2015 was a landmark year in the field of sustainable development for many reasons. Not only was it the year that the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted, but it also marked the end of UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2015). An important outcome of the Decade’s documents was that “education for sustainable development (ESD) should not be equated with environmental education (EE),” acknowledging that sustainable development reorients EE by putting it in a “broader context that considers social and cultural factors and social-political issues, such as equality, poverty and quality of life.”
Keeping in mind this important distinction between ESD and EE, SDSN and partnered with the International Conference on Sustainability Education to further deliberate upon various facets of sustainability education.
The first-of-its-kind conference was held on September 9 – 10, 2019 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. Through various keynote addresses, plenaries, workshops and focused special sessions – over 600 delegates deliberated on ESD, EE, and the more recently-developed climate change education (CCE). The SDG Academy’s Delhi team was privileged to attend this event and take on a lead role in some its segments.
Chandrika Bahadur, Director of the SDG Academy and President of the SDSN Association, was a speaker in the plenary alongside other eminent dignitaries representing the UN, government, leading think-tanks and international and regional universities. She was also a jury member of the Poster competition and a panelist in Day 2’s special session on Global Warming to Global Cooling – A Changing Paradigm for Education that was co-hosted by UNFCCC and Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE).
SDG Academy Education Managers, Neha Sharma (left in picture) and Chiteisri Devi (right in picture), hosted an interactive workshop on Day 1 at the Willow Hall on Innovative ways to teach the SDGs. The workshop was met with a greater-than-expected turnout that saw everyone enthusiastically engaging in the various interactive group activities that were planned.
Over 50 conference delegates that included teachers, practitioners, and mostly, students, participated in the 90-minute session that took a deep dive into understanding ‘sustainable development’, the 17 SDGs and how to teach them effectively to anyone who has the motivation to learn them well.
