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Drivers and Barriers to Implementing ESD with Focus on UNESCO’s
Action and Strategy Goals for the Second Half of the Decade
Dieter GROSS1* and Shuichi NAKAYAMA2*
1

Sustainable Future Instructions (SFI)
Representative and Spokesperson for ESD, the Association of German School Geographers (VDSG e.V.)
Lindenthaler Allee 68, Berlin 14163, Germany
2
Professor Emeritus, Hiroshima University and Hiroshima University of Economics
Ex-Chair of the Education Sub-Committee, Japanese National Commission for UNESCO
1-12-14, Inokuchi-Myojin, Nishi-ku, Hiroshima 733-0841, Japan
1*e-mail: dieter.gross@t-online.de
2*e-mail: snakayama@mist.ocn.ne.jp

Abstract
Drivers and barriers to implementing ESD had already been surveyed (in 2000) prior to the designated‘Decade,’ and we continue here with an interim survey on barriers in general with a special focus on
UNESCO’s Action Goals (2009) for the 2nd half of the Decade, in order to overcome the existing deficiencies
in implementing ESD. However these goals as well as UNESCO’s Strategy Goals since 2010 have lacked aprioritized ranking and thus a targeted strategy.
The analysis of the surveyed Action Goals presented here, conducted by international experts in 2009,classifies UNESCO’s goals as perceived as likely to be realized satisfactorily, nearly satisfactorily or
unsatisfactorily, concerning the possible extent of successful implementation by 2014 and taking national
peculiarities into account. Thus the results may serve to put the focus on suitable activities and support the
stakeholders’ efforts to implement ESD through the gained insights, e.g., by coping with unsatisfactory results,
such as lack of adequate resources or public awareness-raising, the need to train business leaders, genderequality issues, promoting the role and the contribution of the media in fostering public awareness and understanding of sustainability issues, etc. On the other hand, the analysis revealed drivers which can decisively
support activities towards ESD, including ESD networking, involving NGOs and development partners tointegrate ESD, implementing ESD policies through scientific communities, engaging the commitment,
solidarity and potential of youth, etc. Applying this specific knowledge of drivers and barriers – integratively
in a synergetic and reinforcing strategy – will serve as a framework for appropriate activities towards the endof the Decade and beyond. The survey was designed and conducted by a non-governmental German-Japanese
Cooperation Project on DESD.
Key words: barriers, DESD deficiencies, ESD strategy, German-Japanese cooperation on ESD,
sustainability, UNESCO’s Action Goals

1. Introduction : First Half of the Decade andBeforeIn the year 2000, five years ahead of the UN Decade,
ESD experts were asked about barriers to implementing
the principle of sustainability in education, i.e., what are
the barriers, what qualifications for students will beneeded and what priority steps should be taken next forsuccess in implementing ESD? (Gross, 2000, 2009b)
The experts’ analysis served as a blueprint for a survey within the authors’ German-Japanese Project in 2008
(Gross & Nakayama, 2009; Gross, 2009a). The survey
focused on whether there had been any progress within
Global Environmental Research
14/2010: 125-136
printed in Japanthe prior eight years, taking also in account the activitiesof the UN Decade since 2005 and before. Colleagues inschools, universities and education institutes, participantsof ESD conferences and representatives of government
institutions were invited to take part in this survey. All
were familiar with ESD implementation issues. The total
number of respondents was 129, including 21 Japanese
respondents.
The respondents were asked to rate different statements to elucidate the extent of changes within barriers to
ESD from 2000-2008.
Nearly 80% of the respondents agreed with the statement “The concept behind ‘sustainability’ has not been
©2010 AIRIES

