RUTH ANNE D.

DOMINGO
BEED IV-A
1.) What is E.S.D.?
Education for Sustainable Development (E.S.D.) is not a particular programme or project,
but is rather an umbrella for many forms of education that already exist, and new ones that
remain to be created.
ESD promotes efforts to rethink educational programmes and systems (both methods and
contents) that currently support unsustainable societies.
ESD affects all components of education: legislation, policy, finance, curriculum, instruction,
learning, assessment, etc.
ESD calls for lifelong learning and recognizes the fact that the educational needs of people
change over their lifetime. Many individuals and organizations around the world already
implement ESD (e.g. a teacher weaving sustainability themes into primary education using
participatory methods; a community development worker raising peoples awareness on
rights which are denied to them; or a public health worker training people to draw water from
clean sources). There are many programmes using an ESD approach to learning which is
critical for achieving sustainability.
ESD has essential characteristics that can be implemented in many culturally appropriate
forms. Education for sustainable development:
is based on the principles and values that underlie sustainable development;
deals with the well-being of all four dimensions of sustainability environment, society,
culture and economy;
uses a variety of pedagogical techniques that promote participatory learning and higherorder thinking skills;
promotes lifelong learning;
is locally relevant and culturally appropriate;
is based on local needs, perceptions and conditions, but acknowledges that fulfilling local
needs often has international effects and consequences;
engages formal, non-formal and informal education;
accommodates the evolving nature of the concept of sustainability;
addresses content, taking into account context, global issues and local priorities;
builds civil capacity for community-based decision-making, social tolerance,
environmental stewardship, an adaptable workforce, and a good quality of life;
is interdisciplinary. No single discipline can claim ESD for itself; all disciplines can
contribute to ESD.

2.) What is the history of E.S.D.?

From the time sustainable development was first endorsed at the UN General Assembly in
1987, the parallel concept of education to support sustainable development has also been
explored. From 1987 to 1992, the concept of sustainable development matured as committees
discussed, negotiated, and wrote the 40 chapters of Agenda 21. Initial thoughts concerning ESD
were captured in Chapter 36 of Agenda 21, "Promoting Education, Public Awareness, and
Training."
Unlike most education movements, ESD was initiated by people outside of the education
community. In fact, one major push for ESD came from international political and economic
forums (e.g., United Nations, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,
Organization of American States). As the concept of sustainable development was discussed and
formulated, it became apparent that education is key to sustainability. In many countries, ESD is
still being shaped by those outside the education community. The concepts and content of ESD in
these cases are developed by ministries, such as those of environment and health, and then given
to educators to deliver. Conceptual development independent of educator input is a problem
recognized by international bodies as well as educators.

3.) Who are the proponents of E.S.D.?

In order to ensure a sustainable future, people of all ages need to assume responsibility for
their actions and commit themselves to creating positive social and environmental change. It is a
monumental task and education is the key to making it happen.
The United Nations University Education for Sustainable Development programme at the
Institute of Advanced Studies is working to advance the field of Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) through a series of multi-stakeholder initiatives. Its goal is to help transform
the way the world views education and sustainable development, ensuring that sustainable
development is incorporated into curricula at all levels of education and in all levels of society. At
the same time, the programme is working to increase general knowledge of ESD-related issues
globally, while improving international actions related to ESD.
The two flagship initiatives of the UNU-IAS Education for Sustainable Development
programme are the Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) and the Promotion of Sustainability
in Postgraduate Education and Research Network (ProSPER.Net).

4.) What are the key themes of E.S.D.?

