Economic and Social Council

 Distr. GENERAL
20 April-1 May 1998
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

Economic and Social Council
Commission on Sustainable Development
Sixth session
20 April-1 May 1998

         Capacity-building, education and public awareness, science
              and transfer of environmentally sound technology

                      Report of the Secretary-General

                                  Addendum

                 Education, public awareness and training *

(* The present report has been prepared by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization in accordance with arrangements agreed to
by the Inter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Development; it is the result of
consultation and information exchange between United Nations agencies,
interested government agencies and a range of other institutions and
individuals.)

                         (Chapter 36 of Agenda 21)

Contents         

                                                     Paragraphs    Page

   I.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     1         3

  II.  Education: the force of the future . . . . . . .    2-4        3

 III.  Public awareness and understanding: the fuel for 
      change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    5-6        3

  IV.  The need for effective communication . . . . . .     7         4

   V.  Confronting vested interests . . . . . . . . . .     8         4

  VI.  Complex messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    9-11       4

 VII.  The messengers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   12-13       4

VIII.  Reorienting education to support sustainability.   14-16       5

  IX.  Importance of basic education. . . . . . . . . .   17-20       5

   X.  Changes required in formal education . . . . . .   21-26       6

       A.  Curriculum reform. . . . . . . . . . . . . .   22-24       6

       B.  Structural reform. . . . . . . . . . . . . .   25-26       6

  XI.  Contribution of environmental education. . . . .   27-32       7

 XII.  Interdisciplinarity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   33-34       7

XIII.  Culture and sustainability . . . . . . . . . . .   35-36       8

 XIV.  Mobilizing for action. . . . . . . . . . . . . .     37        8

  XV.  International framework for action . . . . . . .   38-40       8

 XVI.  Action at the national level . . . . . . . . . .   41-46       9

        I.     Introduction

1.   The present report consists of extracts from the report
entitled "Educating for a sustainable future: a
transdisciplinary vision for concerted action", 1/ which was
prepared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a contribution to the
work programme of the Commission on Sustainable
Development, which called upon UNESCO to refine the
concept and key messages of education for sustainable
development. 2/  The document is to be seen as the beginning
of a process, as an attempt to stimulate discussion and as an
action-oriented paper. It reflects the new vision of education
as a means to achieving a sustainable future.

       II.     Education: the force of the future

2.   It is widely agreed that education is the most effective
means that society possesses for confronting the challenges
of the future and for shaping the world of tomorrow. Access
to education is the sine qua non for effective participation
in the life of the modern world at all levels.

3.   Education must not be equated with schooling or
formal education alone. It includes non-formal and informal
modes of instruction and learning as well, including
traditional learning acquired in the home and community.
By defining education broadly, one also widens the
community of educators, as the programme statement of
Education 21 promoted within the United Kingdom notes,
to include teachers, lecturers, curriculum developers,
administrators, support staff, industrial trainers, countryside
rangers and staff, environmental health and planning
officers, education officers with non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), community educators, youth leaders,
parent association members, media people, representatives
of learners in all contexts -- and yet more. One might further
widen this community to include all those, whatever their
role in society, who perceive a need or duty to inform and
educate people regarding the requirements of a sustainable
future. International organizations, government departments
and institutions, foundations and many others are deeply
involved in education in the broad sense of the term used
here. Many firms in the private sector also see the need to
play their part in promoting awareness and are doing so in
innovative ways: for example, through sponsoring the
publication of articles in newspapers and journals exploring
environmental and social issues. This vast community of
educators represents an enormously potent, but largely
untapped human resource for sustainable development that
can be invaluable in a range of contexts as well as
education. It represents, above all, a means for bringing the
struggle for sustainable development into communities and
local institutions around the world, which, in the final
analysis, is where the cause of sustainable development will
either triumph or fail.

