Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

The German DESD websitefactor when steering education towards sustainable development.Education plans and curricula are normally in the domain of governmentsor public administrations. Governments provide budgets foreducation reforms, and they also issue political guidelines. Strong politicalsupport is thus an important facilitator for DESD implementation.At the same time, government action alone is not sufficient forsuccessful DESD activities. Civil society plays an equally importantrole. This is true for all far-ranging reform agendas; however, theparticipation of civil society is particularly important for sustainabledevelopment and for ESD. What, then, is the role of civil society inthe DESD, nationally and internationally? First of all, ESD on theground is often implemented by civil society, by environmental ordevelopment non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), by foundationsor simply by individual experts. They are the ones who candisseminate ESD to every member of society, spread informationand change habits. Secondly, many innovative ideas that drive ESDforward emerge from the awareness prevalent among many sectorsof civil society that our resource-intensive way of life must change.Innovative ideas depend on open discourse. Civil society is where thisdiscourse takes place.Moreover, a vibrant discourse on ESD in civil society can providea corrective to politics and administrations. For various reasons,politics can be slow to grasp the dramatic urgency to take measuresthat promote sustainable development – measures that might behurtful in the short run and endanger re-election. ESD, in particular,is sometimes marginalized because education is under so manyother pressures and confronted with many other demands. In thissituation, NGO’s often have the means, through public campaigns,to demand more urgent action from the political sectors that areresponsible. Civil society can play a similar ‘watchdog’ function withregard to private business.For comprehensive changes in education, however, civil societyaction must ultimately reach the level of education plans and budgets.ESD needs to be enshrined in coherent and balanced political frameworksin order to be realized across the board and to stay in linewith other demands education must fulfil. The most promising way ofimplementing the DESD, therefore, is to forge a partnership betweenpolitics and civil society, a partnership that need not always beImage: www.bne-portal.deharmonious but should be designed in a way that makesantagonisms fruitful.The role of National Commissions for UNESCONational Commissions for UNESCO, which have beenestablished in all UNESCO member states, are in manycountries ideally positioned to forge such a partnershipbetween politics and civil society. While in each memberstate National Commissions are structured in differentways, one of their main tasks is to organize national civilsociety input into multilateral cooperation in the fieldsof education, science, culture and communication. Oneof the major strengths of the National Commissions isthat UNESCO is a highly respected ‘brand’. NationalCommissions therefore enjoy high acceptance in civilsociety and can thus serve as a platform for organizingdialogue between the major players in civil society,political administrators and decision makers. Moreover,they also have a certain neutrality, being situatedhalfway, as it were, between politics and civil society.An additional strength is that they are part of a globalnetwork of 193 National Commissions, which makesit possible to quickly communicate national activitiesand link them with activities in other member states.For the German implementation of the DESD, we haveattempted to build upon these strengths.The implementation of the DESD in GermanyGermany is in the fortunate situation that the implementationof the DESD has enjoyed considerablepolitical support. In 2004, the German Parliament ina unanimous resolution called upon the governmentto become active in the DESD and provided suggestionsfor a plan of action. The lead ministry for theDESD, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research,then provided funding to the German Commission forUNESCO to set up a DESD coordination unit. Thepatronage of the German Federal President for nationalDESD implementation is another strong political signal.From the beginning, organizing DESD implementationin a partnership between politics and civil societyhas been a cornerstone of our national activities. Infact, in 2003, as a follow up to the World Summiton Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, theGerman Commission for UNESCO issued its HamburgDeclaration on ESD and called upon all relevant stakeholdersto make the DESD their own. As a consequence,an organizational structure was put in place with theNational Committee for the DESD at the centre.The National Committee and the Round TableThe German National Commission for UNESCO set upthe National Committee for the DESD in consultation withthe Federal Ministry of Education and Research in mid2004. It brings together representatives from the relevantFederal Ministries, Parliament, the Länder or States, localgovernment, NGO’s foundations, the media, the privatesector and academia, as well as from school students.Multi-stakeholder cooperation is realized through the[ 124 ]