The Learning to Live Together Programme addresses emerging social and ethical challenges by mobilizing social and human scientific knowledge for sustainable development and fostering a culture of peace.  Social transformations and ethical challenges are seen within a comprehensive sustainable development framework that connects them to the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally-agreed development goals.

Global environmental change - including processes such as biodiversity loss, freshwater scarcity and climate change - is a major driver of social transformation and poses a critical problem for the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean.  It gives rise to ethical challenges that need to be grasped within a framework of critical thinking.  In view of its comprehensive and wide-ranging implications, global environmental change must be recognized as an essentially social process that must be recognized as an essentially social process that must be addressed as a cross-cutting challenge calling upon the resources of the social sciences, environmental and development ethics, and critical thinking in the humanities. 

Another major component of the Learning to Live Together Programme aims at collaborating in creating opportunities for the youth to be involved as partners in the socio-economic and political development of and maintenance of peace in their communities.  The youth embody the very notion of innovation and are increasingly mobilized and inspired to create change in their communities.  If they are provided with the appropriate environment  - from skills to spaces and networks, from programmes to policies - they can deliver innovative responses to challenges not only affecting them but their communities as a whole.

The Learning to Live Together Programme stresses the importance of involving young people in strategies for national development or reconstruction, prevention of social conflict and peaceful transition.  UNESCO encourages youth-led social innovations as a means to support youth participation in political and social processes, strengthen civil society, prevent violence and enable young people to gain the experience, knowledge, values and life skills necessary for success in careers, education and community life.

Actions carried out under the Learning to Live Together Programmes in the Caribbean region focus on:

• Strengthening intra-regional collaboration in bioethics in Caribbean SIDS
• Supporting youth-led initiative for youth employment, self-development and non-violence
• Strengthening public policies for social inclusion through monitoring, evaluation and capacity building
• Assisting social science networks and civil society groups in rethinking the development of Caribbean SIDS in the context of Global Environmental Change

The Learning to Live Together Programme works through partnerships as a strategic approach to leverage resources and consolidate as well as mobilize concerned communities around shared objectives.  The activities planned for the 2012-2013 biennium will be implemented in collaboration with such partners as the National Commissions for UNESCO, the UNDP, the Council for Human and Social Development (COSHOD) of the CARICOM Secretariat, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Caribsave and the Sustainable Development Unit of both the CARICOM and the OECS Secretariats.