4.   Education serves society in a variety of ways. The goal
of education is to make people wiser, more knowledgeable,
better informed, ethical, responsible, critical and capable
of continuing to learn, and more productive and creative in
the workplace. Were all people to possess such abilities and
qualities, the world's problems would not be automatically
solved, but the means and the will to address them would
be at hand. Education also serves society by providing a
critical reflection on the world, especially its failings and
injustices, and by promoting greater consciousness and
awareness, exploring new visions and concepts, and
inventing new techniques and tools. Education is also the
means for disseminating knowledge and developing skills,
for bringing about desired changes in behaviours, values
and lifestyles, and for promoting public support for the
continuing and fundamental changes that will be required
if humanity is to alter its course, leaving the familiar path
that is leading towards growing difficulties and possible
catastrophe, and starting the uphill climb towards
sustainability. Education, in short, is humanity's best hope
and most effective means in the quest to achieve sustainable
development.

      III.     Public awareness and
               understanding: the fuel for change

5.   Public awareness and understanding are, at once,
consequences of education and influences on the
educational process. A public well informed of the need for
sustainable development will insist that public educational
institutions include in their curricula the scientific and other
subject matters needed to enable people to participate
effectively in the numerous activities directed towards
achieving sustainable development. Common information
and shared understandings are therefore important not only
for mobilizing public support, but also for carrying out
consultative work and participatory approaches in all fields.

6.   An approach that emphasizes local issues, rather than
global ones, is often more effective in promoting public
interest and understanding. This may account, in part, for
the success of non-formal community education and local
environmental communication programmes in reaching and
sensitizing people to environmental and development issues
in both developing and industrialized countries. A particular
benefit of such programmes is that they are often directly
linked to action to control or solve the problems identified.

       IV.  The need for effective communication

7.   One of the lessons of recent experience is the need to
establish effective communication strategies as an integral
part of any major scientific inquiry or programme.
Communication has to be seen as a long-term interactive
process strategically aimed at particular groups and
audiences, not as a concluding message when a project or
panel is about to present its final report and wind up its
activities. It is not necessary -- or even desirable -- for
scientists to become propagandists, but it is essential that
studies conducted in the public interest have adequate
means to communicate their findings to the public on whose
behalf they were carried out.

        V.     Confronting vested interests

8.   Until quite recently, advocates of the common interest
have had difficulty mustering the needed public relations
expertise and support to overcome the influence of vested
interests. Fortunately, in the past two decades, many lessons
have been learned, especially by environmentalists, on how
to convert a growing public concern for the state of the
Earth into effective support for specific measures to address
concrete problems. Yet, in most countries, while
environmental issues are now receiving greater support,
measures aimed at promoting population policies, social
development, poverty reduction and other necessary
measures for achieving sustainable patterns of development
continue to be largely ignored by the general public.
Ultimately, though, there can be no solution to
environmental problems unless the social and economic ills
besetting humankind are seriously addressed. It is this
broader message and reality which remains to be effectively
communicated to and internalized by the public. A vigilant
and informed world public represents a powerful
counterweight to the vested interests that appear, at present,
to have the upper hand on many issues.

       VI.     Complex messages

9.   The messages of sustainable development represent
a challenge in and of themselves. Rather than being simple
and unambiguous -- thus easy to communicate -- 
environmental and developmental issues tend to be
complex. This is so because of the inherent complexity of
ecological and human systems. They defy simplistic
explanations, solutions and predictions. Complex realities
are difficult to communicate in simple messages. Yet,
attempts to simplify what, by its very nature is not simple,
may result in further confusion and misunderstandings and,
ultimately, in lack of credibility.

10.  The same problems arise, although to a lesser degree,
in dealing with major transformations such as population
growth and urbanization. People have difficulty adjusting
from the scale of things encountered in everyday life to the
scales of magnitude -- enormously large and infinitesimally
small -- needed to understand demographic or ecological
phenomena. Ultimately, a solution can be found only by
educating the public in the developmental and
environmental "facts of life". Indeed, in the twenty-first
century, the literacies of science, ecology and development
will be as essential to comprehending the world as were the
traditional skills of reading and writing at the start of the
present century.