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D. GROSS & S. NAKAYAMA

explained sufficiently: most people still do not understand it,” and when asked whether they thought therequirements specified in 2000 had been followed bysuccessful initiatives, such as, “Has the public been
linked to the process of implementing sustainable development?” Only 1.1% of 108 respondents chose YES(52.3% chose TO SOME EXTENT and 46.6% choseNO).
The deficiencies in action seen in 2008 have remainedby and large the same as those seen in 2000 and 2009.
Respondents were also asked to comment and explain
the reasons for barriers and deficient action (Gross,2008b, 2009a).
Comments from Europe:• Sustainability is not a priority for political leaders,etc. (University professor from Spain);• ESD is not understood as a real need yet, there isn’t
sufficient support for ESD activities (University
professor from Switzerland);• Growth and progress myths: the sustainability
debate has not been able to tackle the main driver ofunsustainability: economic growth in a limited
system (University professor from Switzerland);• Lack of funds for demonstration projects (University professor from Germany).
Comments from Latin America:• Political leaders have no interest in motivating
people to participate (University professor from
Mexico);• The lack of continuity in governments; politicalleaders do not always encourage empowerment(Government official from Brazil);• Lack of competent teachers (N.N. from Peru);• Lack of promoting analytical thinking in students(University professor from Costa Rica).
Comments from the Asia-Pacific Area:• Lack of coordination and concerted efforts to comeout with a comprehensive approach (University
professor from India);• Yes, teachers lack sensibility in imparting ESD(Government official from Pakistan);• Lack of government support (Government officialfrom Pakistan);• Lack of teachers’ knowledge and skills for integrating the concept of ESD into school curricula(Government official from Thailand);• Political unrest (NGO Member, Bangladesh).

There is a common barrier which applies to all
regions and is closely connected to the policy level:sustainability is not a priority for political leaders; politicians have no interest in motivating people to participate;
there is no government support or teacher training. Somebarriers specific to Latin America and some regions
within the Asia-Pacific area, such as political unrest andlack of continuity in government, are additional obstacles
to implementing ESD.

2. UNESCO’s Action Goals for the Second
Half of the Decade
The continuing existence of barriers to implementing
ESD at the midterm of the Decade led the UNESCOWorld Conference (2009) to establish Action Goals forthe rest of the Decade in the Bonn Declaration and invite
the participants and community to discuss them. The
goals are detailed in the ‘Call for Actions’ section (policy
and practice level) in the Declaration. However thepolicy stakeholders still seem aloof concerning thesignificance of the Declaration. Despite the positive
reception of the Declaration, its specifications are inadequate. There is no prioritized ranking of the list of Action
Goals (a-r). The most promising goals remain unspecified, so necessary activities cannot be determined which
would focus on them. It is therefore important to ask thefollowing questions:
1. Which are the goals that should successfully be realized by 2014? Those demand appropriate efforts andsupport.
2. Which of the goals have only a minor chance of being
realized?
3. Which goals, having the least chance of being realized, still require promotion because they are crucial
to the overall success of the Decade?
The authors conducted another survey as part of their
German-Japanese Project in 2009 (Gross & Nakayama,2009) regarding the extent or degree to which
UNESCO’s Action Goals could be realized by 2014. The
current survey on implementing ESD has not been asingular project; it has been embedded in the same efforts
since the year 2000 (Gross, 2000). One hundred eleveninternational ESD experts took part in this 2009 Survey(Table 1).
Altogether there were about 50 thematic results basedon the action goals, they had to be diversified into
sub-goals, otherwise the results would have been imprecise because the adopted goals served like a box where a
lot of different goals and addressees could be mixed

Table 1 Numbers of respondents and regions.
Europe65
Filter Europe 34/

Asia-Pacific23
Filter Japan 13

Around 3/4of respondents
from universities

Respondents:
gov.-1, school-3
univ.-7, ngo-1
nn-1

Africa3–

Latin America North America
78––

Oceania
5
–

Total
111
44 members ofgovernmental institutions(51.2%);
26 members of NGOs
(30.2 %)

Drivers and Barriers to Implementing ESD with Focus on UNESCO’s Action and Strategy Goals

together. By asking the participants to evaluate the goals,
we could determine satisfactory and unsatisfactory
prospects as evaluated by those who were familiar withthese issues from a bottom-up perspective, either having
encountered barriers or deficient action or being convinced by their own experiences that the goals might be
implemented successfully.
The results of the 2009 Survey present an opportunity
to provide a strategy for implementing ESD withaction-oriented efficiency; drivers and catalysts havebeen revealed by priority ranking. The results of the survey reflect a spectrum of low to high evaluations, and thefollowing charts do the same in referring to goals withsatisfactory or unsatisfactory outcomes.

