Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a key element of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Its aims form one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on education (Target 4.7) and it is considered a driver for the achievements of all 17 SDGs.
ESD empowers everyone to make informed decisions in favour of environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society for present and future generations. It aims to provide the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to achieve progress on the sustainable development challenges captured in the SDGs. It also helps develop competencies that are relevant to a variety of different SDGs.
Complementary to the UNESCO guidance document - Education for Sustainable Development Goals - Learning Objectives, this resource bank is designed for educators, education planners and practitioners and includes hundreds of materials and resources detailing how best to integrate ESD into teaching and learning in order to achieve the targets of the SDGs. It offers pedagogical resources, ideas for classroom activities, multimedia education resources and good practices for each of the 17 SDGs, as well as global SDG resources designed for three education levels: early childhood care and education, primary education and secondary education.
UNESCO promotes ESD through the Global Action Programme (GAP) launched at the 2014 World Conference on ESD in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. It focuses on generating and scaling up ESD action at all levels and in all areas of education, and in all sustainable development sectors. Adopted in 2015, the 17 SDGs, with their 169 targets, provide the context for further upscaling and mainstreaming ESD.
