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Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal Councillor, Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign
Affairs and Member of the UN High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability
Sustainable development is a concern that cuts across all levels of society. It is also an opportunity.
Taking up the challenge and giving it due priority, the United Nations has not only created worldwide
awareness but also formulated international policies upon which Member States have been able to
define their own commitments. Sustainable development is a vanguard for all those who, in shared
and concerted efforts, are willing to stand up for a more viable and fair society for all. For the last few
decades, we have been tackling the issue from a variety of viewpoints, gaining fruitful insights and
asserting common values. We now need concrete implementation, new approaches and international
cooperation.
In this regard, education is fundamental. Education enables adults to see and address local and global
problems as citizens, parents and stakeholders in an economic and political system. Education enables
new generations to understand all the interconnections in the world that they will discover in time, to
question what seems immutable, and to develop intellectual and critical approaches to life. Education
enables people to get their bearings and establish innovative and fruitful relationships with the world
around them. Education enables people to make sustainable decisions, for themselves and for the
community, today and tomorrow.
“Our task is not to foresee the future, but to enable it,” said Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Education
for sustainable development is the most efficient way to demonstrate that we are developing within
ourselves the capacity to rise to the occasion.
Micheline Calmy-Rey
Federal Councillor, Head of the Swiss Federal Department of
Foreign Affairs and Member of the