Education for Sustainable Development:
Practice and Priorities in the UNECE Region
Interim Report by ECO Forum to the ESD Task Force
Geneva, February 2004
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Introduction and Objectives
The education for sustainable development (ESD) Strategy currently being drafted on the initiative of the
Environmental Ministers of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) region and
coordinated by the UNECE, is a pioneer example of a region-wide strategic approach to ESD. It will be
agreed and undertaken by fifty-five different member states including some of the world’s most successful
economies, economies in transition and those facing significant economic, environmental and social
problems. To be effective and workable, the Strategy needs to strike a balance between avoiding
prescription on the one hand and supplying a level of detail necessary to translate policy into practice on the
other.
This study seeks to assist the UNECE ESD Task Force in achieving that balance by gaining a clearer
understanding of the principal concerns in implementing ESD policies in the UNECE Region and by
suggesting ways of complementing the development and implementation of the ESD Strategy.
The study is being conducted by a consortium of NGOs (ECO Accord, Russia; Living Earth Foundation, UK;
Borrowed Nature, Bulgaria) under the banner of the European ECO Forum. The consortium expresses its
sincere gratitude to the UK Government’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which has
provided financial support for this study.
The current study is envisaged as Phase One of a wider survey. The objectives of this first phase are to:
I.
gain insights into the challenges for ESD policy and practice in Russia, Bulgaria and UK in light of
the Ministerial Statement on ESD endorsed at Kiev 2003;
II.
clarify perceptions of ESD and the Strategy process among Task Force members and others;
III.
obtain Task Force members’ guidance on the focus of the Phase Two survey;
IV.
identify partners who are willing to support Phase Two, both financially and in-kind
An initial summary of results, principally for the first objective, is provided in this Interim Report. This gives a
flavour of the initial analysis and focuses on areas of particular relevance to the ESD Strategy Drafting
Group. The Final Report will include comparative information on the three countries, ESD strengths and
weaknesses and practical examples of plans and implementation at the national and local level.
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Scope of Survey and Methods Used
The survey identifies policy, practice and principal concerns among key actors working in the field of ESD in
three countries: Russia, Bulgaria and UK. These countries represent important UNECE sub-regions:
Western, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA), plus
EU, non-EU and EU accession countries.
The countries also offer a comparison of educational systems: federal and regional components in Russia;
highly prescriptive centralisation in Bulgaria; centralised but reducing curriculum prescription in the United
Kingdom where there are also increasing distinctions between the devolved national systems. Provision for
informal and non-formal education also varies with the UK having a long tradition of non-governmental
involvement although the NGO sector is now vibrant in all three countries.
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This is a qualitative survey; methods include: face-to-face interviews with those directly concerned with ESD
policy-making; a review of policy and ESD-related literature; inputs from the researchers’ wide networks of
practitioners. Data gathered in the form of interview transcripts have been analysed and a number of
‘themes’ or priority areas have been identified.
Interviews have been held with a range of government officials (covering education, the environment, trade/
economy) and a number of academic and NGO respondents. Transcripts of these interviews are available
on request. Interviews will also be conducted with Task Force members at Geneva in February.
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3.1
Emerging Themes
Defining ESD
Attitudes to this issue cover the full range of possibilities from “there is a clear definition; ESD is…”
(Department for Education and Skills, UK) to “a definition would be impossible” (Global Action Plan, UK).
One principal difficulty is that sustainable development (SD) itself is not always clearly defined (and not
legally defined in Russia). While most respondents call for clarity, in general there is a pragmatic acceptance
that a broad description covering key concepts is needed rather than a tight definition.
The definition of SD is not precise itself. It is also a concept…Concepts are better. Models are much
better. Therefore we do not and cannot give a clear definition of ESD, but can create a model and
agree on an understanding. So we need a model of ESD.
International University in Moscow
It is necessary to agree on general issues that are being meant under ESD, especially given the fact
that the Strategy should be a framework document.
Association for Environmental Education (ASEKO), Russia
There are arguments for and against (a definition). ESD is very poorly understood so it probably
wouldn’t help on balance. Meaning is only really established through operating with it, and so in fact
a statement of goals may help.
Geographical Association, UK
On the issue of definitions, there is a need to identify and clarify terms as some confusion may arise given
the international nature of this document; examples cited included: non-formal/additional education;
curriculum/syllabus.