Education for Sustainable Development means including key sustainable development issues
into teaching and learning:
Poverty Reduction
The Millennium Development Goals, adopted in 2000, are the worlds quantitative
targets for addressing extreme human deprivation in its many dimensions. The targets
range from halving extreme poverty to reducing child and maternal death rates, and
countering environmental degradation, all of which should be accomplished by 2015.
Education is part of the MDG framework; however, the MDG targets for education are
far less ambitious and more restrictive than for example the Education for All agenda or
the objectives of the DESD.
There are clear linkages between education, poverty reduction and sustainability. The
poor and marginalized are disproportionately more affected by poor environmental and
socio-economic conditions. ESD can contribute to sustainable environmental
management to improve livelihoods, increase economic security and income
opportunities for the poor. Educational responses to poverty need to address the fact
that many of the worlds poor do not participate in the formal market economy but in
non-formal economies, and many are self-employed entrepreneurs.
Education that is relevant and purposeful has the power to transform peoples lives.
ESD has the potential to equip people with skills needed to improve their livelihoods
Disaster prevention and mitigation;
The role of education for disaster risk reduction strategies can thus be presented
according to three types of activities: 1) Save lives and prevent injuries should a
hazardous event occur, 2) Prevent interruptions to the provision of education, or ensure
its swift resumption in the event of an interruption, and 3) Develop a resilient
population that is able to reduce the economic, social and cultural impacts should a
hazardous event occur.
Education for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) takes into account the relationships
between society, environment, economy, and culture and their impacts. It also promotes
critical thinking and problem-solving as well as social and emotional life skills that are
essential to the empowerment of groups threatened or affected by disasters.

ESD, through its interdisciplinary and holistic approach to learning, helps create
resilient societies. It encourages a long-term perspective in decision-making processes,
critical thinking, and holistic and innovative approaches to problem-solving. ESD,
therefore, contributes to DRR while DRR increases the relevance and the quality of
education in disaster-prone areas.
Climate change;
Education is an essential element of the global response to climate change. It helps
young people understand and address the impact of global warming, encourages
changes in their attitudes and behaviour and helps them adapt to climate change-related
trends.
Through its Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development programme,
UNESCO aims to make climate change education a more central and visible part of the
international response to climate change. The programme aims to help people
understand the impact of global warming today and increase "climate literacy" among
young people. It does this by strengthening the capacity of its Member States to provide
quality climate change education; encouraging innovative teaching approaches to
integrate climate change education in school and by raising awareness about climate
change as well as enhancing non-formal education programmes through media,
networking and partnerships.
UNESCO responds to climate change through education within the framework of the
UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD).
Biodiversity
Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is manifested at all levels of organization (genes,
species, ecosystems and landscapes) and is seen in all forms of life, habitats and
ecosystems (tropical forests, oceans and seas, savannah ecosystems, wetlands, drylands,
mountains, etc.).
The effect of human activities - magnified in recent years by population growth and
global climate change - has greatly reduced biodiversity in ecosystems around the
world. It is therefore important to refocus education programmes so that they enable
educators and learners to protect biodiversity. The issue of biodiversity should be
introduced or developed within both teaching and learning perspectives, with curricula
and materials developed to create desired learning outcomes. Learning outcomes should
include academic understanding, acquisition of values, increased capacity, skills
development and the adoption of attitudes and behaviour conducive to biodiversity
preservation.

 Gender Equality
Gender-based discrimination in education is both a cause and a consequence of deeprooted disparities in society. Poverty, geographical isolation, ethnic background,
disability, traditional attitudes about their status and role all undermine the ability of
women and girls to exercise their rights. Harmful practices such as early marriage and
pregnancy, gender-based violence, and discriminatory education laws, policies, contents
and practices still prevent millions of girls form enrolling, completing and benefitting
from education.
Gender must therefore be integrated at all levels of education, from early childhood to
higher education, in formal and non-formal settings and from planning infrastructure to
training teachers.
UNESCO works to promote equal opportunities to quality learning, free from genderbased or other forms of discrimination. In particular, UNESCO:

promotes gender equality in national education laws, policies and plans

seeks to expand access to learning opportunities, in particular for girls and women,
in both formal and non-formal education
develops the capacity of education policy-makers, planners, teachers and other
education personnel regarding gender-sensitive approaches
supports countries to make education content gender-sensitive and free from
discrimination
seeks to address obstacles to learning such as gender-based violence and HIV &
AIDS

Health Promotion
Health is defined in relation to the environmental and human characteristics of peoples
daily lives and the links between them. Health includes the impact of human activities
on the health of individuals and groups, their economy and their environment.
Hunger, malnutrition, malaria, water-borne diseases, drug and alcohol abuse, violence
and injury, unplanned pregnancy, HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted
infections are just some of the problems that have enormous implications for health.

