Catalyzing Education for Sustainable Development through Local Action

On 18 December 2023, UNU-IAS organized a session as part of the UNESCO ESD-Net 2030 Global Meeting at UNU headquarters in Tokyo. It explored how to catalyze local action on education for sustainable development (ESD) through whole-of-society approaches. The global meeting, focused on the theme “transforming education together,” shared initiatives, trends and innovations to advance progress on ESD. 

Opening the session, Shinobu Yume Yamaguchi (Director, UNU-IAS) noted increasing recognition of the need to work across sectors to address complex, interconnected sustainable development issues. She underlined that active involvement of local communities was critical, and introduced the UNU-IAS initiative Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD (RCEs) as a successful model for advancing such local action.

A panel discussion moderated by Jonghwi Park (Academic Programme Officer, UNU-IAS) explored ESD initiatives by RCE Greater Gombak, the Government of Haiti, the Government of Hamburg, and NaDeet — a civil society organization in Namibia. A youth perspective on local action for ESD was provided by Fred Emmanuel Sato, a UNU-IAS doctoral student from Malawi. He observed that youth were spearheading many ESD activities in RCEs and beyond, and called for their greater involvement in policymaking and issue identification.

Considering approaches to scale up local activities, participants highlighted the need for intersectoral collaboration — both across government departments and as a bridge between citizens and governments. A key message was that ESD must move beyond the classroom to reach every individual, ensuring inclusion by staying true to its core values. The discussion emphasized the vital role of partnerships to ensure the sustainability of activities and incentivize young people to participate.

ESD-Net 2030 Global Meeting

This event is organized by UNESCO at UNU headquarters in Tokyo, on 18–20 December 2023. It convenes members of the global network ESD-Net 2030 — a community of practice that supports collaboration between Member States and other stakeholders to implement ESD.