3. A Three-Filter Approach for Ranking andRegionalizing Goals
A three-filter approach allows goals to be regionalized and ranked when the cut-off point has been set at
60% or more. This approach provides a listing of goals
perceived as likely to be realized ‘satisfactorily,’ ‘nearlysatisfactorily’ and ‘unsatisfactorily.’For example, 78.1% of all experts (111) thought theaction goal “strengthening ESD by focusing on climatechange” would be realized to ‘60% or more’ of completion; and 81.4% of the European experts (34) and 84.7%of the Japanese experts (13) thought likewise.
The following graphs (Figs. 1 and 2) reveal predictionsof promising goals and those which are less promising.
Beyond that there are national differences, e.g., to what

extent ‘scientific communities’ are expected to contributeto the process of implementing ESD; European respondents have evaluated this goal much more highly thaninternational and Japanese respondents. Ultimately thegoals are classified into three groups based on the
chances of successful implementation predicted by thesurvey respondents.
3.1 Goals perceived as likely to be realized
satisfactorily
Making use of the ‘60%- or- more cut’ (hereby adding
the percentages of respondents who have evaluated thegoal as likely to be realized from 60% to 100% ofcompletion) provides an overview of the ranking from
top to bottom.
There are regionalized results which are nearly alike,e.g., ‘climate change,’ in addition to the Europeans’
highly ranked evaluation of ‘ESD networking,’ ‘scientific community’ and ‘youth’ which contrasts with theJapanese responses where ‘youth’ and ‘scientific community’ have been appraised much more lowly.
Examples of action goals which have been perceived
as likely to be realized satisfactorily include q2) Engage
the expertise available within the UN system tostrengthen ESD in key sustainable development conventions; for example, those focusing on biodiversity,
climate change, desertification and intangible cultural
heritage.
Survey question: Expertise available within the UN
system – q2) strengthening ESD by focusing on climatechange. “Global climate change can serve as a prototype

Fig. 1 Percentage of respondents judging that each of the UNESCO Action Goals will be realized at a level of 60% or more.
50%+: satisfactory
40-50%: nearly satisfactory<40%: unsatisfactory

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D. GROSS & S. NAKAYAMAof a sustainability problem, one which is characterized bya high degree of complexity, expressed by a strong
interrelationship between ecological, social and economic dimensions, which have important consequences
for future generations; furthermore there is the uncertainty about the routes that should be followed to find asolution” (Bertini, 2009).
In referring to this goal we may get some insights into
how far this prototype has been evaluated for strengthening ESD (Fig. 2).
a) ESD and climate change: perceived as likely to berealized to 60% or more of completion: international
78.1%, European 81.4%, Japanese 84.7%. The highassessment of this high-priority goal is certainly based on
the intensive consideration in the media. This applies tofurther topics of this kind too. However the survey shows
contradictory results. A considerable number of respondents think that the use of media for awakening publicawareness should be increased but on the other hand the
media themselves have been less highly rated when the
respondents were asked, ‘How far have the media
contributed to fostering public awareness and understanding of sustainability issues?’ (Gross, 2009b; 2009c).
The relevant figures here are less promising: nearly 60%of the respondents think this might be only realized to
50% or less of the target.
Sustainability and ‘sustainability thinking’ need to becommunicated because of their specific features. They
are not directly experienced and are very complex:scientific data, analyses and translations have to be communicated to the public. Instead of focusing onsustainability, however, the current media are mainlyinterested in environmental issues in terms of politicalconflict, economic costs and losses and not in solutions;moreover journalists often lack scientific competence(Bonfadelli, 2009). Thus the media may not be regarded

as signposts or catalysts for awareness-raising regarding
sustainability. The participants of the UNESCO World
Conference on ESD (2009) were aware of the need for
greater efforts in training and education of the media
educators and trainers themselves in order to promote an
active interdisciplinary approach towards ESD, e.g.,social justice, gender equality, and other relevant values
that are integral to ESD, to enable recognition of ESD bymedia audiences around the world (UNESCO/BMBF/
German Commission for UNESCO, 2009, p68). Beingaware of this basic gap, UNESCO had launched atraining and resource kit for media people (Bird et al.,2008).
b) ESD networking: perceived as likely to be realized
to 60% or more of the target: international 59.4%, European 70.3%, Japanese 61.6% – the second rank in thesequence of these results (Fig. 1). The surveyed Action
Goal n) ESD networking (schools and universities) was
positively assessed by all experts and especially by theEuropean respondents. Their evaluation should be further
promoted and strengthened. This also applies to d 6) the
scientific community.
The 2009 DESD global review report, based on the
Monitoring and Evaluation questionnaire, to which 97
countries responded and which mainly focused on
governmental feedback, has also acknowledged theimportance of this goal: “Strengthening of networking
between schools, educational institutions/ organizations
and other potential partners in ESD at a local, national
and international level, appears crucial. Such capacitybuilding is also needed, e.g., in the world of business andindustry and the NGO-sector” (UNESCO, 2009a, p65).
This acknowledgement, however, does not provide any
information as to how important these goals have been
regarded by UNESCO. Wavelets toward goals do notbreak, but waves with varied heights do.

