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Ján KUBIŠ, Executive Secretary, UNECE
Education is a key means for building a sustainable future. Education for sustainable development (ESD)
empowers individuals, communities and society as a whole to make informed judgements and choices in
favour of sustainable development. The UNECE Strategy for ESD, adopted in 2005, is a policy tool that
helps countries to introduce and promote ESD in national formal, non-formal and informal education. It
aims to develop policy, regulatory and operational frameworks to support ESD, equipping educators with
the necessary competencies, ensuring that adequate tools and materials for ESD are accessible, promoting
research on and development of ESD and strengthening regional cooperation on ESD. Since 2005, the
UNECE region has made good progress in furthering ESD, including activities such as developing a set
of ESD indicators and related tools to measure the effectiveness of ESD implementation and to support
countries’ self-assessment; developing ESD competencies for policymakers and for teachers; sharing
experiences through collection of good practices; developing capacity through workshops and training;
and strengthening the use of electronic tools. The region is progressing well to achieve its 2015 target in
implementing ESD.
The
Tomorrow Today
initiative provides an excellent opportunity to consolidate the acquired knowledge
and practice in ESD across the globe with a view to learning from each other and joining efforts in building a
sustainable future locally, regionally and globally.
Ján Kubiš
Executive Secretary, UNECE