Promoting community-based Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been advocated in the global society, which is also one of the five core working areas in “ESD for 2030”, the global framework adopted by the 74th United Nations General Assembly in 2019. In this regard and given the current COVID-19 pandemic globally, demands for collective learning on policy-making, practices and research have grown among practitioners and trainers of trainers working for the community education and development.
Under this background, Asia-Pacific Exchange Programme on Promoting Community-based ESD was held on 10 and 11 August in collaboration with Hiratsuka City, Tokai University Student Achievement Centre in Japan and UNESCO. The overall objective was to review and discuss based on the experiences of UNESCO’s regional project on community-based ESD and explore future actions in participating countries. The Hiratsuka city of Japan hosted the workshop while participants from six countries joined online. The cases from China, India, Japan, Lao PDR, Mongolia and the Philippines were presented and around 50 participants including local ESD practitioners and ESD experts exchanged their experiences and opinions.
- Related Countries
- Philippines, Laos, China, India, Mongolia, Thailand, Australia, Brazil
- Co-organizer(s), Cooperator(s)
- 神奈川県平塚市教育委員会
- 東海大学 スチューデントアチーブメントセンター（池谷美衣子氏）
- ユネスコ北京事務所
- UNESCO Bangkok
From the Organizer
We consider it a great achievement of this project that we were able to hold in-depth discussions on the learning process for community development in each country and confirm the importance of continuing to learn in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme also provided an opportunity to promote ESD in the community, as outlined in the international framework, and was a step towards building an international network for future collaboration. We will continue to promote ESD in the community by strengthening cooperation with the participants of this project and expanding the network. Without this grant program that is designed to strengthen mutual learning and co-creation, we would not have been able to carry out the project, and we are deeply grateful to the staff at the Japan Foundation Asia Center, who were always helpful despite there being many changes to the original project plan amid COVID-19 pandemic.
