Building Education for Sustainable Development in Latin America

 

“Building Education for Sustainable Development in Latin America” — a three-day meeting organized jointly by the Earth Charter Center of Education for Sustainable Development at UPEACE and UNESCO, in collaboration with UNEP, Avina, and the Ministry of Education of Costa Rica, and other partners — will be held from October 31st to November 2nd, 2006, at Barceló San José Palacio in San Jose, Costa Rica.

 

This meeting is intended to stimulate regional activity for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), which the UN General Assembly designated to run from 2005 to 2014. Earth Charter International is committed to supporting the success of this extremely important ten-year period.

 

The San Jose meeting will also strengthen a common vision and strategy for education in the region. And it will strengthen linkages between the Decade, the challenge of preventing HIV through education, and the aspiration for literacy.

 

Here are the objectives the meeting is seeking to realize:

 

1. Establish common regional goals, priorities, and strategies to achieve the DESD objectives in the next five and ten years;

2. Offer an opportunity for participants to share their experiences and learn from each other.

3. Open a space to examine the close connection between the objectives to improve the literacy indexes, the education to prevent HIV, and ESD.

4. Help forge alliances, establish communication and working bridges, and organize a regional network for educational initiatives for sustainability.

5. Assess the educational and training resources necessary for the region.

6. Examine the Earth Charter as an important educational framework and base for developing educational materials as well as other instruments for education.