On 20 March 2015, the Earth Charter International and the University for Peace in collaboration with UNESCO, UNEP, and UNDP organized the forum: “Finding Synergies, Building Bridges: Reorienting education towards sustainable development, sustainable consumption, and global citizenship”. The forum offered the chance for participants to analyze and clarify concepts of three interrelated United Nations education initiatives, in order to highlight each initiative’s respective importance, and identify common underlying values, synergies, and possible areas of collaboration. The discourse attempted to identify how the Earth Charter can further contribute to the process of clarifying values and be employed as an integrated ethical framework for these initiatives. The event was organized as part of the 15th anniversary of the launch of the Earth Charter
The education initiatives discussed were: Education for Sustainable Development, whose efforts have been coordinated by UNESCO; Education for Sustainable Consumption, coordinated by UNEP; and Global Citizenship Education, which is coordinated by the UN Secretary General’s office in together with UNESCO.
This one-day event took place at the Earth Charter Education Center located on the University for Peace campus in Costa Rica. Approximately 120 participants attended the Forum. It consisted of four sessions with panelists’ presentations and interaction with participants through questions and answers. The keynote speech was offered by Fritjof Capra, and Severn Cullis-Suzuki offered the closing remarks of this event.
Find more details about this event in the Forum’s Report.
Also find here a photo gallery.
