EDUCATION
AND AWARENESS
Section
X, of
the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation
(JPOI) adopted by WSSD reaffirmed both
the Millennium Declaration goal of achieving
universal primary education by 2015 and
the goal of the Dakar Framework for Action
on Education for All to eliminate gender
disparity in primary and secondary education
by 2005 and at all levels of education
by 2015. The JPOI addressed the need to
integrate sustainable development into
formal education at all levels, as well
as through informal and non-formal education
opportunities.
Following the WSSD recommendation, the
General Assembly, at its 57th Session
(2002), proclaimed a Decade
of Education for Sustainable Development
- DESD (2005-2014) and designated
UNESCO as lead agency for its promotion.
The Decade was globally launched in New
York on 1 March 2005. Prior to the
launch, UNESCO developed an international
framework for implementing DESD and later
drafted an International Implementation
Scheme. The General Assembly, at
its 59th session (2004), took note of
these developments and requested that
a mid-term progress report on the implementation
of DESD be submitted at its 65th session
(2010).
The International Implementation Scheme
was approved by the UNESCO Executive
Board session in September 2005.
At
the regional level, on 18 March 2005, in
the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, UNECE Ministers
of both Environment and Education adopted
a UNECE
strategy for Education for Sustainable Development
and the Vilnius Framework for Implementation.
The Decade was also launched in other
regions, sub-regions and also at the
national level throughout 2005 and early
2006.
Education, Public Awareness and Training
is the focus of Chapter
36 of Agenda 21. This is a
cross-sectoral
theme both relevant to the implementation
of the whole of Agenda 21 and indispensable
for achieving sustainable development.
Following the
adoption of Agenda 21 in 1992, the
Commission on Sustainable Development, at
its fourth
session in 1996, adopted an International
Work Programme on Education, Public Awareness
and Training for Sustainability in order
to give added impetus and visibility to
this theme. The Work Programme was further
elaborated in 1998 at CSD-VI
(Decision 6/3) and its implementation
was re-emphasized in 1999 at CSD-VII
(Decision 7/4).
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