“Focus on the Future: Empowering Agents of Change” was a conference that the Institute of Global Education (IGES) organized in collaboration with the University for Peace (UPEACE) and Earth Charter International (ECI) in Costa Rica on 3 and 4 March 2014.
The aim was to bring together change agents from around the world who want to make it a better place to live, to work, and to be. Around 70 participants from different parts of the world, with interest in and experience being change agents, participated in this Conference.
The first day of the Conference took place at the UPEACE campus, and the second day in a hotel in the capital city. The session sponsored by Earth Charter International took place on the first day of activities, and was called Empowering Change Agents for Sustainability. There were three speakers in this session: Alicia Jimenez, ECI Staff member; Neils Christiansen, Dean of Education of IGES; and Brian Dowd-Uribe, UPEACE Professor .
The discussion focused on how change happens and what are important characteristics that change agents should cultivate, including being well-informed, being committed and patient, moving to action, having good communication skills, connecting people, and having a vision. Ms. Jimenez stressed to the approximately 50 participants that the Earth Charter provided an inspirational vision of a sustainable global society and could be of great use to change agents in articulating a vision of a better world.