2010 Volume 1 Issue 1 Pages 1-6
The world is experiencing tremendous challenges entering into the 21st century. The enormous growing global population is expected to use more natural resources to achieve economic growth, while imperiling moral social values and degrading the environment. These gargantuan problems cannot be solved overnight. They have to be tackled collectively by all sectors of society, and the consensus is that Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is the pathway towards a sustainable future. While there is general consensus that ESD is the way forward, instilling this new educational paradigm into peoples’ minds and hearts is a gigantic task. Higher education institutions, as well as research institutions, together with non-formal education institutions, have important roles to play in this defining human endeavor. In response to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD 2005-2014), the United Nations University (UNU), collaborates with UNESCO, the lead UN agency for the UN DESD Implementation, and other UN agencies and international organizations, in spearheading the promotion and development of Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) on ESD worldwide. An RCE is a network of existing formal, non-formal and informal education organizations, mobilized to deliver ESD to local and regional communities. An RCE builds an innovative platform for multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary information-sharing, dialogue and collaboration for promoting ESD among regional/local stakeholders, including joint efforts by stakeholders in working for transformative education and research on ESD in all levels of education and knowledge creation. It is important that the lessons learned from these RCE activities are shared globally, through the so-called Global Learning Space on ESD, as they provide inspiration and knowledge to others wanting to make contributions for a sustainable future. This paper provides an overview of sustainability, highlights the concept of RCE as a new form of networking, and provides examples of good practices of RCEs in tackling ESD issues.