3.2
The Place for ESD in Formal Education
While accepting that ESD has been promoted by those working in environmental education (EE), very few
respondents think that EE should be the main carrier subject. In fact it is seen as a mistake to consider ESD
simply as “a reorientation of EE” as stated in the Draft ESD Strategy. There is a need to widen perspectives
away from the traditional ‘green’ issues and shift the balance towards the economic and social spheres.
In discussing this issue, some respondents point to a clearer justification for the ESD Strategy with some
seeing ESD as a re-orientation of education per se.
ESD is about SD, so it is not EE. It is about changing a paradigm of the development of civilisation.
International University in Moscow
I think that the Draft Strategy can be broadened by adding more information about the social and
economic components. This is of special importance because ESD is actually about competencies,
values, attitudes and beliefs.
Ministry of Education, Bulgaria
Social issues are seen as critical by several Bulgarian and Russian interviewees with specific reference
being made to ‘conflict resolution’ in Russia and ‘democratic citizenship’ in Bulgaria. Another recurring theme
is the need to make education ‘relevant’, this was particularly clear in the UK (see 3.3):
The challenge is trying to make it 'real' to teachers as well as within the national curriculum. We want
to make SD relevant, to get away from the rainforest. Everybody who wants to do SD seems to talk
about the rainforest.
Department for Education and Skills (DfES), UK
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…you can’t expect people to value things they have no experience of. The informed citizen has:
One, an intellectual understanding and two, an emotional commitment, “I care”. Without those two
you don’t have the finished product.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK
Virtually all respondents feel that it is important to stress economics in ESD:
ESD is an integral part of basic economic decision making.
Ministry of Economic Development, Russia
To my opinion, the ESD is exactly that place where it is important to realise the economic aspect as
a necessity for each individual – this way the motivating link between the economic and social
domains would be created.
Open Education Centre, Bulgaria
I’m happy with economics taking the lead as it must intersect with the environmental and social.
Geographical Association, UK
A recognition of the importance of economics in ESD raises the prospect of a more serious engagement in
ESD by those national governments who have hitherto seen ESD as a ‘green issue’. This may in turn have
implications for resources (3.7). It is interesting to compare the impressive financial commitment to an
enterprise education programme (highlighted by the UK’s Department for Trade and Industry) with the UK’s
ESD Action Plan, which the Government expects to be implemented with no additional resources.
Discussions on incorporating SD in the UK’s enterprise education raised a perceived conflict of interests
between calls for sustainability and the demand for economic growth in a competitive global market:
Sustainable development may offer big opportunities for the UK to deliver the knowledge-driven
economy. The UK can’t compete on price so we need to compete on our knowledge base, on higher,
added value.
Interviewer: But of course the Strategy is for our real or potential competitors as well…
Yes, there’s a dichotomy; our job is to make us more competitive so the usefulness of this document
(the Draft ESD Strategy) depends on our having SD people who can add value to our economy.
This contradiction between SD and current development patterns lies at the heart of ESD. It may not be for
educators to resolve such issues but it is the role of education to provide opportunities for people to explore
these contradictions and consider their own responses e.g. in their patterns of consumption.
This in turn raises the issue of the capacity of our education system to engage with such issues (see 3.6):
…when you move into the economic and social you’re into hard politics. And schools are chronically
ill-equipped to deal with it.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK
3.3
Formal/Non-formal Links
The call for relevance among respondents highlights the need for engagement with society beyond schools.
Private sector involvement is widely seen as a necessary thing but also as something that is not easily
achieved. Bulgarian and British respondents mention placements at workplaces for pupils as a necessary
part of the curriculum. However, such programmes are not currently orientated towards SD:
The links are stronger at primary level because parents are more involved in their children’s
education... At the secondary level, the links are weaker – there’s a lot of material… but learning is
not linked to social change.
Global Action Plan, UK
The private sector has much to offer formal education both as provider of context and generator of funding
for specific programmes. A number or respondents suggested tax instruments to facilitate this (see 3.7).
3.4
Implementation Structures
All respondents recommend the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders in the implementation of the
ESD Strategy at the national level. The widely recommended model draws on a pool of organisations from
private sector, NGOs and government agencies. All respondents stress the need to take the next steps at
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the national level under a co-ordinated mechanism, usually with the education ministry in a co-ordinating
role. The need for high level government co-ordination is specifically stressed in Russia:
It depends on the way in which the group is established. For example the Chair of the Interagency
Working Group on accession of Russia to the WTO is a vice Prime Minister. If he signs the decisions
they immediately become (by status) a Governmental Order. If the ESD WG will have such status
(deputy Prime Minister to chair the interagency group) then its decisions will be important… Even
with involvement of several Ministries… its’ decisions will be valid only for participating Ministries. To
involve another Ministry we will need to ask Government to invite it.