Awareness and education are powerful ways to drive behavioural change related to
health:

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and
improve their health;
The goal of universal education cannot be achieved while the health needs of all
remain unmet;
Education should also enable people to learn to live healthily in a world with HIV
and AIDS and other major widespread health risks;
Policy, management and systems should provide guidance, oversight, coordination,
monitoring and evaluation to ensure an effective, sustainable, and institutionalized
educational response to health challenges;
Education should enable learners to adopt caring and supportive attitudes to others
as well as protective and health-seeking behaviours for themselves.

Sustainable Lifestyles
Globalization has made consumers powerful actors in our world economy. Our daily
choices as consumers affect the lives of workers in distant places and the way people
live. Sustainable consumption means buying goods and services that do not harm the
environment, society, and the economy. Although it is predominantly an issue for highincome and emerging economies, consumption is an excellent entry point for teaching
about sustainable development. Consumer education is practical, touching the daily
lives of people near and far away. Local consumer action can have a global, social,
economic, and environmental impact, both today and tomorrow.
Education therefore has an important role to play for consumers, in terms of:

learning to know about the products we buy; encourage curiosity about how and
where goods are produced as well as what the working conditions are in the country
of origin? How far are goods shipped to reach the supermarket shelves? What is the
environmental footprint of the production and transport of certain products?
using knowledge about the impact of our economic choices in order to change our
behaviour and consumption habits. However, knowledge is not enough. ESD is a
transformative learning process and aims to change the way people interact with the
world.

 Peace and Human Security

Living in an environment of peace and security is fundamental to human dignity and
development. Given that sustainable development is pertinent to every aspect of human
life, teaching and learning for sustainable development must have social, economic,
environmental and cultural perspectives. Peace and human security are among the 27
principles of sustainable development, Principle 25 reads: Peace, development and
environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible.
Education is vital to the task of acquiring the capacity to live together peacefully. It can
help to prevent insecurity and conflicts from thwarting progress towards sustainable
development. Education can also be called upon to rebuild a more sustainable society
after violent conflict. By learning to live together, learners acquire knowledge, values,
skills and attitudes for dialogue, cooperation and peace. ESD helps develop the capacity
to respect differences and diversities as well as to build social tolerance.
Water
Although water covers more than two-thirds of the earths surface, less than 0.5% is
readily available for human use. It thus represents a scarce resource for people around
the world. Shortages of water, particularly for drinking and sanitation, are often
primarily driven by an inefficient supply of services rather than by water shortages,
hence the important role of education in promoting sound water governance.
ESD provides an opportunity for learners, especially the excluded or marginalized, to
receive a water-related education, including science, water-fetching, sanitation and
hygiene as well as to develop the relevant knowledge, skills, values and behaviours in a
water sustainability-friendly context. This implies that:

Learning encourages behavioural changes and provides the skills required for
participation in water governance;
Schools and other educational environments promote water sustainability, with
access to safe water and sanitation facilities;
Educational structures, policy and management provide guidance, oversight,
coordination, monitoring and evaluation to ensure an effective, sustainable and
institutionalized educational response to water governance challenges.

