IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2012) 3-2

Special Contribution on EFA and ESD Review article
erd

ESD in the Asia-Pacific
MIKKO CANTELL*
Plan Finland, Helsinki, Finland
Email: mikko.cantell@plan-international.org
Received 20 June 2012

Accepted 20 August 2012(*: Corresponding Author)

Abstract The article is an attempt to describe the challenges and opportunities in integrating ESD into mainstream policy-making in the Asia-Pacific. The role of education in development is variably understood. It is widely recognized as a sui generis guarantor of personal and collective development. Educating for sustainable development has much untapped potential both in driving development in general and improving the contribution of
education as a sector within development. ESD in the Asia-Pacific has diverse forms ofexpression. Effective, frank and constructive intellectual exchanges could lead to significant progress in  ESD.  Reorienting  “quality”  in  education  should  assume  priority  position  in education and will ideally, for the sake of its relevance, appeal and continued development, include several dimensions of sustainable development.
Keywords Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), quality education, Asia-Pacific

INTRODUCTION
The Asia-Pacific region is geographically vast and both culturally and ecologically speaking extremely  rich  in  diversity.  It  is  also  home  to  the  majority  of  the  world’s  population,  witnessing an
unforeseen period of positive change both economically and politically. Unfortunately, it also hosts
a wealth of serious global challenges. More than two-thirds of people lacking basic sanitation, underweight children and the extreme poor live in the region (UNDP, 2012). These lives in the margins of human existence are also the most at risk and worst prepared for the perils of disasters, bethey  “natural”,  man-made, or economic in character. Threats to life in the region are not theoretical- the Asia-Pacific  is,  for  example,  considered  the  world’s  most  vulnerable  region  when  it  comes  to  natural disasters (UNISDR, 2011).
All of the above calls for serious changes in how we are managing our lives and maintaining
human dignity of our fellow human beings. Correspondingly, integrating the principles of sustainable development in education has been agreed to be one of the answers in meeting these challenges.
While the vision of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD 2005-2014)
is “a  world  where  everyone  has  the  opportunity  to  benefit  from  education  and  learn  the  values,  behaviour  and  lifestyles  required  for  a  sustainable  future  and  for  positive  societal  transformation”,  the  stated  goal  of  the  Decade  is  to  “integrate  the  principles, values, and practices of sustainable development  into  all  aspects  of  education  and  learning”  (UNESCO,  2005,  p.  6).  This  is  quite  naturally  impossible to achieve in one decade and requires significantly more resources and political commitment than has since been awarded to programmes and projects implementing the UN decade.
Countries in the Asia-Pacific have had varied approaches to ESD and some have been far
more ambitious than others. It is to be noted, however, that approaches which have not been labeled ESD explicitly may have had and continue to have excellent results in advancing sustainable
development. Two such processes come to mind easily:  the  philosophy  of  “sufficiency  economy”  in Thailand and the Gross National Happiness process in Bhutan.
Excellent and diverse approaches to integrating sustainability in education can be found in
most countries, for example in Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia,
Nepal, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.1 In the field of ESD, Japan must be mentioned as
being  incomparable  in  supporting  other  countries’  efforts  and  having  a  major  role  in  the  creation  of  the Decade itself, and by boasting a large number of ESD initiatives at all levels of education.
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EDUCATION AS DRIVER OF DEVELOPMENT
Education’s  role  in  human  development  is  widely  recognized  as  being  central.  It  is  argued  that  sustainable development calls for more education. This is somewhat contradictory given that on average, where economic progress and education systems are at their most mature, ecological footprints
are often also the largest (see, for example, Cantell and Elias, 2011). ESD therefore advocates forchanges in the status quo, to instill a broader understanding of the causalities surrounding our lives.
Such understanding can seem a trivial skill to provide to poor communities struggling with day-to
day subsistence. In reality it means providing them with the requisite skills to develop beyond survival and holding authorities accountable for progress in this area. In this vein, ESD is often seen asa systematic approach to integrate sustainability into education systems, processes and practices(Richmond, 2008). The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD,
2005-2014) comprises four major thrusts, around which ESD is globally expected to revolve: improving access to quality basic education; reorienting existing education programmes; developing
public understanding and awareness; and providing training (UNESCO, 2005, p.7).
But similar to sustainable development, ESD, too, is not universal one in its colour and shape.
For the Asia-Pacific region, UNESCO has in consultation with its member states formulated thefollowing  operational  definition  for  ESD,  which  aims  to  “facilitate  the  degree  to  which an education  system  is  prepared  for,  and  is  responsive  to,  existing  and  emerging  challenges  (e.g.  disasters)”  (UNESCO, 2011, p.2). This definition all but spells out the salience and centrality of change andthe   importance   of   education’s   ability   to   prepare citizens for it, without prescribing it in a preemptive fashion.
SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC
As a region, the Asia-Pacific is far from a socially cohesive one, as are its constituent countries. In
the face of newly acquired economic power and growing consumption, vast differences in living
standards  exist  and  emerge  within  countries.  A  recent  report  put  the  dilemma  in  blunt  terms:  “[i]n  17 countries, 10 per cent or more of the population subsists on inadequate diets. Other people aspire to the high-consumption  lifestyles  of  the  global  consumer  class”  (UNDP,  2012,  p.5).