Fig. 2 Percentage of respondents assessing the degree by which the goal of “ESD and Climate
Change” will be realized by 2014.

Drivers and Barriers to Implementing ESD with Focus on UNESCO’s Action and Strategy Goalsc) Youth: j) engage the commitment, solidarity andpotential of youth and their organisations and networks
in enhancing ESD. Foster young people’s ownership of
ESD questions and issues. Fifty-four percent of theinternational respondents thought this goal would beachieved to 60% or more of the target; as did 67% of theEuropean respondents and 46% of the Japanese respondents. This supports UNESCO’s announcement of having a specific focus on ‘youth’ and ‘gender equality’ forthe future (UNESCO/BMBF/German Commission for
UNESCO, 2009, p58), i.e., these efforts should be
strengthened anyhow because they may be used as
drivers for implementing ESD in the global community.
Moreover UNESCO (2009a) recalls that youth initiatives
are beginning to emerge rapidly and that these are conducted by NGOs, the private sector, governments,
universities and intergovernmental organizations.
3.2 Goals perceived as likely to be realized nearlysatisfactorily
These figures, although classified as nearly satisfactory, demand strenuous promotional efforts because they
still have weak points.
a) ESD and training of business leaders: i 4)ESD
should become an integral part of training of leaders inbusiness is perceived at the 60% or higher level by 48.4%
internationally, 50% in Europe and 38.5% in Japan.
ESD is not just limited to education; executive
education for SD in business must be also taken into
account. ESD, as the key for providing the qualities ofsustainability, should be used for forming a strong
partnership with the economy to ensure that these qualities are constantly included. There is a need for increased
cooperation between the ‘new learning’ (mental mode)and the business sector (new economic mode) in trainingof business leaders. The economy itself will ask to beassisted with strengthening the efforts for implementing
ESD.
Ninety-three percent of 766 CEOs confirmed in 2010
in an international survey that sustainability issues will
be important or very important and that education as a
global development challenge, followed by climatechange, will be most critical to the future success of theirbusiness. Education is also understood as, “To equip
current and future leaders and employees – and thosefrom other sectors such as government and civil society –with the ability to manage sustainability issues as part ofcore business” (Accenture, 2010).
Reorienting business towards sustainability is becoming the key to remaining competitive in the global
economy. The business sector is dependent on a mental
change, such as integrative and value-oriented thinking,to secure a sustainable futre. This demands a close
cooperation between the business and the education
sector.
These deficits have also been confirmed in the
UNESCO Global Report 2009, which states, “ESDshould, possibly in connection with the rise of Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR), become an integral part in129

the training of leaders in business and industry. The latterhas been little emphasized in the DESD so far”
(UNESCO, 2009a, p65).
This view was also represented by the participants of
the UNESCO World Conference, underlining ‘that moredialogue between the ESD community and key economic
stakeholders was needed, particularly in business andgovernment, as well as with business educators, economists, and relevant NGOs. Education must not simply
serve the (old) economy; ESD must help transform it
with new knowledge, skills and values (UNESCO/
BMBF/German Commission for UNESCO, 2009, p61).
Of concern regarding ‘training of leaders inbusinesses’ in Japan, compared with the other results, isthat there seems still to be a need for action. The ‘trainingof leaders in business’ in Japan is progressing more in thearea of CSR. An important action to be taken is to stressthe linkage between ESD and CSR in Japan.
b) Gender equality: m) ESD should actively promote
gender equality, as well as create conditions and strategies that enable women to share knowledge and experience of bringing about social change and humanwell-being. Here this is perceived as likely to be realized
to 60% or more of the target by 44% internationally,
40.7% in Europe and 46.2% in Japan.
The results of the survey make it necessary to promote and intensify efforts to establish ‘gender equality –a forgotten priority.’c) Curricula: f3) using an integrated and systemic
approach to curricula. This is perceived as likely to berealized to 60% or more of the target by 42.9%
internationally, 48.1% in Europe and 30.8% in Japan.
ESD curricula have to meet a cluster of interwoven
requirements (Gross, 1997, 2006a, 2006b, 2008a;
Nakayama et al., 2006). ESD curricula should aim at a
shift in people’s mindsets and knowledge, but an exclusive concentration on knowledge alone will not fulfill therequirements needed for ESD. Knowledge must be addedon the one hand by promoting understanding and teaching practical skills in order to impart action competence,and be completed on the other hand by stressing empathy
and solidarity. These requirements for curricula will still
be incomplete, however, if they are not based on values(Lucerne Declaration, 2007), because interrelated issues
demand responsible decisions. One has to decide among
options, to balance out between the different dimensions
in order to act responsibly. Without values one will act
arbitrarily. We have to decide, among other things, how
to act, how to care for others and how to strive for ourown well-being and others.’ These decisions will not bevalid forever since there is an increasing tendency torecognize and accept uncertainties because we are confronted with processes that change continuously.
Therefore the construction of ESD curricula must
consider a decision-making structure for analyzing theinterconnectivity of economic, environmental and social
systems, providing the designers of curricula as well asteachers and students with this approach for balancing

