Chapter 4 - Enabling and

Motivating People to Take Action

 Overview
• Education for SD

• Global Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) History

• Global ESD Agenda

• Types of Education and Training

• SD Competencies

• About Public Awareness and Attention

• Four Worldview Approaches to ESD

• SD Action and Learning Hand in Hand

 Education for SD
• ESD allows every human being to acquire
the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values
necessary to shape a sustainable future for
our society and the world.

—UNESCO
 Global ESD History
• Agenda 21 (Rio de Janeiro, 1992)

• Decade of ESD (2005–2014)

• Incheon Declaration (WEF, Korea 2015)

• SDG 4 on Learning for SD

• Global Education Monitoring (GEM Reports)

• ESDG Conference, Ahmedabad, 2016

 Global ESD Agenda
1. Improve basic education for all

2. Reorient existing education to address SD

3. Develop public awareness and understanding, and

4. Provide training for all sectors of economy and society

Types of Education and Training
• Formal education: Class-style instruction with tests and exams to
check understanding

• Informal learning: Learning that occurs in the family, the workplace

and communities, and through people’s own interests and
activities.

• Non-formal learning: Acquired in addition or as an alternative to

formal learning; takes place in community settings or through Civil
Society Organisation (CSO) activities.
 SD Competencies—1
• Responsibility: Identify and involve stakeholders; take personal
responsibility for one’s professional opinions and decisions; prepare to be
held accountable by stakeholders

• Emotional intelligence: Recognise and respect one’s own values and those
of other people; distinguish between facts, assumptions and opinions; and
co-operate effectively with people from different professional disciplines
and backgrounds

• System Orientation: Think at system level and component level, and

switch between the two levels if necessary
 SD Competencies—2
• Future orientation: Think in appropriate time scale—long- or short-
term; be unafraid of creative solutions

• Involvement: Build sustainability into one’s personal and professional

attitude; work to overcome obstacles

• Action Skills: Manage uncertainties, weigh up all relevant factors and

decide when the timing is right
About Public Awareness and Attention
• Cycles of public attention
– Depend on number and urgency of other matters

– Depend on public support for selected solution

– Depend on phase of policy implementation

• Attitudes and behaviour are most effective if

– The message is clear, rational and easy/practical

– Any infrastructure for a desired behaviour is in place

– It highlights pros and cons, and affirms the right choice

Four Worldview Approaches to ESD
• Bio-environmentalist: Growing within ecological limits; sharing the world;
indigenous knowledge and spirituality (e.g., deep ecology and earth as
organism)

• Institutionalist: Governance and law for inclusive development and SD;

incentive structures

• Market liberal: Designing and promoting market-based instruments for all

problems

• Social green: Looking for structural causes to income and power gaps;
economic localisation and empowerment
SD Action and Learning Hand in Hand

• Learn: About economic, social, environmental issues in their

courses

• Act: On this knowledge via projects, and reinforce positive attitudes

& behaviour

• Engage: Discuss with like-minded people

• Create: Lead positive change through your own projects or

campaigns
End of Chapter 4
Education for Sustainable
Development in all spheres of life is
able to inspire and equip people of
all ages, backgrounds and walks of
life for the sustainability transition.