For individual countries the details of development challenges, and consequently answers tothem, differ markedly. In Cambodia, where a third of the population lives in conditions of extreme
poverty (Hayden and Martin, 2011, p.31), the priority may be obvious. Further, Cambodian political history with its utter devastation of organized, intellectual society and education, directly lead tocurrent challenges, including largest sizes of classes in Southeast Asia (ibid., p.44) and societal inequities  spilling  over  to  and  bequeathed  by  education  with  potentially  “catastrophic  consequences”  (ibid., p.43).
ESD CHALLENGES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC
Sustainable development is like most good things. It is easy to agree on in principle and impossible
to implement to perfection. Among other metaphors, it has been said to resemble a journey, to underscore its not being a preset destination. It is also more often than not described by what it is not,by  highlighting  the  problems  it  intends  to  prevent  and  solve.  The  magnitude  of  the  world’s  problems carries with it much weight and brings about processes intended to alleviate them. However,with lacking or no reliable monitoring mechanisms in place to read progress by, an illusion of perfect has often become the enemy of the good, also in the area of ESD.2
And yet, the inescapable reality in a typical political decision-making situation remains. One
will always want highest attainable quality to the greatest number possible at the lowest cost. And
yet, in education, most systems are so structured that quantity in access greatly reduces quality
while exponentially increasing cost. It is most often this mindset that the minister of education has
when allocating funds to initiatives.
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ESD may not always play very well in this paradigm and system of thinking. For it is saying,among many other and potentially contested thematic emphases, that the current educational priorities might be wrong. Numeracy and literacy will never go out of fashion, but traditional teaching
and learning techniques, corporal punishment and studying irrelevant information to the test may
not bring about the kind of development one desires. It is such important and profound (if slow)
changes that, coupled with locally defined relevant content, ESD queries tend to lead to. The implications would not be few if fully taken into account - these will typically include reform in teacher
education, curricular content, sector planning and school management, but the resources to instigate change with have generally been rather ludicrous in comparison with the needs.
Lack of financial resources to work at country level and increasing demand from its member
states led UNESCO to an idiosyncratic conclusion in the Asia-Pacific. Having conducted a seriesof subregional workshops with member state representatives and experts, UNESCO produced regionally  a  guide  (“the  Astrolabe”)  on  ESD  coordination  and  implementation  at  the  national  level  (UNESCO, 2011). This guide was intended to move the process of sustainability integration in education one level higher and ensure a close connection with the overarching national policies andstrategies. A process of identifying the most salient sustainable development priorities and translating them into implementable action at community and classroom was put forth in the guide.
Therefore, in theory, the countries themselves were going to select priority areas of action andimplement much of the expert work previously expected of UNESCO. As this would have madecoordination highly demanding, in reality there was a further attempt within UNESCO to operationalize the concept into a manageable number of priority areas, which would make sense for mostmember states. These areas were general support to implementing the UN Decade of ESD (20052014) and member states' own work through the Astrolabe guide publication; climate change education and disaster risk reduction; supporting and developing efforts to (quantifiably) measure theimpact of ESD and its contribution to the quality of education; and tracking trends in ESD (e.g.
education   and   sustainable   business   models,   ESD’s   role   in   promoting   health   and   cognitive   development).
Strengthening networks and partnerships and extracting evidence of functioning ESD models
is as much a necessity in the Asia-Pacific as elsewhere. While UNESCO is doing this at the global
level, regional collections have a tendency to carry more weight among peers. Research in ESDrelated pedagogy, skills and monitoring is in need of support, which can oftentimes be simply a
mixture of moral support and increased visibility. Evidence of what works and needs to be further
promoted and/or researched will be a priority in any successful ESD programme, which will thenuse this newly established evidence base in focused policy advocacy for maximum performance inthe fields of teaching and learning, school management, and education policy and planning.
The last component in particular was an attempt to return   to   the   education   sector’s   internal  discussions on quality. For as we know, cognitive development has long since been identified the
major explicit objective of all education systems (UNESCO, 2004, p.17), but it is also a wonderfulindicator as regards several sustainability issues - health, social progress, wealth distribution, geographical cohesion - and whether or not the education delivered is relevant in reality.
What is perhaps in highest demand and what will likely yield the largest dividends in the region, however, is the work on ESD indicators. It is an effort that may be as likely to fail as it is to
succeed, but it will drive progress forward, and is vitally important for ESD. Country representatives look for guidance in this regard for practical reasons. Having indicators would help concretise
an otherwise diffuse programme and, most of all, helps set political targets. It calls for the collaboration, data and expertise of statisticians at ministries of education, which in turn will help make thecase for ESD in the political arena. Suggested measurements have included existing rates between
school employing ESD programmes and those that do not as well as, between rural and urban
schools (UNESCO, 2011).

