Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD)
As a response to the severe global situation of poverty, violence, inequity, and the exhaustion of natural resources, the UN proclaimed the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014 (DESD). Its objective is to integrate the principles, values, and practices that make up sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning, with the goal of promoting the behavioural changes that are necessary if environmental integrity and economic viability are to be preserved, and to ensure that present and future generations may enjoy social justice. Education alone will not be enough to attain a sustainable future, but this goal can never be achieved without education and learning for sustainable development.
UNESCO is the lead agency for the Decade. As part of this responsibility, UNESCO is coordinating efforts made by different UN bodies and other programmes and actions by organizations linked to the DESD.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Part of UNESCO’s role coordinating the decade involves preparing a series of monitoring and evaluation reports. Information is collected using tools such as questionnaires, interviews with key stakeholders, case studies, regional consultation initiatives, and analysis of documentation. Regional reports constitute a key input for the preparation of the global reports, and in the case of Latin America and the Caribbean a regional report was drawn up in 2009 covering ESD structures and contexts, along with two sub-regional reports - one for Latin America and the other for the English-speaking Caribbean nations and Haiti, covering ESD processes and learning outcomes.