11.  In the meantime, it will be important for those
advocating sustainable development to choose, wherever
possible, those cases and examples that are most easily
understood by the general public. The basic dictum of
pedagogy is to begin where the learner is. This is also good
advice for the communication specialist. Start with
problems that people feel and understand at the local level.
That is both valuable knowledge in itself and, if need be,
a basis for moving on to more complex and global
understandings.

                   VII. The messengers

12.  Emotionalism and exaggeration are another frequent
source of difficulty. The press is understandably drawn to
those with the most extreme views. Disagreements and
conflicting views between specialists are also "newsworthy"
and are skilfully exploited. More moderate and reasoned
voices often go unheard in the din. Extreme positions, while
they may be useful in catching the public s attention and
alerting it to pending dangers, make it difficult to move
from declarations and debate into action.

13.  It has to be recognized that neither individuals nor
societies are ready or even able to change their habits and
behaviours from one day to the next. Proposals for change,
if they are to be effective, have to be feasible. Both the
messages and the messengers have to appear credible and
responsible. Alarmist predictions that make it seem that the
world is about to end are evidently not conducive to the
long-term planning and action that sustainable development
requires. On the contrary, it is far more effective to present
problems as manageable through responsible conduct and,
wherever possible, put forward a realistic solution and a
means to take preventive action.

    VIII.  Reorienting education to support sustainability

14.  Reorienting education to sustainability requires
recognizing that traditional compartments and categories
can no longer remain in isolation from each other and that
we must work increasingly at the interface of disciplines in
order to address the complex problems of today's world.
This is true both within education, where interdisciplinarity
is slowly and with difficulty gaining ground, and between
the spheres of education, work and leisure as lifelong
learning emerges as a key concept for planning and
developing educational systems. These changes are not
occurring nearly as rapidly as would be desired, but they are
nonetheless taking shape within education at all levels.

15.  Ultimately, sustainable development will require an
education that not only continues throughout life, but is also
as broad as life itself, an education that serves all people,
draws upon all domains of knowledge and seeks to integrate
learning into all of life's major activities. The rapid growth
of knowledge has rendered the notion of schooling as a
"once and for all" preparation for life utterly obsolete. The
growth of knowledge is advancing exponentially, yet not
nearly as fast as the need for understanding and solutions
at which it is aimed. As concerns sustainable development
specifically, it is impossible to predict with reliability what
will be the key issues on which people will need information
in 5, 10, 20 or 50 years. It is predictable, however, that such
developments will not fit neatly into the existing and
artificial subdivisions of knowledge that have been in place
for more than a century. Hence, understanding and solving
complex problems is likely to require intensified
cooperation among scientific fields as well as between the
pure sciences and the social sciences. Reorienting education
to sustainable development will, in short, require important,
even dramatic changes, in nearly all areas.

16.  In the sections that follow, a number of key issues
relating to the role of education in sustainable development
will be briefly examined.

             IX.  Importance of basic education

17.  Inherent in the concept of sustainability is the vision
of a more equitable world. This can only be achieved by
providing the disadvantaged with the means to advance
themselves and their families. And of these means, the most
essential is education, particularly basic education. Over
100 million children between the ages of 6 and 11 never
attend school and tens of millions more enter school only
to drop out within a few months or years. Moreover, there
are over 800 million illiterate adults, most of whom have
never been enrolled in school. The first requirement in the
quest for development and equity must be to change this
situation and make schooling of quality available to all. But
that goal, alas, is still far off. For the present, the challenge
is to make the best of an unfortunate and unjust situation.

18.  Given the situation today in many developing
countries, it does not suffice to orient formal education
towards sustainability. Attention also has to be given to
those who are at present unserved or poorly served by
schools. This is a large group, well over a billion people,
and a vital one for the future. Girls and women, the mothers
of today and tomorrow, are in the majority. They are, or will
be, the first and most influential teachers of their children.
The goals of educating young children are focused on
ensuring their health, development, happiness, well-being
and adjustment to the environment in which they live.