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THE POTENTIAL OF ESD TO SUPPORT EFA
EFA has been vastly successful in getting as high a percentage of the population as possible to be apart of education. Clear, measurable targets have helped fast track processes and funnel funding
where it has been needed in many cases. Criticism has ensued also for EFA being allegedly in reality excessively number-oriented and grappling with intelligent ways of measuring quality. The process may also not be able to effectively to inform decision makers if and when education is not in
the best interest of the child. Teacher absenteeism and poor quality in particular violate the student’s  right  to  quality  education.  Violence  in  schools  and  tutoring  fees  are  other  critically  important  factors which can go unseen despite their gravity.
ESD for its part is concerned exactly with what type of education would best serve societal,
environmental and economic interests of both the individual and her community. Importantly, as asenior  UNESCO  staff  remarked,  it  is  “not  simply  an  addition  to  existing  education  systems, processes and practices, an optional extra that countries may or may not incorporate into their plansand programmes. Instead, ESD properly understood requires a fundamental reorientation of the
purposes  and  tasks  of  education”  (Richmond,  2008,  p.3).  He goes on to say how deep the implications  go:  “in  due  course,  no  aspect  of  educational  provision  will  be  left  unaffected.  [ESD]  is  an  approach that embraces an holistic vision of education and one that takes in the key building blocks
of a comprehensive and integrated framework: educational planning, policy development, teacher
education (initial and in-service), curriculum renewal, textbooks and other learning materials, assessment   and   examinations,   as   well   as   a   recognition   of   all   modalities   of   provision” (Richmond,
2008, p.3).
In the realm of development, everything ultimately relates to everything. It would be foolhardy to not concentrate scarce resources of the education sector for the benefit of human development. In development at large, such synergies are forming and evidence is emerging. As an example, UNISDR (2011) quotes experiences from several countries how a more integrated approachto disaster risk management and climate change adaptation contributes to sustainable poverty reduction and other development outcomes.
Every challenge presents with it an opportunity. Advice given at an inconvenient moment,
when the lead organization of the UN Decade is trying to make ends meet and keep key processes
in motion with what is at its disposal may be inappropriate, but from the margins of a specialized
UN agency with arguably the best and most noble mandate in human development, this would appear the moment to consider the future direction of education and the most central dividend it iscapable of producing, sustainable human development. At the time of this writing UNESCO is facing what some call a temporary cashflow crisis following the United States freezing its dues making  up  for  over  a  fifth  of  the  organization’s  regular  budget.  The  depth  and  temporal length of thecrisis remain to be seen and much energy is being used to debate the negative consequences. It has
been noted elsewhere that fundamental reforms of the education sector often only take place intimes of drastic changes. Perhaps this financially taxing time could provide the necessary impetus
towards finding more practical synergies between existing programmes? EFA as the flagship programme of the Education sector is coming to a close (or at least an interim one) in 2015. Having
been highly successful in several of its stated objectives and measurable goals, it has all the potential in the world to mature further from a race between numbers to more quality and developmental
impact, reflecting its shifting role from education only to an overall development agenda priority
item.
Again, this means reorienting how we measure quality. If and when education has a central
role to play in human development, its indicators should logically include those reflecting community and societal development. If a school of migrant children in a middle income country3 can byfocusing   on   sustainability   transform   itself   from   being   unattractive   to   the   children’s   families   and  ridden with seasonal disappearances and high incidences of pushouts, to a school whose students
surpass the average grades in the national language examinations - the  children’s  second  or  third  language in every single case - in a matter of years, what can systemic changes yield? The changesⒸISERD17

