Dr Guevara - Rio+20 reflections

ALA webinar: Reflecting on the Rio+20 Outcomes – ESD and Lifelong Learning

Jose Roberto GuevaraPresident, Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE)

Vice –President (Asia-Pacific), International Council for Adult Education

(ICAE)

RMIT University©2011 Information Technology Services 2

ABSTRACT

The Rio+20 Outcomes document should be celebrated for committing to promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) beyond the UN Decade and for identifying the importance of non-formal education programs for sustainable development.

However, there still is a tendency to assume that ESD and education more broadly is about teaching young people for the future.

While this is important, how do we extend this commitment to embrace lifelong learning within an Australian education policy and practice context?

Who, as adult and community educators, we should we be working with to advance this advocacy.


ASPBAE endorses the Education Working Group Statement at Rio + 20 - “The education we need for the world we want”

“Although the Rio+20 Outcome Document mentions the need to reaffirm the commitment to universal primary education and to quality education at all levels, it fails to recognize that an integral aspect to human rights for all necessarily includes universal access to free education at secondary and tertiary levels too.

In addition, the document fails to recognize the need for lifelong learning- including formal, non formal and informal education at all levels - if people are to play a full part in securing sustainable development.”


OVERVIEW OF KEY INTERNATIONAL EVENTSENVIRONMENT AND EDUCATION

STOCKHOLM CONFERENCE: The UN Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, Sweden, 5-16 June 1972

BRUNDTLAND COMMISSION: In 1983, the UN establish an independent, World Commission on Environment and Development that published ‘Our Common Future’

UN CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT: UNCED, also known as the Earth Summit, was held from 3-14 June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: The WSSD met 26 August - 4 September 2002, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Decade of ESD was approved.

UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON SUTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (UNCSD or Rio+20) will mark the 40th anniversary of the first major international political conference that specifically had the word “environment” in its title.


INTERNATIONAL EVENTS AND COMMITMENTSENVIRONMENT AND EDUCATION

STOCKHOLM CONFERENCE: The UN Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, Sweden, 5-16 June 1972

BRUNDTLAND COMMISSION: In 1983, the UN establish an independent, World Commission on Environment and Development that published ‘Our Common Future’

UN CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT: UNCED, also known as the Earth Summit, was held from 3-14 June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: The WSSD met 26 August - 4 September 2002, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Decade of ESD was approved.

UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON SUTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (UNCSD or Rio+20) will mark the 40th anniversary of the first major international political conference that specifically had the word “environment” in its title.

CONFINTEA (Adult Ed Conference)–Denmark 1949, –Canada 1960, –Japan 1972,–France 1985, –Germany 1997, and–Brazil 2009.

EDUCATION FOR ALL (EFA) by 2015- Jomtien, Thailand 1990- Dakar, Senegal 2000

UN DECADE OF EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (DESD) 2005-2014

MDGs by 2015Goal 2: Universal Primary Education


Earth Summit 1992 - AGENDA 21 – CHAPTER 36Promoting Education, Public Awareness & Training

36.1. Education, raising of public awareness and training are linked to virtually all areas in Agenda 21, and even more closely to the ones on meeting basic needs, capacity-building, data and information, science, and the role of major groups. This chapter sets out broad proposals, while specific suggestions related to sectoral issues are contained in other chapters. The Declaration and Recommendations of the Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education, organized by UNESCO and UNEP and held in 1977, have provided the fundamental principles for the proposals in this document.

36.2. Programme areas described in the present chapter are:

(a) Reorienting education towards sustainable development;

(b) Increasing public awareness;

(c) Promoting training.


Rio+20 – The Future We WantEducation Section (Paragraphs 229 – 235)

229. We reaffirm our commitments to the right to education and in this regard, we commit to strengthen international cooperation to achieve universal access to primary education, particularly for developing countries. We further reaffirm that full access to quality education at all levels is an essential condition for achieving sustainable development, poverty eradication, gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as human development, for the attainment of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and for the full participation of both women and men, in particular young people. In this regard, we stress the need for ensuring equal access to education for persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, local communities, ethnic minorities and people living in rural areas.

230. We recognize that the younger generations are the custodians of the future and the need for better quality and access to education beyond the primary level. We therefore resolve to improve the capacity of our education systems to prepare people to pursue sustainable development, including through enhanced teacher training, the development of sustainability curricula, the development of training programmes that prepare students for careers in fields related to sustainability, and more effective use of information and communications technologies to enhance learning outcomes. We call for enhanced cooperation among schools, communities and authorities in efforts to promote access to quality education at all levels.