19.  Basic education is aimed at all the essential goals of
education: learning to know, to do, to be (i.e., to assume
one's duties and responsibilities) and to live together with
others, as outlined in Education: the Treasure Within, the
report of the Independent Commission on Education for the
Twenty-first Century, published in 1996 by UNESCO.

20.  Basic education provides the foundation for all future
education and learning. Its goal, as concerns those in the
pre-school primary school-age population, whether enrolled
in school or not, is to produce children who are happy with
themselves and with others, who find learning exciting and
develop inquiring minds, who begin to build up a storehouse
of knowledge about the world and, more important, an
approach to seeking knowledge that they can use and
develop throughout their lives. Basic education for adults
is aimed at empowerment by enabling people to participate
in shaping a sustainable future. Basic education is, thus, not
only the foundation for lifelong learning, but also the
foundation for sustainable development.

         X.  Changes required in formal education

21.  Education plays a dual role, at once both reproducing
certain aspects of current society and preparing students to
transform society for the future. These roles are not
necessarily mutually exclusive. However, without the
commitment of all of society to sustainable development,
curricula have tended in the past to reproduce an
unsustainable culture with intensified environment and
development problems rather than to empower citizens to
think and work towards their solution. The role of formal
education in building society is to help students to
determine what is best to conserve in their cultural,
economic and natural heritage and to nurture values and
strategies for attaining sustainability in their local
communities while contributing at the same time to national
and global goals.

              A.     Curriculum reform

22.  To advance such goals, a curriculum reoriented
towards sustainability would place the notion of citizenship
among its primary objectives. [BOLD] This would require a
revision of many existing curricula and the development
of objectives and content themes, and teaching, learning
and assessment processes that emphasize moral virtues,
ethical motivation and ability to work with others to
help build a sustainable future.

23.  This kind of orientation would require, inter alia,
increased attention to the humanities and social sciences
in the curriculum. [unbold] The natural sciences provide 
important abstract knowledge of the world but, of themselves, 
do not contribute to the values and attitudes that must be the
foundation of sustainable development. Even increased
study of ecology is not sufficient to reorient education
towards sustainability. Even though ecology has been
described by some as the foundation discipline of
environmental education, studies of the biophysical and
geophysical world are a necessary -- but not sufficient -- 
prerequisite to understanding sustainability. The traditional
primacy of nature study, and the often apolitical contexts
in which it is taught, need to be balanced with the study of
social sciences and humanities. Learning about the
interactions of ecological processes would then be
associated with market forces, cultural values, equitable
decision-making, government action and the environmental
impacts of human activities in a holistic interdependent
manner.

24.  [BOLD] A reaffirmation of the contribution of education
to society means that the central goals of education must
include helping students learn how to identify elements
of unsustainable development that concern them and
how to address them. [unbold] Students need to learn how to reflect
critically on their place in the world and to consider what
sustainability means to them and their communities. [BOLD] They
need to practise envisioning alternative ways of
achieving development and of living, evaluating
alternative visions and more sustainable consumption
and production patterns, learning how to negotiate and
justify choices between visions, making plans for
achieving desired ones, and participating in community
life to bring such visions into effect. [unbold] These are the skills
and abilities which underlie good citizenship, and make
education for sustainability part of a process of building an
informed, concerned and active populace. In this way,
education for sustainability contributes to education for
democracy and peace.

        B.     Structural reform

25.  [BOLD] Reorienting the curriculum towards sustainable
development requires at least two major structural
reforms in education. The first is to re-examine the
centralized mandating of courses and textbooks in order
to allow for locally relevant learning programmes. [unbold] Local
decision-making can be facilitated through the reform of
centralized educational policies and curricula, and the
formulation of appropriate syllabuses and assessment
policies. Nationally endorsed syllabuses can serve as "broad
framework documents" that provide aims and general
objectives for subjects, an overview of broad content
themes, appropriate learning experiences, relevant resource
materials, and criteria for assessing student learning. This
type of syllabus can provide centralized accountability,
while allowing schools, teachers and students to make
choices about the specific learning experience, the relative
depth and breadth of treatment for different topics, the case
studies and educational resources used, and how to assess
student achievements.