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out the conflicting issues by value-oriented decisions
and thus practicing action competence coupled with
self-responsibility. Curricula should furthermore be
developed from within individual disciplines apart fromcross-curricular offerings because a transdisciplinary
view will be more appropriate for ESD than an interdisciplinary one. The first ESD reference curriculum(‘Eurocurriculum’) of this kind was presented in 1994
within an international R&D project in Germany (Gross& Friese, 2000).
A closer look at the majority of the current curricula,supposedly ESD-proof, reveals deficiencies (2009a,
Gross). ESD is still perceived as EE and predominantly
taught in that way, supplemented only by social aspects
and not by a rethinking of education itself; the methods
are not really suited to promoting values; sectoral
initiatives prevail. Moreover, more than half ofinternational experts have denied that the curricula arecharacterized by a multi-perspective and systemic view.
Those results are also confirmed by the Japanese
respondents, who reported the dominant perception of
ESD as EE (75%); supremacy of environmental aspects(75%); no decision-making structures within the
curricula (75%); or curricula offering no methods
suitable to promoting values (65%).
These results show that the current education systems
are still too rigid for the integrative nature of ESD. Thus
countries still need to adapt their legislation and policy
frameworks to the needs of ESD. Japan has meanwhile
adapted ESD within a 5-year strategic policy into the
National Basic Education Plan (2008).
3.3 Goals perceived as likely to be realized
unsatisfactorily
There are a considerable number of Action Goals
which may be classified as ‘unsatisfactory’ because therespondents think they will not be sufficiently realized.
The results of the selected Action Goals (regionally filtered) reveal differences. The Japanese respondents tend
to see the government’s efforts in implementing ESD
programs at the national level as relatively weak.
Respondents might easily feel that the government isconcentrating more on anti-global warming issues thanon ESD.
Regarding the Action Goal c1) Mobilize adequate
resources and funding in favour of ESD, in particularthrough integration into national development policy andbudgetary frameworks, internationally, only 18.5% perceived this as likely to be realized to 60% or more of thetarget, with 22.6% in Europe and 30.8% in Japan
responding likewise.
These results deserve special attention because theissue of ‘resources’ is rather neglected in the current
discussion on ESD. The UNESCO Global Report 2009
has documented this, summarizing as follows: “In mostcountries across the world, the availability of publicbudgets and/or economic incentives is either non-existentor minimal at best ... raising funds for ESD activities andprojects is key to ensuring the successful achievement of
the DESD” (UNESCO, 2009a, p71).

Besides these (s.a.) there is a list of further deficiencies, e.g., teacher education practice; support for teacher
education institutions; contribution of civil society to
ESD actions; recognition of local knowledge; SD as across-cutting theme; support for teachers’ evaluation of
ESD processes; integration of ESD by involving theprivate sector; integration of ESD in programmes; putting ESD in the priorities of foundations; and NorthSouth cooperation (Figs. 1 and 3).
All these ESD-oriented goals should be weighted bypriority, strategically linked with community-based
capacity development and implemented with the necessary resources.