Rio+20 – The Future We WantEducation Section (Paragraphs 229 – 235)

231. We encourage Member States to promote sustainable development awareness among youth, inter alia by promoting programmes for non-formal education in accordance with the goals of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014.

232. We emphasize the importance of greater international cooperation to improve access to education, including through building and strengthening education infrastructure and increasing investment in education, particularly investment to improve the quality of education for all in developing countries. We encourage international educational exchanges and partnerships, including the creation of fellowships and scholarships to help achieve global education goals.

233. We resolve to promote education for sustainable development and to integrate sustainable development more actively into education beyond the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.

234. We strongly encourage educational institutions to consider adopting good practices in sustainability management on their campuses and in their communities with the active participation of, inter alia, students, teachers and local partners, and teaching sustainable development as an integrated component across disciplines.

235. We underscore the importance of supporting educational institutions, especially higher educational institutions in developing countries, to carry out research and innovation for sustainable development, including in the field of education, to develop quality and innovative programmes, including entrepreneurship and business skills training, professional, technical and vocational training and lifelong learning, geared to bridging skills gaps for advancing national sustainable development objectives.


CONFINTEA V – HAMBURG DECLARATION 1997http://www.unesco.org/education/uie/confintea/pdf/con5eng.pdf

We commit ourselves to:

35. Promoting the competence and involvement of civil society in dealing with environmental and development problems:

(a) by making use of adult education activities in order to increase the capacity of citizens from different sectors of society to take innovative initiatives and to develop programmes based on ecologically and socially sustainable development;

(b) by supporting and implementing adult education programmes designed to give people the chance to learn and interact with decision-makers on environmental and development issues, in particular on the need for changes in production and consumption patterns;

(c) by integrating indigenous and traditional knowledge of the interaction between human beings and nature into adult learning programmes, and by recognizing that minority and indigenous communities have special authority and competence in protecting their own environment;

(d) by ensuring the accountability of decision-makers in the context of policies relating to the environment, population and development;

(e) by integrating environmental and development issues into all sectors of adult learning


CONFINTEA VI – BELEM FRAMEWORK OF ACTION http://www.unesco.de/fileadmin/medien/Dokumente/Bildung/CONFINTEA_VI_Belem_Framework_for_Action_Final.pdf

9. We are convinced and inspired by the critical role of lifelong learning in addressing global and educational issues and challenges. It is furthermore our conviction that adult learning and education equip people with the necessary knowledge, capabilities, skills, competences and values to exercise and advance their rights and

take control of their destinies. Adult learning and education are also an imperative for the achievement of equity and inclusion, for alleviating poverty and for building equitable, tolerant, sustainable and knowledge-based societies.

16. At best referred to only in the broadest terms, adult learning and education feature sparingly in many international education agendas and recommendations, and are often viewed as a synonym for basic literacy acquisition. Yet literacy is indisputably of

immense consequence, and the persistently vast scale of the literacy challenge presents an indictment of the inadequate adoption of the measures and initiatives launched in recent years. Consistently high illiteracy rates question whether enough has been done politically and financially by governments and international agencies.


Open Discussion The Rio+20 Outcomes document should be celebrated for committing to promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) beyond the UN Decade and for identifying the importance of non-formal education programs for sustainable development.

However, there still is a tendency to assume that ESD and education more broadly is about teaching young

people for the future. While this is important, how do we extend

this commitment to embrace lifelong learning within an Australian education policy and practice context?

Who, as adult and community educators, should we be working with to advance this advocacy?


Open Discussion However, there still is a tendency to assume that ESD and education more broadly is about teaching

young people for the future.


Open Discussion While this is important, how do we extend this commitment to embrace lifelong learning within an Australian education policy and practice context?


Open Discussion Who, as adult and community educators, should we be working with to advance this advocacy.


Open Discussion The Rio+20 Outcomes document should be celebrated for committing to promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) beyond the UN Decade and for identifying the importance of non-formal education programs for sustainable development.

However, there still is a tendency to assume that ESD and education more broadly is about teaching young people for the future.

While this is important, how do we extend this commitment to embrace lifelong learning within an Australian education policy and practice context?

Who, as adult and community educators, we should be working with to advance this advocacy.