Conference ”Education without borders for sustainable development”, September 24 - 25, 2021
Article published on 24-09-2021
The Roadmap adopted by the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (Berlin, 17-19 May 2021) includes several Priority Areas for Action. Of immediate relevance to the event organized by us is Priority Action Area 5: Accelerating actions at the local level.
Significant transformation and transformative actions for sustainable development often take place in the community. In their daily lives, at community level, citizens, as social actors, make various choices for sustainable development and act accordingly. Also, in the local community, people find partners for their sustainability efforts. Active cooperation between individual and institutional partners should be promoted to ensure that the latest knowledge and practices for sustainable development are used to advance the local agenda.
An even superficial reading of the news dedicated to the field of sustainable development highlights, in the case of Romania, numerous initiatives that address concrete problems, which have developed by adapting to the evolution of those local challenges, which all have one thing in common: the partnership for results. Other common elements revealed by adaptability are experiential learning, authentic learning, deep learning beyond putting knowledge in silos, and therefore promoting transdisciplinarity, learning processes that facilitate the development of resilience, creative thinking, anticipation and risk management.
Who learns? People, organizations, and the community; we are tempted to suggest that society as a whole can learn.
The event has the following objectives:
- Raising awareness of the critical challenges of sustainable development, in particular the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and the crucial role of education as a key facilitator of sustainable development;
- Promoting the citizens’ engagement in solving societal problems by initiating projects, sharing them and participating in the scaling up;
- Expanding and strengthening partnerships, networking opportunities in response to the demand for urgent measures to accelerate sustainable development.
The event is opened on the first day, 24th of September, through speeches that define the strategic framework for action, which offers for reflection topics of major societal interest, providing evidence of the need for action based on research. The future began yesterday: let’s learn and act for our planet!
The event creates the framework for dialogue of experiences/projects that transform without organizational borders, proposing open and interactive governance geometries, which supports the effective collective action for sustainable development.
On the second day of the event, 25th of September, during the “Fair of projects that transform” there will be presented in the format of poster sessions, at individual booths, projects that replicated could generate short-term solutions that eventually can prevent the continuation of the consequences of climate change, sometimes alarming.
The ideal of development in general, and even more so of sustainable development, would be to generate well-being for all people. Because it is a process of growth, the process of development involves long-term transformation.
Given the perspective of 2050, invoked by UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative, “Fit for 55” EU package and other strategic documents, the event also adds a
foresight exercise by suggesting as time frame Romania after 100 years of UNESCO membership (2056).
“Education without Borders for Sustainable Development” is part of the anniversary programme occasioned by Romania’s 65 years of membership in UNESCO.
Pictures from the event are available here.
Below you may find 3 examples of projects displayed at the “Fair of projects that transform”.
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