this really is very overwhelming.
through God’s abundant Grace alone,
i have received an invitation from UNESCO to be one of about a dozen people worldwide to be a member of the inaugural symposium on the future of Education for Sustainable Development!
i really can’t believe this opportunity, and i continually thank God for it.
i will do my best to do Singapore proud, and to learn from my fellow participants, as we interact with stakeholders in the village of Omori in Shimane prefecture, Japan, in November. our long term goal over 2017 will be to craft a paper indicating the elements that Member States need to take into consideration in developing the future of the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development.
The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was implemented from 2005 to 2014. Its focus was on advocacy and generating pilot projects. The Decade was followed by the Global Action Programme on ESD (GAP), the emphasis of which is on the scaling-up of actions and good practices on the ground. UNESCO was the lead agency for the Decade designated by the UN General Assembly, and now is leading the implementation of the GAP as acknowledged by UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/69/211.
According to the GAP as approved by the UNESCO General Conference (37 C/Resolution), the GAP “will be established for an initial period of five years, after which it will be reviewed for eventual extension”. The current framework of the GAP will thus come to an end in 2019 and there will soon be a decision to be made by UNESCO Member States on the post-GAP period.
To that effect, the UNESCO Secretariat is launching consultation processes to reflect on the post-GAP period and also on the future direction of education and sustainable development in general.
it has been twenty years since i last visited Japan. my uncle served as Singapore’s ambassador to the country, during the mid-nineties. and - as i’ve shared in an earlier post - my grandfather started a school in Indonesia.
in my small way, i hope to be able to continue their legacy.