26.  A second major area of structural reform is the
development of new ways to assess the processes and
outcomes of learning. Such reform should be inspired by
what people want from their educational system, as well as
what society needs. The period of profound change in which
we are living needs to be taken into account by educational
systems, which were, for the most part, designed to serve
a society that is fast becoming history. Learning needs to
be seen as a lifelong process that empowers people to live
useful and productive lives. The reorientation of education
along these lines -- and in anticipation to the extent possible
of future needs -- is fundamental for sustainable
development, including its ultimate objective not only of
human survival but especially of human well-being and
happiness. [BOLD] Similarly, there also needs to be a revamping
of the methods of credentialing students. The various
ways in which students are judged (testing, report cards,
evaluations) and the basis for awarding diplomas at all
levels need to reflect the reformulation of outcomes of
learning towards sustainability. [unbold] 

     XI.  Contribution of environmental education

27.  It is clear that the roots of education for sustainable
development are firmly planted in environmental education.
While environmental education is not the only discipline
with a strong role to play in the reorienting process, it is an
important ally. In its brief 25-year history, environmental
education has steadily striven towards goals and outcomes
similar and comparable to those inherent in the concept of
sustainability.

28.  In the early 1970s, the emerging environmental
education movement was given a powerful boost by the
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment,
held in Stockholm in 1972, which recommended that
environmental education be recognized and promoted in all
countries. This recommendation led to the launching in
1975 by UNESCO and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) of the International Environmental
Education Programme (IEEP), which continued until 1995.
The influence of the IEEP -- and the national and
international activities that it inspired -- has been widely felt
and is reflected in many of the educational innovations
carried out in the last two decades.

29.  That work was inspired largely by the guiding
principles of environmental education laid down by the
Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education,
held in Tbilisi in 1977. The concepts and vision taken up
at the Conference encompass a broad spectrum of
environmental, social, ethical, economic and cultural
dimensions. Its basic principles were successfully translated
into educational goals and, with greater difficulty, into
schoolroom practice in many countries. It is therefore not
surprising that many recommendations of the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held
in Rio de Janeiro 15 years later, echo those of Tbilisi.                    

30.   The motto of the environmental education movement
has been: "think globally, act locally". Over a period of
more than two decades, it developed a highly active
pedagogy based on this premise. In the early grades, in
particular, the emphasis was upon learning the local
environment through field studies and classroom
experiments. By starting in the primary grades, before the
process of compartmentalization that marks secondary and
particularly higher education sets in, students were
encouraged to examine environmental issues from different
angles and perspectives.

31.   The influence of environmental education in
promoting interdisciplinary inquiries can be seen at all
levels of education. A course on environmental economics,
for example, looks to anthropology for insights and source
material. Environmental education has also found original
ways of looking at and measuring human impact on the
environment, such as the "ecological footprint", which
estimates the number of acres of land required to sustain
individuals according to their lifestyles and patterns of
consumption. Innovative work has also been done in the
field of environmental health by relating illness to
environmental stress and ways of life.

32.   In brief, the record of the environmental education
movement is one of resourcefulness, innovation and
continuing accomplishments. Lessons learned from
environmental education provide valuable insight for
developing the broader notion of education for sustainable
development.

                   XII. Interdisciplinarity

33.   Education for sustainability calls for both
interdisciplinary inquiry and action. It does not, of course,
imply an end to work within traditional disciplines. A
disciplinary focus is often helpful, even necessary, in
allowing the depth of inquiry needed for major
breakthroughs and discoveries. But increasingly, important
discoveries are being made not within disciplines, but on
the borders between them. This is particularly true in fields
such as environmental studies, which are not easily confined
to a single discipline. Despite this realization and a
broadening support for interdisciplinary inquiries, the
frontiers between academic disciplines remain stoutly
defended by professional bodies, career structures and
criteria for promotion and advancement. It is no accident
that environmental education and, more recently, education
for sustainable development, has progressed more rapidly
at the secondary and primary levels than within the realm
of higher education.