Ministry of Education, Russia
This need for clearer high-level support for implementation was echoed in the UK:
In spite of the rhetoric, teachers aren’t sure enough, it doesn’t have status and status is everything.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK
3.5
The Implementation Process
There is a split between those who want national action plans and those who want strategies. In most cases
this is an opportunity to combine the top-down 'strategy' process with a bottom-up process of identifying
existing practice and street-level solutions, disseminating these through new and existing networks and
building up the policy in this way.
The next step in Russia may be national (federal) and then regional strategies. Another suggestion is to pilot
the ESD strategy in three regions of Russia and adjust national policy based on this experience.
Some respondents stress the need to have UNECE sub-regional specificity provisions in the Strategy: there
are some specific needs for sub-regions and they may be formulated in the main text, while the general
priorities and goals are common.
…problems of regionalisation of the Strategy should be addressed, or at least described. For
UNECE Strategy there will be at least three or four groups of countries with common problems and
tasks in ESD and these groups should be identified. These groups are EECCA, Northern countries,
Southern Europe, Western Europe, even under the general umbrella of the Strategy these groups
have national and regional specific issues.
Moscow State University, Russia
3.6
Capacity Building
There is a particular concern about the amount of effort required if governments are serious about reorientating education towards SD in the way that the Strategy suggests. For example in the UK:
…it needs to be understood that ESD is very challenging teaching. Teachers therefore need to be
engaged right at the start. Most models of teaching here, and I suspect more so in Eastern Europe,
are models of delivery. Schools are dominated by an ‘answer culture’ – even when enquiry models
are used, answers are supplied. There needs to be more of a culture of argument, where there are
not clear-cut answers
Geographical Association, UK
Similar concerns are raised in Bulgaria…
…there is a very long way to go. Firstly, the philosophy of entire education in Bulgaria, i.e. the
mentality of the people who are engaged in education should be changed; this is a very hard
process.
TIME Foundation, Bulgaria
…and in Russia
I come again to a conclusion that SD should be a course for future teachers in their first years of
education. Plus we need a new culture for interactive methods use. This (interactive) way of thinking
almost does not exist among Russian teachers.
ASEKO, Russia
It is suggested that this issue is in danger of being overlooked because the process of ESD is not well
understood at the policy level:
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The gap between government-level rhetoric and school level is profound. The big problem here is
that all UN documents on this theme are built on a false premise… that ESD is about the transfer of
knowledge – this is a minor partner in ESD – we’ll only find sustainability if it’s in hearts. The UN
over-simplifies the process and underestimates the difficulty in really teaching this in a way that
people see it as relevant to them and really care about it. The gap is in understanding what a teacher
has to do.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK
More specifically in Russia, the low level of teachers’ salaries is seen a cause of diminished capacity. It also
has an impact on gender balance, leading to a predominance of woman teachers, which is seen as a
problem.
If you look at graduates of Moscow pedagogical schools – only about 10% start working at schools,
after 2 years this decreases to 2% and lower. Of course this depends on salary: salaries for teachers
are too low to attract young and educated people.
ASEKO, Russia
We also need to ensure 50-50% gender balance for teachers, attract men to our schools.
Satisfactory level of salaries for teachers is one of the keys to achieve that.
International University in Moscow
A specific issue in the UK is the way in which centralised curriculum planning has ‘de-skilled’ senior
members of the teaching profession. This will have an impact of the capacity of schools to develop locally
relevant programmes and materials:
…curriculum development expertise is very fragile. The planning of the curriculum, the materials and
strategies to engage new learning… it used to be done by teachers, exam boards – chief examiners
developed syllabuses… much of this expertise is now gone.
Geographical Association, UK
3.7
Resources
Many respondents remind us that a serious commitment to ESD will have resource implications. There is an
apparent contradiction between government support for ESD, including a demand for impacts, and the
failure to identify how these demands, with their concomitant capacity-building needs, will be financed.
At present, limited available resources at national level are usually provided by ministries of environment. As
section 3.2 demonstrates, ESD is not limited to EE; it is therefore inappropriate to limit ESD funding to
environmental budgets. There is a serious need to engage educational, economic and social sectors in
financing and supporting ESD. UK NGOs have particular concerns at present:
In some countries, funding for education, particularly non-formal, comes from environment ministries.
