Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

Image: © UNESCO/Carol EckerHuman development: a key to poverty reductionThe Dakar Framework for Action 2000 underscores the importanceof tapping into each individual’s talent and potential andencourages the development of the individual’s personality toimprove lives and transform societies, now and in the future. Theseelements find pride of place in the question of quality of education,which in turn is at the heart of ESD.The issue of quality education underscores the principle of learnerfriendliness.To this end, it concentrates on the holistic developmentof individuals, empowering them to participate and perform in everylearning environment that they encounter. By focusing on the needsof every learner, quality education lends support to the aims of thehuman capability approach.The human capability approach: tapping into human potentialThe first UNDP Human Development Report in 1990 proposed thathuman welfare should be considered the goal of development andthat there was a perceived need ‘‘to shift the focus of developmenteconomics from national income accounting to people centeredpolicies’’. 4 The Human Development Index (HDI) was a result ofdeliberations around this concept. It was Amartya Sen’s work oncapabilities and functionings that provided the underlying conceptualframework for the development of the HDI. Sen roped in ideasand issues that were excluded from the traditional discourse on theeconomics of welfare and brought in a whole new dimension of therealization of full human potential.Education is valuable as an end in itself and has been identifiedby Sen as a capability to meet basic needs. For education to fullyenhance development, it is required that the learning needs of allare met through equitable access to education of such quality thatit leads to learning outcomes that enhance the freedom to do, to beand to know. To this end, the capability approach must be seen interms of learning outcomes.The capability approach looks at what education empowerspeople to achieve. This fits well with the intentions of ESD – to helppeople solve problems and to think critically and in a systemic way.It would be an element of consideration for developingthe assessment framework for ESD learning outcomes.The linkage between quality education, ESD andthe human capability approach are evident. To thisend, the work around indicators for quality education(among a variety of other issues), which has beendeveloped over the years to inform the developmentof the Global Monitoring Report for Education forAll, is another element that could provide support todevelop the assessment framework for ESD learningoutcomes.UNESCO’s post-decade roleThe linkages between the four elements describedabove certainly have common ground but there is muchwork to be done before they could be used togetherto develop a tool for assessing ESD learning outcomes.If change to ensure a sustainable future is what lies atthe heart of the education for sustainable developmententerprise, then it is essential to equip people with amechanism to assess what (if anything) has changed,and whether it is taking them to the desired goal of asustainable future.As lead agency for the decade, UNESCO has initiatedthe process of transformation by promoting, implementingand advocating for ESD. If this momentum isto be maintained, UNESCO needs to initiate thinkingaround the issue of its contribution post-decade.His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales told theCopenhag en Climate Summit in December 2009: “Justas mankind has the power to push the world to thebrink, so, too, do we have the power to bring it backinto balance.” UNESCO, on the strength of its workrelated to ESD during the Decade as well as beyond it,has the power to contribute to restoring that balance.[ 178 ]