformative, the ESD principles are not new. However, there were for me a number of significant differences, achievements and challenges of ESD that the World Conference identified.
A key difference I would argue that that the global context has dramatically changed since the last major gathering in Johannesburg. One example that was often mentioned is the global financial crisis – with a discussion in one of the workshops I attended about whether this crisis was a threat or an opportunity in advancing the goals of ESD. I argued that for most of our members in the Asia-Pacific region this is not a new crisis – most of the communities we work with have and continue to live in poverty and this „new‟ financial crisis will merely make things worse. However, the crisis is an excellent opportunity to learn more about why the current economic models have not worked and this provides a platform to apply the holistic perspective of ESD based on the interrelationships between the three pillars - economic, social and environmental dimensions. Note that in some countries politics is a fourth pillar and in some culture is added as an underlying dimension that impacts on all pillars.
The other key difference that I would also consider as an achievement is that ESD has moved, even though very slowly in little steps, to being acknowledged as a key element required if we are to achieve long-term and equitable development for all. A key indicator that was often mentioned at the conference was the number of countries that sent official delegations to the conference. The UNESCO ESD website
(http://www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/fileadmin/download/News/Report_on_World_Conference.pdf)
reported that “900 participants from 147 countries with 123 (with 3 Associate members) UNESCO member states were represented. Those who have been involved in previous ESD-related global conferences identify this as a significant change.
I would add that aside from the usual suspects from the environmental education practitioners, there were individuals and groups that came from a wide variety of interests. This was highlighted by one of the workshops that I attended together with Heribert Hinzen from DVV that looked at the shared goals of ESD and Education for All (EFA). Central to the discussions at this workshop were the important role that adult literacy has in achieving the goals of both ESD and EFA and the shared commitment to quality education that needs to be available, accessible and affordable. I think this is an achievement, which is consistent with the principles of ESD about the need to involve a variety of stakeholders and education practitioners in the creation of what I have often called simply „good‟ education that acknowledges a shared vision of a sustainable future.
I would like to emphasise that I strongly believe that for us in ASPBAE, this is not about all of us becoming ESD educators, in fact I would argue that maybe unconsciously we have all led the way into shaping ESD – whether we were conducting literacy classes, gender-sensitivity trainings, HIV/AIDS awareness-raising seminars, indigenous people‟s rights workshops, or our own ASPBAE Basic Leadership Development Course. We in ASPBAE have always been committed to an adult learning that has been contextual, participatory and transformative – which is how ESD would describe as quality education.
The challenges identified for the next five years of the Decade are overwhelming – climate change will continue to be a major global problem in search of new ways of learning and acting and the financial crisis will continue to put pressure in funding formal and non-formal education, to just name two. The Bonn Declaration (also accessible in the website above) forwards a number of key calls. One key call to action that is relevant to us in ASPBAE is the need to continue to develop stronger links between EFA and ESD. In the Asia- South Pacific region, we are best placed to work with our membership in developing the capacities of individuals and institutions to see that achieving EFA goes hand in hand with the achievement of quality education informed by the principles of ESD.
I believe that as an organisation that has been responsive to the changes in the global context in the last 40 years, we as a network of committed practitioners and our global partners will continue to respond and lead the way in developing not just of quality education but in advocating for quality education as a basic human right – a clear integration of the EFA and ESD agenda.
By J. Roberto Guevara, ASPBAE President