Tomorrow Today

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Climate change adaptation is dependent on countries’ resilience,

expertise and ability to strengthen their human resources. To

help this process, UNICEF continues to place strong emphasis on

capacity development. UNICEF has developed a Global Capacity

Development Programme on Child-Friendly Schools, which has

now been rolled out in countries and regions. Major components are

the CFS reference manual and e-learning package.

Critical issues

referred to in the manual and e-learning package are being dealt with

in depth through modules and a resource pack.

UNICEF’s official contribution to the DESD is the climate change

and environmental education resource pack for the CFS manual,

which provides guidance on the mainstreaming of a holistic

approach to climate change education into schools, national policies

and programmes. The resource pack is being prepared by UNICEF

with inputs from the Inter-agency Committee on the Decade of

Education for Sustainable Development.

Some illustrative projects

Though not directly supported by UNICEF, Brazil’s innovative and

successful model for the popularisation of local and global issues

of environment and sustainability is an excellent demonstration

of the application of children’s rights to inclusion

and democratic participation. The model was built up

around the DESD and related international agreements.

Participating schools and communities, with a special

emphasis on marginalized groups, hold debates and

take action on social and environmental problems in

their communities for the chance to send a delegate to

the National Children and Youth Conference for the

Environment. Young people are given responsibility for

most of the decision-making throughout the process

and, as delegates returning from the Conference, play

a central role in the continuation of environmental

education in their schools and communities.

The Maldives, a nation of small islands with fragile

ecosystems, has long recognized the importance of

education and environmental sustainability. Strong

political backing currently exists for building resil-

ience to disasters caused by natural hazards and

adaptation to climate change. Environmental educa-

tion has been part of the national school curriculum

since the 1980s but has been taught through the tradi-

A boy waters his plant in the school garden at the UNICEF-supported primary school

in the village of Rubingo in Kigali Province, Rwanda

The ORA D’Impfondo School near Impfondo, capital of the northern

Likouala Province of Republic of the Congo, where UNICEF supports

health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education and other

interventions. The school provides basic education for indigenous

Baka children