Laureates named for UNESCO’s newly-created Prize on Education for Sustainable Development
Paris, 24 September—The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has announced the winners of the UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This is the first edition of the Prize, which was created in 2014.
The three laureates are Asociación SERES from Guatemala and El Salvador; the Centre for Development of Early Childhood, Non-Formal and Informal Education from Indonesia; and rootAbility from Germany.
The three organizations will each receive an award of $50,000 during a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 5 November. The Prize is funded by the Government of Japan.
Asociación SERES (Guatemala and El Salvador) is rewarded for its “SERES ESD Youth Ambassadors” initiative, which uses an imaginative approach in its application of ESD. The project certifies youth ambassadors to train other young people to become facilitators of established sustainability programmes that build community resilience to climate change. It thus inspires and motivates youth leadership for more sustainable lifestyles through individual and collective actions.
The Centre for Development of Early Childhood, Non-Formal and Informal Education (Bandung, Indonesia) is recognized for its “Eco Friendly Entrepreneurship for Youths and Adults” project, which brings an innovative approach to the development of entrepreneurial skills and local engagement in favour of sustainability. It encourages people between the ages of 18 and 45 to work with their community to harness local traditions and resources to create products with recycled materials. The project preserves local culture and the environment while promoting rural business initiatives and stimulating competitiveness through active pedagogies.
rootAbility (Germany) is rewarded for its “Green Office Model” initiative, which trains young people to become agents of change through fostering institution-wide approaches to ESD. Its main actors are university students who form Green Offices, teams that work with the teaching and administrative staff of their institution. They learn to run and raise funding for activities such as waste recycling, energy efficiency and sustainable catering. Green Offices have been established in six European countries to date.
The UNESCO-Japan Prize was established to honour the outstanding efforts of individuals, institutions and organizations engaged in ESD. The next call for nominations will be launched in January for the 2016 edition of the Prize.
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Contact: Miriam Tereick. m.tereick(at)unesco.org
Phone: +33 (0)1 45 68 16 68
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