 Sustainable Urbanization
Cities are at the forefront of global socio-economic change. Globalization and
democratization are an important part of sustainable development. Half of the worlds
population now lives in urban areas and the other half increasingly depend upon cities
for economic, social, cultural and political progress.
In cities, education policies must typically serve highly diverse populations. Providing
education for all in particular girls, persons with disabilities, migrants, the poor and
the marginalized is a complex exercise requiring effective public services and the
collaboration of numerous partners.
Learning to live together sustainably in cities is one of the most important educational
challenges of our time. This requires a focus on:

Creating a quality learning and educational environment that promotes

sustainability;
Providing lifelong learning opportunities in cities;
Teaching tolerance and mutual understanding in urban societies;
Enabling children and youth to learn to live and participate in urban life;
Enhancing learning to create inclusive societies in inclusive cities;
Developing learning in all its diverse forms.

The school is a unique institution where connections are made between world problems
and local life. It has the potential of serving as an enabler of change and of facilitating
the acquisition of the knowledge and skills necessary to function as an active and
responsible citizen. Local authorities have a strategic role to play in making these
centres of learning, training and personal development available to all citizens. At the
same time, the capacity to live together is generated through a wide range of nonformal and informal modalities of learning. The challenge of sustainability requires
learning how to change and nowhere is this more urgent or important than in urban
settings.

5.) What are the areas affected by E.S.D.?

Implementation. An educated citizenry is vital to implementing informed and sustainable
development. In fact, a national sustainability plan can be enhanced or limited by the level of
education attained by the nation's citizens. Nations with high illiteracy rates and unskilled
workforces have fewer development options. For the most part, these nations are forced to
buy energy and manufactured goods on the international market with hard currency. To
acquire hard currency, these countries need international trade; usually this leads to
exploitation of natural resources or conversion of lands from self-sufficient family-based
farming to cash-crop agriculture. An educated workforce is key to moving beyond an
extractive and agricultural economy.
Decision making. Good community-based decisions - which will affect social, economic,
and environmental well-being - also depend on educated citizens. Development options,
especially "greener" development options, expand as education increases. For example, a
community with an abundance of skilled labor and technically trained people can persuade a
corporation to locate a new information-technology and software-development facility
nearby. Citizens can also act to protect their communities by analyzing reports and data that
address community issues and helping shape a community response. For example, citizens
who were concerned about water pollution reported in a nearby watershed started monitoring
the water quality of local streams. Based on their data and information found on the World
Wide Web, they fought against the development of a new golf-course, which would have used
large amounts of fertilizer and herbicide in maintenance of the grounds.
Quality of life. Education is also central to improving quality of life. Education raises the
economic status of families; it improves life conditions, lowers infant mortality, and improves
the educational attainment of the next generation, thereby raising the next generation's
chances for economic and social well-being. Improved education holds both individual and
national implications.

6.) What is the status of E.S.D. now?

( Poverty)
Two years after the initial implementation, the SRA was expanded to include an ecosystem
perspective, emphasizing four dimensions of poverty where reform can have the greatest impact:
1. On social equity, by providing the poorest of the poor with access to basic services for
survival;
2. On economic prosperity, by ensuring that the basic sectors have access to productive
assets that allow them to contribute to National growth;
3. On ecological security, by incorporating the parameters of sustainable development in the
management and utilization of natural resources; and
4. On responsible and responsive governance, by making structures and processes
democratic to allow the meaningful participation of key stakeholders in policy- and
decision-making.
The National Anti-Poverty Summit drew-up poverty reduction targets at the regional level to
achieve a National target of 30% by 1998. It also resolved to expand the coverage of the SRA
from an initial concentration on 20 priority provinces to an additional 57 provinces and 65 cities.
As of June 1996, the majority of the 20 priority provinces had localized the SRA at the municipal
and baranggay (village) levels. This means that: (a) the SRA has been adopted to local needs and
priorities and is being implemented with clear poverty reduction targets and basic reform
commitments; (b) the Minimum Basic Needs approach has been installed and its data profiles
form the basis for local situation analysis, planning, implementation, and monitoring and
evaluation of local poverty issues and response mechanisms; (c) the programs and resources of
the National Government Agencies (NGAs) and the local government units (LGUs) have been
synchronized for specific target areas and sectors in line with the convergence policy; (d) local
structures have been set up and are functional with clearly defined roles and accountabilities; and
(e) the system and process for monitoring the delivery of National and local SRA commitments on
the ground are in place.
(Dem The population development sub-sector has posted major gains in terms of the basic
population services, advocacy measures, capability building, and working towards policy
environments for the greater welfare of families, and more responsible parenthood of Filipinos.
The Family Planning Program was able to reach out to three (3) million clients who are now
practicing family planning methods. Around 3,972 community volunteer health workers were
trained on family planning and responsible parenthood. Moreover, 14,839 clinics (private and
public) nationwide were provided with contraceptives.ographics)

