Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

Minister. This is a step towards enhancing specialized capabilitiesfor sustainable development. The National SustainableDevelopment Council was reorganized in 2009 to cover ESD asa permanent part of its activities. 6 The former Viet Nam NationalCommittee for the UN Decade of Education for SustainableDevelopment (DESD) was designated as one of the four specialcommittees assisting the National Sustainable DevelopmentCouncil. The members of the Viet Nam National Committee forthe DESD include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministryof Education and Training, the Ministry of Culture, Sports andTourism, the Ministry of Information and Communication, theMinistry of Resources and Environment, the Viet Nam Academyof Social Sciences, the Viet Nam Academy of Sciences andTechnologies and the Viet Nam National UNESCO Commission.ESD in Viet NamThe first National Action Plan for ESDIn line with the United Nations initiative on the DESD, a Viet NamNational Committee for the DESD has been established. 7 Under theumbrella of this national committee, the National Action Plan forthe DESD (2005-2014) has been prepared. It focuses on orientationand vision development; contribution and mastering; coordinationand cooperation; capacity-building and training; research and innovation;ICT; and monitoring and evaluation.In the first five years, the main activities were the raising ofawareness, piloting of initiatives and projects for new linkages. Thecapacity of the participating agencies and organizations has beenimproved and ESD has been introduced into many non-formaleducational activities throughout the country and has now becomepart of the Education For All campaign in Viet Nam.School education programmes have been enriched with elementsof ESD. National policies and actions have been introduced intoschool curriculum such as gender equity, children’s rights, HIV/AIDS, environmental protection and livelihood development. Atnational level, the research cooperation and capacity-buildingnetwork has been expanded, providing the required knowledgeand qualified manpower to agencies and organizations workingon ESD, as well as environmental protection. At a local level,diverse educational activities in and out of school have brought inthe necessary knowledge and skills to solve socio-economic localissues. ESD has actively helped to solve developmental issues andcontributed to the goals of education.Under the framework of the first National Action Plan, manyactivities have been carried out, such as cooperation between VietNam Man and Biosphere and the Viet Nam Agenda 21 Office indevising sustainable development models for the development ofbiosphere reserves in Viet Nam and funding agreements with theprivate sector for sustainable development and ESD activities.In collaboration with UNESCO, a forum for partners in ESDhas been established as a vehicle to share information amongESD partners. The UNESCO guide on teaching and learningabout sustainable development is being translated and adaptedto Vietnamese conditions as a supporting material for teachertraining. Many of the teacher trainers have been sent to workshopsto enhance their knowledge and skills in ESD. High-leveleducational managers are also placed in orientation workshopsto learn about ESD, from which awareness about integration ofESD into educational programmes will be eased and facilitatedfor these managers.The Viet Nam National Committee for the DESDhas also supported many workshops and trainingactivities to enhance knowledge surrounding ESD andshare experiences from other countries to Vietnameseeducational institutions. A youth forum, Youth andSustainable Development 2010, has been organizedby a local non-profit organization to promote thepioneering role of younger generations in sustainabledevelopment.However, the first five years of ESD have also facedmany challenges from the education system. Despite theprogress in education, the system is still burdened withproblems such as dated teaching methods and heavycontent. Integration of ESD and environmental educationcontent into school curriculum has proved to bedifficult due to the overloaded curricula. ESD contentbrings in new knowledge but awareness and behaviouralchanges have been slow to come. The lack of aclear roadmap for integration creates difficulties whenintegrating ESD into education programmes.The second National Action Plan for ESDBased on the experience in the first five years of ESD inViet Nam, the Bonn Declaration on ESD and Viet NamAgenda 21, a new National Action Plan for ESD in VietNam (2010-2014) has been formulated. The overalltask is to accelerate ESD initiatives and programmes,mobilizing resources to initiate the transformationin lifestyles. The main components of the new actionplan are teaching and learning for a sustainable futurethrough coordination and cooperation; capacity-buildingand training; research and innovation; and ICT andmonitoring.The new action plan aims to: improve the recognitionof ESD as a basis for sustainable development;transform sustainable awareness into concrete actions;integrate sustainability into certain aspects of educationfor a sustainable, equitable and civilized society;enhance the coordination and cooperation betweenpartners for ESD, and link ESD and Education For All,the Millennium Development Goals, Learning Societyand Vocational Education For All.The new actions to be taken in the coming yearsinclude:• Integration of ESD into formal and non-formaleducation programmes• Capacity-building and training activities• Propaganda for raising awareness about ESD for allindividuals, organizations and agencies• Improving non-formal education• Mobilizing the participation of social organizationsand businesses• Improving local and international coordination andcooperation.One of the focuses of ESD in the years to come willbe climate change and its impact on Viet Nam, asit has been recognized that Viet Nam will be one ofthe countries that will be hardest hit by potential[ 118 ]