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harmonious but should be designed in a way that makes
antagonisms fruitful.
The role of National Commissions for UNESCO
National Commissions for UNESCO, which have been
established in all UNESCO member states, are in many
countries ideally positioned to forge such a partnership
between politics and civil society. While in each member
state National Commissions are structured in different
ways, one of their main tasks is to organize national civil
society input into multilateral cooperation in the fields
of education, science, culture and communication. One
of the major strengths of the National Commissions is
that UNESCO is a highly respected ‘brand’. National
Commissions therefore enjoy high acceptance in civil
society and can thus serve as a platform for organiz-
ing dialogue between the major players in civil society,
political administrators and decision makers. Moreover,
they also have a certain neutrality, being situated
halfway, as it were, between politics and civil society.
An additional strength is that they are part of a global
network of 193 National Commissions, which makes
it possible to quickly communicate national activities
and link them with activities in other member states.
For the German implementation of the DESD, we have
attempted to build upon these strengths.
The implementation of the DESD in Germany
Germany is in the fortunate situation that the imple-
mentation of the DESD has enjoyed considerable
political support. In 2004, the German Parliament in
a unanimous resolution called upon the government
to become active in the DESD and provided sugges-
tions for a plan of action. The lead ministry for the
DESD, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research,
then provided funding to the German Commission for
UNESCO to set up a DESD coordination unit. The
patronage of the German Federal President for national
DESD implementation is another strong political signal.
From the beginning, organizing DESD implementa-
tion in a partnership between politics and civil society
has been a cornerstone of our national activities. In
fact, in 2003, as a follow up to the World Summit
on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, the
German Commission for UNESCO issued its Hamburg
Declaration on ESD and called upon all relevant stake-
holders to make the DESD their own. As a consequence,
an organizational structure was put in place with the
National Committee for the DESD at the centre.
The National Committee and the Round Table
The German National Commission for UNESCO set up
the National Committee for the DESD in consultation with
the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in mid
2004. It brings together representatives from the relevant
Federal Ministries, Parliament, the Länder or States, local
government, NGO’s foundations, the media, the private
sector and academia, as well as from school students.
Multi-stakeholder cooperation is realized through the
factor when steering education towards sustainable development.
Education plans and curricula are normally in the domain of govern-
ments or public administrations. Governments provide budgets for
education reforms, and they also issue political guidelines. Strong politi-
cal support is thus an important facilitator for DESD implementation.
At the same time, government action alone is not sufficient for
successful DESD activities. Civil society plays an equally important
role. This is true for all far-ranging reform agendas; however, the
participation of civil society is particularly important for sustainable
development and for ESD. What, then, is the role of civil society in
the DESD, nationally and internationally? First of all, ESD on the
ground is often implemented by civil society, by environmental or
development non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), by founda-
tions or simply by individual experts. They are the ones who can
disseminate ESD to every member of society, spread information
and change habits. Secondly, many innovative ideas that drive ESD
forward emerge from the awareness prevalent among many sectors
of civil society that our resource-intensive way of life must change.
Innovative ideas depend on open discourse. Civil society is where this
discourse takes place.
Moreover, a vibrant discourse on ESD in civil society can provide
a corrective to politics and administrations. For various reasons,
politics can be slow to grasp the dramatic urgency to take measures
that promote sustainable development – measures that might be
hurtful in the short run and endanger re-election. ESD, in particu-
lar, is sometimes marginalized because education is under so many
other pressures and confronted with many other demands. In this
situation, NGO’s often have the means, through public campaigns,
to demand more urgent action from the political sectors that are
responsible. Civil society can play a similar ‘watchdog’ function with
regard to private business.
For comprehensive changes in education, however, civil society
action must ultimately reach the level of education plans and budgets.
ESD needs to be enshrined in coherent and balanced political frame-
works in order to be realized across the board and to stay in line
with other demands education must fulfil. The most promising way of
implementing the DESD, therefore, is to forge a partnership between
politics and civil society, a partnership that need not always be
The German DESD website
Image: www.bne-portal.de