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were controlled yet subtle and had to do with the community’s   needs  and  the  children’s  joy   and  ability to learn.
CONCLUSION
This paper has given an overview of the processes involved in ESD implementation in the AsiaPacific   and   some   recommendations   to   the   way   forward.   UNDP’s   (2012,   p.6)   recent   human  development report for the Asia-Pacific   reads:   “Countries   thus   have   to   strike   a   balance   between  cutting back on the over-exploitation of their resources and simultaneously increasing consumptionof energy services, better food, water and sanitation services that would enable poor communities
to become more resilient. The region must also look ahead. Human development involves
expanding  choices  for  all,  including  the  generations  to  come.”  Such  massive  expansion  of  choice  in  the region will call for the best available education to each individual.
Integrating sustainability in education is a complex undertaking, and one which requires theattention of both the political elites and technical experts, but it is attainable if shades of grey are
considered progress, and if debates concerning ESD remain constructive and productive at thesame time.
To some extent, sustainable development is universal and timeless as its best practices andprinciples often date back to the ways of peoples which today are referred to as indigenous. Take
the principle of the seventh generation practiced in some indigenous cultures. Certainly acornerstone of planning for sustainable development, this precautionary principle calls fordeliberation which takes into consideration the impacts of any decision on the seventh generation tocome. An Asia-Pacific idiosyncrasy appears to a European observer to be the pursuit forequilibrium, another central tenet of sustainability thinking. As with all displays of humanreasoning, these two examples are crude generalizations of thousands of local, national andtransnational approaches and ways of thinking. An area in need of further attention and study for its
high relevance remains then the multifaceted relationship between sustainability understood andimplemented in local communities and cultures on the one hand, and international commitments
and goals on the other.
NOTES
1)

2)

3)

See, for example, for Australia and Lao PDR UNESCO, 2011a, p.5; Brunei Darussalam<http://stepcentrebruneiblogspot.com>; China <www.unesco.org/new/en/rio-20/singleview/news/education_for_sustainability_governments_get_the_message/>; Indonesia UNESCO, 2009, p.12; Nepal<www.accu.or.jp/esd/projects/ip/ip01_nepal.shtml>; Malaysia<http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001929/192914e.pdf>; Republic of Korea<www.unesco.or.kr/eng/front/resource_center/data_center_01_view.asp?articleid=82&cate=>; Thailand<www.accu.or.jp/esd/forum_esd_2010/program/program08_02/index.html> and Vietnam<www.unesco.org/new/en/hanoi/education/education-for-sustainable-development/>.
UNESCO concluded a Japanese Funds-In-Trust supported ESD Monitoring and Evaluation project in the AsiaPacific some years ago. The project employed structural and often binary indicators such as a strategy being inplace which do not measure ESD outcomes intended here. A new project has been launched in 2011 with UNESCO,UNU and IGES.
Reference is made to Bansungkon school in Chiang Rai province in Thailand.

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Richmond, M. 2008. The role of UNESCO in the decade of education for sustainable development. Speechdelivered at the International Forum on ESD Dialogue 2008 in Tokyo, Japan.
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UNDP. 2012. One planet to share: Sustaining human progress in a changing climate. Routledge for UNDP,New Delhi.
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