If DfES (education ministry) is leading on ESD and the Council for Environmental Education gets
70% of its funding from Defra (environment ministry), what’s likely to happen? Can that be
addressed somehow?
Council for Environmental Education, UK
…there is a danger of DfES taking the lead because there is no sign of money to replace the funding
that Defra provides to NGOs through the Environmental Action Fund.
Global Action Plan, UK
Donor assistance for ESD is especially important in South-eastern Europe and EECCA countries. Different
forms of grants and loans are mentioned with co-financing by recipient countries being crucial to achieving
success in national level ESD projects. Only if national governments commit themselves to allocate funds to
ESD projects and programmes, will the level of state responsibility be enough to ensure success.
As for donor support – if this (ESD) is 100% supported by donors, then it will exist in a parallel world.
Unfortunately this is the usual practice… ...In the case of there being joint projects, the input from
both foreign and Russian partners should be clearly identifiable, this will be more effective. Our
experience shows that if there is a budget input from our side, projects are more effective. …On the
other hand, when people contribute resources, they become more responsible for outcomes.
Ministry of Education, Russia
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Small-scale projects can be supported by grants and there is a clear need to establish a mechanism,
financed at national level, to support the additional/non-formal ESD activities undertaken by NGOs.
We need resources first of all for publishing new materials (long list given). We also need resources
to support innovative programs, teachers, NGOs, those who work in the area of EE and ESD and
have interesting projects. Another priority is training, support of participation and organisation of
different events, conferences and consultations at national level, work with youth and children…etc.
Ministry of Natural Resources, Russia
Additional support and resources for ESD Strategy implementation at national and local level can be found
by involving the private sector in the process. Special mention is given to fiscal mechanisms (tax breaks) to
encourage businesses to support ESD activities, particularly among Russian government officials and
NGOs. A special chapter in the ESD Strategy on financial provisions is recommended.
…it is a very important task (private sector involvement), but business is afraid in Russia to support
ESD and other education activities because of the taxation system.
Ministry of Natural Resources, Russia
We tried many times to come with legislative initiatives for tax reductions and special benefits for
those (businesses) supporting education, but failed… These tax benefits are very important to attract
private sector resources for ESD and education in general
Ministry of Education, Russia
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The Next Phase
This study is by no means complete. More information will be gathered on the perceptions and visions of
ESD Task Force members and others including respondents from the private sector. All our findings will be
synthesised in the Final Report that will be disseminated early in April 2004 in English and Russian.
A key output of this study will be a clear articulation of the way forward in terms of complementing the work
of the ESD Task Force and the Strategy itself. Already many respondents have called for examples of good
practice both at the policy and implementation level. Some suggest a publication to complement the UNECE
ESD Strategy - this would overcome the need to keep the strategy short and not too prescriptive while
providing much needed detail on 'how' the ideas might be implemented or what they might look like.
This would be a companion to the strategy - not 'guidelines'. Concerns are expressed about producing nonbinding guidelines that require resources but do not contribute a great deal to the implementation process.
Don’t over develop the guidelines. Other things, such as programmes of initiatives could be created
besides this strategy – and ideas on how to support this. It requires enthusiasm from somewhere to
give it life... Countries, individuals, groups, money will deliver this.
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, UK
A broader survey may reflect the different sections of the UNECE Strategy. Given the differences between
countries, detailed studies may be proposed for sub-regions in order to assist ESD Strategy implementation
in say, the EU, accession countries, EECCA and South-eastern Europe. The results would facilitate the
incorporation of the ESD Strategy into national programmes and assist in the effective mobilisation of
national resources and targeted donor assistance.
A ‘good practice’ publication and a needs assessment study may be combined. This could draw on
contributions from governments, international organisations, NGOs and educators. Given the high degree of
cross-referencing demanded by these potential uses, the outputs could be presented on a searchable
database accessible on the Internet. This website would be multi-dimensional and could be updated
regularly. Hosting arrangements for such a website would need to be discussed and agreed at the outset. It
is suggested that these activities can be co-ordinated by ECO-Forum with its region-wide coverage.
In conclusion: we have been encouraged by the openness and enthusiasm of our government officials and
others. We see this as a positive indicator of a move towards sustainable development.
Victoria Elias
Eco Accord, Russia
Paul Vare
Living Earth Foundation, UK
Stoyan Yotov
Borrowed Nature, Bulgaria
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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