Queen Rania of Jordan delivered a stark message to the World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development, held this week in Bonn, Germany: we are already half way through the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) 2005 -2014. We have little more than 2,000 days left to achieve the goals of the decade.
The conference was told that 97 countries had participated in the global process for monitoring of progress in the Decade. Ireland was one of the very few European countries that had not participated. Many countries (Ireland included) do not yet have a National Strategy on ESD despite the fact that European countries had agreed to develop a strategy by 2007. At the same time, in many countries, progress has been made, and the fact that 50 Government Ministers from around the globe (none from Ireland) had travelled to the conference suggests a commitment to the goals of the Decade is shared by many at the highest levels of government. “The glass is half full”, the conference was repeatedly told; the world has made progress during the Decade and can still achieve more. But the clock is ticking: 2,000 days and counting.
The European Regional Strategy for the Decade (agreed by European Ministers in 2005) can be found on: http://www.unece.org/env/esd/welcome.htm
The draft first report of the Deacde Monitoring and Evaluation Team can be found on: http://www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/fileadmin/download/background/DESD_key_findings_and_way_forward_23March09__4.pdf
UNESCO is the lead UN organisation for the Decade. Their Decade website can be accessed on: http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27234&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