34.   Yet, higher education has an indispensable role to
play. This is true both in the area of research and in the
training of specialists and leaders in all fields. It is, for
example, increasingly important to include appropriate
materials on sustainable development in the programmes
of study of journalists, engineers, managers, doctors,
lawyers, scientists, economists, administrators and
numerous other professions. Universities could also render
a valuable service by building components of sustainable
development into the special programmes for teachers,
senior managers, local leaders such as mayors,
parliamentarians and others in leadership positions.
Universities also play a key role in international cooperation
and would do so more effectively if they gave fuller
consideration to the needs of scientists and social scientists
from developing countries, especially as concerns
interdisciplinary inquiries into environment and
development issues.

          XIII.     Culture and sustainability

35.  Culture shapes the way we perceive the world and how
we interact with it. To the extent that the global crisis facing
humanity is a reflection of our collective values, behaviour
and lifestyles, it is, above all, a cultural crisis. For all the
people of the world, culture is a very practical, concrete
determinant of sustainable development. The kind of change
required by sustainability at the level of community,
household or individual will need to be rooted in the
cultural specificity of the town or region if the people are
to be supportive of and involved in such change.

36.  It is in this context that education and public
awareness are seen as essential to bringing about conditions
conducive to sustainable development. Ethical values, such
as equity, are shaped through education, in the broadest
sense of the term. Education is also essential in enabling
people to use their ethical values to make informed and
ethical choices. Over time, education also powerfully affects
cultures and societies, increasing their concern over
unsustainable practices and their capacities to confront and
master change. Indeed, the potential of education is
enormous. Not only can it inform people, it can change
them. It is not only a means for personal enlightenment, but
also a means for cultural renewal. Education not only
provides the scientific and technical skills required, it also
provides the motivation, justification and social support for
pursuing and applying them. Education increases the
capacities of people to transform their visions of society
into operational realities. It is for this reason that education
is the primary agent of transformation towards sustainable
development.

                  XIV. Mobilizing for action

37.  While sustainability is a long-term goal for human
society and a process that will necessarily need to take place
over time, there is a sense of urgency to make progress
quickly before time runs out. Humanity is therefore faced
with a tremendous challenge, a challenge of unprecedented
scope, scale and complexity. One is pressed to act even as
new concepts and new methodologies are still being worked
out. One is pushed to change structures and mindsets, yet
there is no obvious path, no model that shows the way.
Experimentation and innovation are the watchwords, as we
search -- often simply through trial and error -- for adequate
solutions. And one must do all this in a climate of sweeping
economic, social and political change, while being exhorted
to "do more with less".

           XV.  International framework for action

38.  There is an internationally negotiated framework for
action that has been hammered out during the series of
United Nations conferences dealing with different aspects
of sustainable development, beginning in 1992 with Rio
(environment and development), and followed in 1994 by
Cairo (population), in 1995 by Copenhagen (social
development) and Beijing (women), and in 1996 by Istanbul
(human settlements). Each of these conferences, as well as
the three conventions on biological diversity, climate
change and desertification, contain explicit
recommendations or whole chapters devoted to education
and public awareness. The international consensus that these
agreements represent is a solid and comprehensive basis for
moving forward.

39.  At the heart of this new international consensus is a
new vision of education, public awareness and training as
the essential underpinning for sustainable development, a
linchpin to support advances in other spheres, such as
science, technology, legislation and production. Within the
action plans, education is no longer seen as an end in itself,
but as a means to:

             - Bring about the changes in values, behaviour and
               lifestyle that are needed to achieve sustainable
               development, and ultimately democracy, human
               security and peace;

             - Disseminate knowledge, know-how and skills that are
               needed to bring about sustainable production and
               consumption patterns and to improve the management
               of natural resources, agriculture, energy and industrial
               production;

             - Ensure an informed populace that is prepared to
               support changes towards sustainability emerging from
               other sectors.

