Transforming education together: ESD-NET Global Meeting

Over the last few decades, the concept of sustainable development has grown out of the interconnected environmental, ecological, social and economic challenges facing the planet, and has increasingly coalesced into a driving paradigm in policy, governance and education. Education for sustainable development (ESD) calls for an education that is transformative, which empowers lifelong learners with the knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, to not only make informed decisions but also to bring about the individual and collective change required to positively impact our societies, particularly in face of the climate crisis.

This year's ESD-NET global meeting will focus on sharing the implementation and progress of the ESD for 2030 country initiatives, trends and innovation in the context of Agenda 2030 and discuss action points in 2024-2025. 

Some key objectives include:

• Discussing how ESD for 2030 strengthens the quality and relevance of education in the context of transforming education, 

• Developing systemic education responses (national and regional) to current sustainable development challenges, and

• Strengthening multi-stakeholder engagement within the implementation of ESD for 2030.

To support both Member States and stakeholders with the implementation of ESD for 2030, UNESCO launched the global network – ESD-Net 2030. The network serves as a broad community of practice in ESD and provides opportunities for engagement according to four main objectives: 

• knowledge sharing & mutual learning

• advocacy

• collaboration 

• monitoring and evaluation  

To date, the network has engaged more than 80 UNESCO Member States, 50 international partners as part of the network’s core groups, in addition to reaching more than 4000 individual stakeholders globally through its communication channels. Since its launch in October 2022, the network has carried out regional meetings and webinars to support the implementation of ESD for 2030 country initiatives, as well as the ESD-Net 2030 Learning Webinar Series - an interactive learning environment – to showcase good practices and innovative approaches to ESD.