91 / 192
[
] 91
• Exposure to Swedish and international ESD experiences and
front-line initiatives, sharing of regional experiences,
understanding of change processes and access to professional
networks supports innovative approaches and development of
new ESD methods and processes.
Much gratitude is extended to the many partners supporting the
ESD ITPs in both Africa and Asia but it is essentially the ITP partici-
pants themselves to whom we owe the most thanks. It is they who
are changing the way people are living on the planet and ensuring
that the future is sustainable and continues to support life on Earth.
The Swedish International Centre of Education for Sustainable
Development
At the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg, the Swedish Government announced that it would
undertake special efforts to promote the concept and practice of educa-
tion for sustainable development, internationally and domestically. In
addition to the International Training Programme on ESD described
above, this led to the international consultation entitled ‘Learning to
change our world’, held in Gothenburg in May 2004. The consulta-
tion was followed by five international workshops on learning for
sustainable development, all held in Gothenburg. The fifth workshop
produced the Gothenburg Recommendations
7
inviting and challeng-
ing governments, civil society and in particular, educators all over the
world, to prioritize processes that develop and strengthen education
for sustainable development. The Gothenburg Recommendations were
officially submitted to the UNESCO World Conference on Education
for Sustainable Development in Bonn, Germany, in April 2009.
In 2008, as a result of another set of efforts, the Swedish government
commissionedGotlandUniversity inVisby, capital of the islandof Gotland
in the middle of the Baltic Sea, to establish the Swedish International
Centre of Education for Sustainable Development (SWEDESD), for
which it made available an initial funding of SEK 75 million.
SWEDESD’s mission is to facilitate the development of capacity
among practitioners, decision makers and researchers associated with
education for development, to formulate, implement and evaluate
relevant, appropriate and effective policies, initiatives and activities.
The activities of SWEDESD support the further development and
practice of education for sustainable development through training,
learning, research, evaluation, information exchange, networking, part-
nerships, policy analysis and capacity development. They are designed
and implemented in close cooperation with national and regional
partner organizations in countries in the Global South with which
Sweden is engaged in development cooperation, while building on
experience and expertise available in Sweden and elsewhere. Currently,
the India-based Centre of Environmental Education (CEE) and the
South Africa-based Regional Environmental Education Programme
of the Southern African Development Community (SADC REEP) are
SWEDESD’s key partner organizations in Asia and Africa.
SWEDESD contributes to the official Swedish development
assistance policy, operating within the international development
frameworks of the UN Millennium Development Goals, Education
for All (EFA) and the DESD.
Integrating the principal components of ESD
In essence, ESD rests on the combination and integration of two princi-
pal components. The first component is the ‘substance’ of sustainability
and sustainable development. The second component is the multitude of
approaches andmethods for acquiring knowledge of sustain-
ability and the skills and attitudes needed tomove sustainable
development forward. It is in the integration of these two
components, that the strength of ESD will manifest itself.
SWEDESD’s niche is tomake the best ESD insights and prac-
tices from around the world available to ESD practitioners.
As far as the content component is concerned,
SWEDESD and its partners are focusing on concepts and
issues of ecosystem services and strong sustainability;
particularly on how investing in and accounting for ecosys-
tem services can enhance sustainability and, consequently,
livelihoods and well-being. With respect to the method
component, they are focusing on clarifying the principles
of and conditions for effective educational processes for
change towards greater sustainability, emphasizing situ-
ated learning and the importance of agency.
Programmes and activities
SWEDESD is a new organization, which is gradually
finding its place in the international networks of organi-
zations of practitioners, researchers and policy makers
wishing to make ESD and its constituent components
part and parcel of daily educational and learning reali-
ties. Its portfolio, developed and implemented with its
partners, currently contains four main programmes:
• A professional development programme on
education in and for sustainable cities
• An international flagship course on ESD
• A professional development programme on
ecosystem services, strong sustainability and agency
• A professional training and certification programme
for sustainability learning facilitators.
SWEDESD’s research and development programme
includes projects on:
• Climate Change Education Research (with Uppsala
University, Rhodes University and the University of
Zambia)
• The ‘Pattern Laboratory Approach’ to ESD initiatives
and projects (with Global Action Plan International)
• Early Childhood Education and Sustainability (with
Gothenburg University and OMEP)
• The use of simulations and scenario building (with
Gotland University’s Game Design department)
• Stage art for sustainable development.
An active web presence
(www.swedesd.com), which is
continuously growing in depth and breadth, supports
SWEDESD’s programmes and activities.
Sweden’s continuing role in ESD
Through its direct and indirect support for the DESD,
Sweden has emphasized that education, in its many
manifestations and throughout life, is one of the most
strategic means for people to gain understanding of
the interaction between the social, economic and
ecological dimensions of development. The activi-
ties outlined in this article are evidence of Sweden’s
commitment to ESD.