‘Education for a Sustainable Future’ (ESF), 18-20 January 2005, in Ahmedabad, India, was the first international event to mark the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). It brought together close to 800 learners, practitioners, academics and activists from over 50 countries. The three-day event not only discussed what the Decade can do to re-orient the vision of development, and how educators can facilitate this process, but also laid out roadmaps for ESD action in 20 sectors through separate workshops.

A key task that the participants took up was to carefully study the UN DESD Draft International Implementation Scheme (October 2004), in order to give inputs to enrich and strengthen it. An important output of the Conference was the Ahmedabad Declaration unanimously adopted by the participants. We hope that the Conference outputs will help various stakeholders to develop their own strategies and action plans for the Decade.

• Share the understanding, current status and needs of ESD.
• Showcase best practices for ESD from different parts of the world.
• Strengthen networking and active participation of all stakeholders for ESD for the next decade.
• Develop a strategy and a blueprint of action for the Decade, including India's strategy and its role in the Decade.
• Work towards developing guiding principles, roadmaps and priorities for Education for Sustainable Development in the Decade.