4. Bottom-up Comments on the Process of
Implementing ESD
All respondents to the survey were invited to comment on the process of implementing ESD.
4.1 What is most urgent to solve at the policy level?
This item received 83 comments. The suggestions
made may be summarized by emphasizing the following
comments:• It needs to be more bottom-up,• SD should be taken more seriously at the centres ofpolitical and economic power,• More assistance is needed to develop ESD policies indeveloping countries,• More cooperation between different sectors and theadministration is needed (this was confirmed by thesurvey, where goal d3) ‘ESD policies throughco-ordinated and intersectoral/interministerial approaches’ was evaluated by 23% of the respondents
as likely to be realized to ‘60% or more’ of the target,or, vice versa, 67% think it will be realized to 50% orless).
4.2 How to awaken and strengthen public awarenessof ESD?
There were 86 comments within the survey, which
had the following focus:• Using media as the key to public awareness-raising on
ESD. This is not really promising although widely
demanded. The media are currently more focusedon ‘catastrophes’ instead of mediating complex
processes; see above);• Merging business, education, science and greening
education at the local/regional level, and making it
output-based;• Showing good (best) practice examples and promoting the message of ESD.
This is supported by the survey: h2) dialogue on ESD
by sharing good practices. Overall 55% of the respondents thought it was likely to be realized to 60% or moreof the target, with 59.2% of European respondents and61.6% of Japanese respondents replying likewise.

Drivers and Barriers to Implementing ESD with Focus on UNESCO’s Action and Strategy Goals

4.3 What steps should be taken next?
Table 2 provides a ranking of responses from top tobottom for implementing ESD at the practical level.
This is a revealing and instructive overview of thecore goals of ESD. The results may serve as a manual forwhat should be done next. It is not surprising that there isbroad agreement between the international and European
respondents because the perceived deficiencies arenearly alike in both cases, confronting a need for a globalchange in mental mode, whereas the Japanese figures
seem to confirm that there is predominately a lack ofbasic prerequisites for implementing ESD.

5. UNESCO’s Strategic Goals 2010 – 2015
UNESCO’s set of key areas for strategic action in
2010- 2015 (UNESCO, 2009b, 2009c, 2010) is based on
the adopted action goals as defined in the Bonn
Declaration (UNESCO World Conference on Educationfor Sustainable Development, 2009), and focuses on four
key areas.
(A) Enhancing synergies with different education anddevelopment initiatives and strengthening partnerships among ESD stakeholders,(B) Developing and strengthening capacities for ESD,(C) Building, sharing and applying ESD-related knowledge, and(D) Advocating for ESD, and increasing awareness andunderstanding of sustainability.
Figure 3 shows a prioritized ranking of UNESCO’s
Strategic Goals for 2010-2015.
These key areas, mainly referring to Bonn’s Action
Goals, are characterized by a broad variety of measures
which include specific actions, cooperation with institutions, taking regional differences into account, supporting particular programmes such as EFA and MDG, etc.
The extent to which these goals, however, will be realized from 2010 till the end of the Decade and by whichcriteria or guidelines these goals have been legitimized isunclear, except that they have been adopted by the Bonn
Declaration and by succeeding UNESCO conferenceswith references to inter-governmental reports.
Setting priorities means ranking goals according torelevance, focused here on the degree of consent by
stakeholders and/or by establishing ways of coping withbarriers and deficiencies, either singly or using a synergetic approach. Applying this to UNESCO’s strategic

131

key areas, just a collection of goals with no ranking,reveals a considerable number of unsatisfactory results,
especially concerning key area A) enhancing synergies
with different education and development initiatives andstrengthening partnerships among ESD stakeholders.
These deficiencies are documented in linkages andfunding between ESD and EFA as well as the MDGs;inter-sectoral approaches; approaches that involve business and the corporate sector; and funding for programming processes as well as foundations and donors. The
surveyed goals of the linkages between ESD and EFA
and their funding have been characterized, with regard to
the applied criteria, as unsatisfactory within the efforts ofimplementation. Only 30% of all respondents think thatthe linkages between ESD and EFA will be realized to
60% and more of the target level by the end of the Decadeand 20% of the respondents think so what is concerning
their funding (Fig. 3). This is a remarkable deficiency,
given that the linkage between ESD and EFA is essential,
since ESD promotes values such as peace, equality andrespect for human rights, gender, environment andcultural diversity underpinning EFA and MDG (ACCU,2010).
Further serious deficiencies are revealed in key areaB) developing and strengthening capacities for ESD inteacher education and teacher practice; support forteacher education institutions; evaluation of ESD processes; and effective pedagogical approaches by teachers.
What is noteworthy regarding the results of all key
areas here and with special focus on regional differencesis that nearly all evaluations by the European respondents
are far more positive than those of any of the others. Thislargely applies to the Japanese evaluations, too (Fig. 3). A
comparative look at the overall results also makes it clearthat the goals ‘ESD through higher education institutions’and ‘international cooperation’ received a particularlyhigh rating among the European participants.
These strategies and forms of cooperation should be
supported, e.g, by referring to the RCEs’ five-year
experiences and contributions within these activities(UNU-IAS, 2010). The RCEs have contributed throughdevelopment and practice of learning activities relevant
to sustainable development; advice to policy-makers on
the policies relevant to ESD; and provision of alliancesfor ESD and sustainable development (SD) in theirrespective regions and beyond. Examples on a smallerscale include, as given here, a joint project between

