Moving into the Second Half of the UN Decade

The "World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development – Moving into the Second Half of the UN Decade" took place in Bonn, Germany, on 31 March to 2 April 2009.

Five years into the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD, 2005-2014), the conference had four objectives:

• to highlight the relevance of ESD to all of education;
• to promote international exchange on ESD, especially between the North and the South;
• to carry out a stock-taking of the implementation of the UN Decade; and
• to develop strategies for the way ahead.

Organizers of the conference were UNESCO and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, in cooperation with the German Commission for UNESCO.

The DESD spans from 2005 to 2014 with UNESCO as the lead agency. To guide the international coordination of the DESD, UNESCO developed an action plan with 9 thematic programme areas. Thematic Programme 4 focuses on “Integrating ESD into TVET”, with UNEVOC as lead partner in its development and implementation. The Centre has organized various activities in the area of TVET and ESD in the past five years. On the third day of this conference, it hosted a four-hour workshop on “Developing Skills and Labour Force Competencies including TVET in Support of Sustainable Development”.

Links

http://www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/