40.   [BOLD] There is an increased emphasis on integrated
follow-up to these action plans. As far as education,
public awareness and training are concerned, chapter
36 of Agenda 21 provides an umbrella framework for
such integration. [unbold] The implementation is to be undertaken
not only for international institutions such as the United
Nations system, but also and most importantly by national
and local entities. A range of major groups   including
women, youth, farmers, parliamentarians, scientists,
business and industry and others   are called upon to
participate, as well as Governments and non-governmental
organizations at all levels.

                 XVI. Action at the national level

41.  [BOLD] It is at this level that overall strategies for
sustainable development must be given clarity and
impetus and the need to integrate education into them
in creative and effective ways recognized and acted
upon. [unbold] This involves the national Government -- which has
the leadership role -- major NGOs and associations, citizens
groups, including corporate citizens, and educational and
other specialized institutions. Also involved are the
agencies and organizations of the United Nations system,
which are endeavouring to work closely with national
authorities in implementing the recommendations of the
various international conferences that have pointed the way
towards sustainable development. [BOLD] The media -- including
the most modern and traditional ones, should also be
engaged to explain the purposes and goals of
programmes and in making government plans and action
known to the public.

42.  Governments should play a leading role in
explaining the vision and benefits of sustainable
development to the public. [unbold] They should do so through all
means available, public and private. [BOLD] The national school
curriculum, at all levels, must incorporate the messages
of sustainable development. These messages must also
be emphasized in pre-service and in-service programmes
of teacher training. Specialized institutions of all sorts
should be actively involved. [unbold] The relationship between
environmental factors and health problems, for example,
should be explained by doctors, nurses and hospitals.

43.  It is essential that national leaders demonstrate that
there is political will to give priority to sustainable
development and that they see public awareness-raising and
education and training as essential means for achieving
national objectives. [BOLD] Government leaders have to translate
the concept of sustainable development into clearly
definable steps and goals. Such goals should be set for
every sector. There should, for example, be a clear
timetable for reorienting the education system with the
necessary budget and resources to achieve the goal. [unbold] In
many countries, national strategies or plans for sustainable
development are instrumental in mobilizing and focusing
efforts around national priorities. Similar plans also exist
at the level of some regions and subregions.

44.  [BOLD] The civil society at all levels, especially the
national, should express its support for vigorous action
aimed at advancing towards sustainable development. [unbold] 
Organizations with specialized interests and competencies
should not only support government actions, but should also
monitor and assess them within their areas of competence
and keep the public informed of both progress and
problems. [BOLD] Teachers associations, for example, should
carefully assess the progress being achieved in
reorienting the education system towards sustainability
and should keep both their members and the public-at-large 
informed of the situation.  

45.  At the local level, the meaning and vision of
sustainable development should be disseminated,
discussed and debated in order to promote
understanding and win community support. These
discussions should take place in all community settings
and institutions, including in schools. [unbold] 

46.  The need for sustainable development at the local
level must be understood. Practices that are not sustainable
should be identified. Possibilities for correcting them can
then be discussed and explored. It is critically important that
the entire community, especially women, be involved in this
discussion. Women, especially in rural communities, usually
play a key role in the economic as well as in the social and
cultural aspects of life. [BOLD] The local community and the
household are important entry points for messages on
sustainable development, especially for adults and out-of-school 
children. The schools, too, at all levels, should
be actively involved in both discussions about and action
to achieve sustainable development and should keep
both their members and the public-at-large informed of
the situation. [unbold] 

                            Notes

          1    EPD-97/CONF.401/CLD.1; available from UNESCO in
               Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish in
               printed form or on the Internet (http://www.unesco.org).

          2    See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council,
               1996, Supplement No. 8 (E/1996/28), chap. I, sect. C, decision
               4/11.

Date last posted: 8 December 1999 15:15:30
Comments and suggestions: DESA/DSD