The Importance of Education for Sustainable Development, ESD

We often mention sustainability as the way that will make possible to meet our, 7.2 billion people, needs by using existing resources without distorting the needs of future generations.
Sustainability is a wide concept, discipline, or strategy that can be applied in almost every aspect of life from daily habits to science.
Currently, it is the way to save the world we’re living in from ourselves.

How to educate for sustainability?

Education for Sustainable Development helps students, young people or anybody that wants to learn more about sustainability. Talking about sustainability is crucial but it isn’t enough. People can get bored and lose interest. They have to be involved in an active process.

According to UNESCO, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) empowers people to change the way they think and work towards a sustainable future.

This can be achieved by equipping people, especially youth with skills and knowledge that help them develop a lifestyle, initiatives, mindset, and role models for a sustainable future.

ESD is part of the SDGs. Target 4.7 of SDG 4 on Quality education addresses ESD and related approaches such as Global Citizenship Education.

Target 4.7: “By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.

ESD requires dynamic and participatory learning methods. It is crucial that educators get learners empowered and motivated through to know and to do competencies such as:

Critical and integrative thinking and practice
Envisioning change and future scenarios
Achieving transformation and making decisions together

The Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition is an activity within the framework of the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD. The platform provides young changemakers the opportunity to gain important skills and entrepreneurial knowledge.

The members of the Entrepreneurship Campus learn to think in an innovative way through online training. Moreover, they are able to use the acquired knowledge to identify problems and find a solution that improves the quality of life without creating further damage.

The competition links together knowledge, skill acquisition, cooperation, and action. In the meantime, the online platform makes possible that every person, who has internet access can take the online training and join the competition.

All these help both the members of the Campus and the contestants to build a better future for their communities and the world.

Take this opportunity to develop a vision and shared it with other people like you.
Submit your idea or project!

Photo Credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay