Workshop Partners

Introduction

The South Asia workshop on Community-based Approaches to Education for Sustainable Development held from 17-18 January 2005 was held as a side-event to the Education for a Sustainable Future (ESF) Conference. This was organized and hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO Delhi and UNESCO Bangkok) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), in partnership with the Centre for Environment Education (CEE). The workshop brought together representatives from organizations involved in community-based ESD initiatives to discuss, from a South Asia perspective, the power of community engagement in implementing ESD initiatives. The consultation also provided a forum for a sub-regional overview of community-based ESD initiatives and how to use the lessons learned from these experiences.

Workshop Proceedings

DAY 1

Mr. Kartikeya Sarabhai, Director, CEE and Mr. Mahesh Pradhan, Environmental Affairs Officer, UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, gave opening remarks for the workshop.

The experiences of a rural community in Almora, India, in which UNESCO ran a project on community empowerment for sustainable development, presented by Mr. Lalit Pande of the Uttarakhand Environmental Education Centre, and experiences of Rural Programmes of CEE in Gujarat, presented by Mr. Mohan Krishna, CEE, were used as a base for further discussions.

There were seven presentations on the first day of 15 minutes each, on existing and planned community-based ESD-related activities and events in the South Asia sub-region by the following participants:

• Mr. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, National Programme Director, LEAD Pakistan

• Mr. Hakim Mondal, Country Coordinator, Bangladesh Eco Village, Bangladesh

• Mr. Rabindra Nakarmi, Project Coordinator, Chinari, Nepal

• Ms. Pallavi Patel, Deputy Director, WHDRC, Centre for Health Education Training and Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA), India

• Dr. G. G. Gangadharan, Joint Director, Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), India

• Dr. Hridaya R. Bajracharya, Executive Director, CERID Nepal

• Ms. Livleen Kahlon, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi

The presentations brought out model cases of approaches and methods to empower members of the rural communities that are able to take initiatives to address environmental problems and improve the overall quality of life. Some of the key points that emerged during the presentations were an understanding of the significance of Education as the link between environment and other social issues such as gender equality and poverty, and Commitment among community members to improve their local environment and the quality of their life.

Dr. Vidyut Joshi, Former Vice Chancellor, Bhavnagar University and Senior Fellow, Centre for Social Studies, South Gujarat University, India, released the document titled “Impacts and Challenges of a large coastal industry” that reports on the results of work undertaken on the Alang Sosiya Ship-Breaking Yard (ASSBY), a sensitive coastal area in the state of Gujarat, India.

The participants were provided an opportunity to discuss ideas for community engagement projects in South Asia to support the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and the Aisa-Pacific regional implementation strategy.

Day 1 Breakout Session

• Core elements of success for community-based ESD initiatives

• Key challenges/constraints to community-based ESD initiatives, and

• The elements of transferability

The presentation of brainstorming sessions by the group identified the following elements under each section:

Group I: Core elements of success for community-based ESD initiatives

1. Community participation principles need to be based on

• Participatory visioning/design of plans and programmes
• Participatory and strategic planning sharing (contribution) of all stakeholders
• Resource Sharing (Contribution) – financial, technical, material (to avoid dependency syndrome and enable wise use of resources)

2. Institutional Arrangements: Partnerships need to be based on principles of

• Consensus building
• Conflict resolution
• Transparency and accountability

3. Cross cutting elements

• Capacity building with a focus on a shift in Educational Methodology (from transference to transformative learning)
• Gender sensitization for male and female groups
• Quality

4. Research and Documentation for influencing policy level decisions

Group II: Key challenges / constraints to community-based ESD initiatives

1. Need for greater awareness and change in mindsets
2. Need for engagement of all stakeholders to create common consensus, community buy-in, equity across gender, age, position in society (can be done through community mobilizers, good practices of facilitators etc.)
3. Need for mainstreaming ESD
4. Availability of resources
5. Governance issues: accountability, transparency, effectiveness, sustainability of project; Lack of project/concept transferability in larger concepts
6. Need for capacity building
7. Lack of partnerships/cooperation amongst organizations – need for strong regional partnerships
8. Vested interests are often purely economic – must take into account other interests

Group III: Elements of transferability must learn from and build on the key lessons of past experiences, and need to be guided by the following overarching Principles and Practices.

Principles

• Livelihood security example. Indigenous Knowledge, local traditions
• Understand, build on, add value to local knowledge, institutions, practices, values and cultural beliefs
• Linking all generations/ages
• Integrated approaches to education (holistic approach – not sectoral)
• Understanding community’s values, needs and interests
• Share vision with community – keep in touch with these
• Identify relative strengths of institutions
• Identify key stakeholders – consensus building 
• Linking local to global (cross-scale interaction approach)
• Development of training material/module/tool kit
• Need for pilot testing/experimentation of ideas

Practices

• Community Ownership
• Value added activities
• Bridging with formal knowledge / science for example village botanists programme, scientists, certification and recognition
• Understand the community – every community is unique

Day 2 Breakout Session

Purpose: To develop key ideas for implementation of the Decade from a community perspective that could be presented by CEE at the Asia-Pacific regional strategy workshop in Bangkok on 1-3 February. These points will be considered for inclusion in the regional strategy for the Decade.

Practical ideas for implementation of ESD from a community-based perspective

1. An Information Resource Centre at the local level (for use of local community and for use of Community Based Organisations in the form of Community Learning Centre (CLC). New CLCs need to be established or where they exist they need to be improved in order to promote ESD
2. A Manual or Training Guide for international organizations, donors and NGOs working with communities on ESD. The current problem is that not many organizations understand how to effectively engage with communities.
3. Educational products for local communities on locally available resources to promote indigenous knowledge
4. Establishment of a network in the form of a society (local resource group – to act as an advisory board) – to link the diaspora, development experts / practitioners, communities who would apart from sharing local development interests will be able to relate local action to the global level learning and vice versa.
5. Local Institutions in the form of Eco Clubs of youth, religious leaders, teachers etc. This would enable to bring together stakeholders to facilitate discussions on SD issues. In this manner information would then be informally disseminated.
6. Eco entrepreneurship: Innovative ideas/interventions could be brought out and shared with people. Seed money for working capitals could help develop these ideas.
7. Forums and campaigns to meet the need for public awareness of ESD. Governments, NGOs and media could head these campaigns at the national / local levels.
8. Documentation and networking sharing
9. A Community needs assessment guidebook for organizations working with the communities.

Click here to view the concept paper that formed the basis for the workshop discussions...