(Health)

Physical and social empowerment have been promoted in the inter-related sub-sectors of health,
nutrition, and population development. Towards this end, direct and indirect interventions have
been achieved through program expansion, greater outreach to clientele, more emphasis on
preventive measures, and advocacy.
Other notable recent accomplishments in the area of policy development are the continued
facilitation of the implementation of the Magna Carta for public health workers, capability
building for devolved local government unit (LGUS) health personnel, and the publication of the
1995 Field Health Information System statistics. The improvement of occupational safety and
health (OSH), particularly in small and medium enterprises (SME's), has been pursued. The
labour department conducted several trainings for government employees, industrial supervisors
and workers. A total of 659 Work Environment Measurements (WEMS) were conducted to
improve indoor environments of 16,049 workers in 56 companies. Industry Tripartite Councils
(ITCs), which have been tasked to monitor compliance with all existing labour laws and social
legislations were established in 13 industries.
At the local level, PPAN implementation has involved the delivery of a mix of services along with
PPAN's impact programs of Home and Community Food Production, Micronutrient
Supplementation and Food Fortification, Nutrition Education, Credit Assistance for Livelihood,
and Food Assistance. The mix of services delivered by LGUs was based on their assessment of
the local nutrition situation as well as the prevailing socioeconomic-political environment.

(Education)
The promotion of sustainable development through information and education is one of the
priority activities to invoke a paradigm shift in the development outlook of the nation. Member
agencies of the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) as well as their civil
society counterparts have all contributed to the promotion of sustainable development in the
country though various programs, projects, and other IC activities related to the promotion of
awareness and advocacy activities for the environment and sustainable development. The
Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21) is being distributed to key agencies, organizations, and institutions.
Popular versions and primers which will be printed in different dialects and designed for basic
sectors will also be distributed to provide the general public with a lay person's version of the PA
21. The PCSD Subcommittee on Information and Education is the primary arm that coordinates
the different agencies and organizations in efforts of communicating sustainable development to
the Filipino population through the various IC activities of these organizations. Elements of PA 21
are incorporated in their IC activities and materials. It is hoped that these efforts will be
strengthened with the inclusion of business and labour groups in the PCSD.

(Human Settlement)

The improved overall performance of the shelter sector is characterized by the following: a)
increased access by the poor to land, finance, infrastructures, and building materials; b)
strengthened capability of local authorities for improved management; c) regularized and
upgraded slums and squatter settlements; d) improved rural living conditions; and e) private sector
involvement in shelter and service production for the middle and lower income groups.

SOURCES:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-forsustainable-development/education-for-sustainable-development/
http://www.esdtoolkit.org/discussion/default.htm
http://www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=108&ddlID=54
http://www.unesconatcom.gov.ph/education_frnt.html
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-forsustainable-development
http://www.esdtoolkit.org/discussion/default.htm
http://pub.iges.or.jp/modules/envirolib/upload/4140/attach/IGES+UNUIAS_ESD_Country_Status_Reports_%28OCT2012-reduced_size%29.pdf