Human beings are the focus of sustainable development. They have the right to live a healthy and rich life in harmony with nature.
The Johannesburg Declaration of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 is based on this desire, expressing the commitment of world leaders-"to build a humane and equal international society and understand all human needs for dignity." The Millennium Development Goals provide a way to achieve sustainable development. Sustainable development is a dynamic and developing concept, which contains many aspects and many explanations, and reflects some local and related cultural imagination, that is, development "meets the current needs without endangering the future ability of human beings to meet their needs." The Millennium Development Goals provide international targets for action to turn these visions into reality through the following actions: eradicating poverty and promoting child, maternal and sexual health; Expand the coverage of education and emphasize gender equality in education; And formulated a national strategy for sustainable development.
Although great progress has been made all over the world, the progress is uneven everywhere, and some regions such as Central Africa, South Asia and many small island countries have not yet seen the benefits of globalization. Therefore, although remarkable achievements have been made in health promotion, some new problems, such as AIDS, are still difficult problems in the survival and average life expectancy of newborns in more and more countries and societies around the world. All over the world, the unsustainable development process brings continuous pressure to natural resources, while unsustainable production and consumption, especially in developed countries, pose a threat to the fragility of the natural environment and the high poverty in other regions.
Therefore, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan pointed out: In this new century, our biggest challenge is to accept the abstract concept of sustainable development and turn it into a reality for people all over the world. (1) It is a basic educational undertaking to realize abstraction and develop the ability of individuals and society to work for the future. In fact, the four principles of sustainable human development expounded by the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 reflect the four pillars of education described in the Deller Report:
Requirements for achieving sustainable development:
Education provides the following abilities:
Cognitive challenge
Collective responsibility and constructive cooperation
Decisive action
Personality of human dignity
Learn to understand
Learn to live together.
Learn to do.
Learn to do it.
Therefore, education is the main force for sustainable development and improving people's ability to turn social ideals into reality. Education not only provides scientific and technical skills, but also provides motivation, proof and social support for the pursuit and application of these skills. Now, the international community strongly believes that we need to cultivate the values, behaviors and lifestyles needed for a sustainable future through education. Education for sustainable development has begun to be regarded as a process of learning how to make decisions on the premise of considering economic, ecological and all social equality. Cultivating this future-oriented thinking ability is a key task of education.
This brings a new vision to education, and helps people of all ages to better understand the world they live in, and to understand the complexity and interrelationships of some problems that threaten the future of mankind, such as poverty, waste, environmental degradation, urban degradation, population growth, health, conflicts and human rights violations. This new educational vision emphasizes the knowledge and skills needed to develop a sustainable future in a holistic and interdisciplinary way, as well as changes in values, behaviors and lifestyles. This requires us to reposition the education system, education policy and education work, so that all people can make decisions and actions in a way that conforms to the culture and local conditions and solve various problems that threaten our common future. In this way, people of all ages can make various imaginations about a sustainable future, evaluate these imaginations and creatively cooperate to realize them. Linking DESD with other important educational tasks in the world.
The core contents of WSSD implementation plan are mainly in policies, projects, mobilizing related resources and establishing organizational structure. The education of the United Nations Decade for Sustainable Development provides an opportunity to put the human factor in the first place to promote the implementation of the plan. Only education can provide the above understanding, values, commitment and skills, which will support the technical elements of the plan and remind everyone-children, youth and adults-that the sustainable development agenda is actually an agenda that concerns all of us. This involves our way of life, our respect for other people's lives-near and far, now and in the future-and our attitude towards the world around us.
Sustainable development needs a comprehensive approach: sustainable development education is related to other educational plans and problems. This is not a brand-new plan, but a call for repositioning the education policy, education plan and education work, so that education can play a role in cultivating all members of society to cooperate in building a sustainable future.
Therefore, we should pay attention to DESD's activities in supporting, communicating and establishing mutual relations, and help all educators to incorporate the problems and goals related to sustainable development into their own plans. UNESCO is currently responsible for coordinating the two major education programs in the world: Education for All (EFA) and United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD). The coordination of education for all was determined at the World Education Forum in 2000, but it originated after the Jomtien Conference ten years ago (1990). UNLD started in 2003 and is currently in the initial stage of implementation. Therefore, from the perspective of effective management and maximum impact, it is necessary to coordinate the relationship between DESD and education for all and UNLD.
In WSSD Implementation Plan, it is clearly pointed out that the objectives and strategies of these plans should be combined with DESD. First of all, WSSD implementation plan approved the goal of education for all, and cited the Dhaka Action Plan to illustrate the development of education. Secondly, it endorses the education-related goals in the Millennium Declaration.
The Dakar Action Plan holds that education is the "key" to sustainable development, especially in areas where poverty has been reduced or alleviated. In 2002, the international strategy to implement the Dakar Framework for Action on Education for All regarded education as the key to equitable and sustainable development, and regarded education as a part of the economic and social infrastructure for sustainable development "(page 8). It also advocates extensive cooperation among all relevant partners, so that education strategies can be used as a platform for sustainable development, building peace, hope, stability, tolerance and mutual understanding "(page 25).
Similarly, UNLD resolutions and plans of the United Nations General Assembly all point out that "eliminating all illiteracy is the core of ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy."
These meetings have established clear common ground. Whether from the perspective of sustainable development, or from the perspective of national education and UNLD, education is the core strategy of sustainable development. All these three plans show that poverty alleviation is the key to development. However, there is an important difference between them. Education for All and UNLD regard poverty reduction as a framework for development actions, while DESD regards it as a key pillar to support sustainable development (appropriate economic development). There is room for cooperation among education for sustainable development, education for all and UNLD, so as to make this broader concept of development a standard. These three plans all believe that education should recognize the complexity of poverty and the ways to alleviate it, rather than using education as a means to increase income.
Moreover, poverty reduction is the core issue of all the Millennium Development Goals, which recognize gender, education, health and environmental protection in sustainable human development. This makes gender equality, health and resource protection as the basis of social and economic development become important issues in education. All three plans regard ICT as a useful tool for learning and expression. The common problem is to popularize information and communication technology and develop its application in promoting basic education. The Dakar Action Plan pointed out a contradictory problem. The increasing application of ICT technology "will increase differences, weaken social cohesion and threaten cultural cohesion." This contradiction also applies to literacy and sustainable development education, including how to use ICT technology related to traditional learning tools (such as pen and paper, chalk and pointer). In this regard, we should vigorously support local investment and guide the use of information and communication technologies to develop this common cause.
These overlapping areas with common interests-including educational methods and some independent goals-show that the joint implementation of DESD, education for all and UNLD can add value to the common achievements of each plan.