Table 2 Future steps to be taken for implementing ESD.

6

All respondents (111)Really rethink education
Raise public awareness
Reform teacher education
Provide sufficient financial resources
Revise ESD curricula: subject oriented,
based on competencies
Focus on systemic thinking

European respondents (34)Really rethink education
Reform teacher education
Raise public awareness
Provide sufficient financial resources
Revise ESD curricula: subject oriented,
based on competencies
Provide hands-on ESD materials

7
8

Provide hands-on ESD materials
Develop national ESD indicators

Develop national ESD indicators
Focus on systemic thinking

1
2
3
4
5

Japanese respondents (13)Train administrators
Provide hands-on ESD materials
Focus on systemic thinking
Reform teacher education
Provide sufficient financial resources
Revise ESD curricula: subject oriented,
based on competencies
Develop national ESD indicators
Really rethink education

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Fig. 3 Percentage of respondents judging that each the UNESCO Strategy Goals will be realized
at a level of 60% or more.

German and Japanese geography teachers who by
surveying the status of ESD implementation promote theinternational exchange of experience at the grassroots
level and may thus be in an advantageous position toevaluate implementation strategies and determine efficient action goals (Nakayama et al., 2006).
Promising goals within UNESCO’s strategy may include those in the key areas C (Building, sharing andapplying ESD-related knowledge) and D (Advocating for
ESD, and increasing awareness and understanding ofsustainability), vid. Figs. 1 and 3.
Here it seems appropriate to refer to UNESCO’s
Action and Strategy Goals. Especially highly ranked is‘strengthening ESD by focusing on climate change,’
which is also emphasized by the German and Japanese
Resolution (UNESCO, 2009c) ‘to reorient education andtraining systems to address sustainability concerns
through coherent policies at national and local levels,
including through climate change education.’ Further
promising goals are ESD networking, NGOs, scientificcommunities and youth (Fig. 1).

6. National Approaches: Germany and Japan
Against the background of the present survey results
on UNESCO’s Action Goals (Fig. 1) and Strategic Goals
for the Second Half of the Decade (Fig. 3) it seems appropriate to review the current goals (2009/2010) of national
governments, i.e., evaluating Germany’s and Japan’s

goals for the second half of the Decade, based on theabove results – the European responses in Figs. 1 and 3
show them to be largely representative of the German
ones.
6.1 Germany
This compilation of the German goals has been reduced to provide a general overview, (whereas the Japanese goals are more specific), without regard to the extent
of chances of implementation; consequently there is nolist in which urgent measures are required and thus it is
not strange that there is no direct mention of stakeholders,
including youth and NGOs, as drivers, or women as newhope for ESD; neither are there references to barriers
such as the role of ‘civil society,’ ‘coordinated policies’ or‘adequate resources.’
However, just the merger of both hopeful and lesshopeful goals might offer an efficient strategy. Here,however, the sum of goals is predominately characterized
by a single-step approach instead of a synergetic one. The
explicit reference to ‘climate change’ could have alreadyshown a multi-perspective approach.
There are five German goals for the second half of theDecade (Deutscher, 2009):(a) ... i.e., employers have to be won over as partners.
Comment: a higher rate of partnerships, e.g., employers, does not necessarily mean a higher rate of implementation of ESD – instead, business leader training andexecutive education on ESD is required. A joint strategy

Drivers and Barriers to Implementing ESD with Focus on UNESCO’s Action and Strategy Goals

including the business and education sectors is essential
and therefore more promising than a bundled collectionof partners.
(b) ... ESD: a permanent place in the curricula and thetraining of teachers in all areas of education.
Comment: ESD has not arrived everywhere in thereality of education, according to a statement by the
President of the German Commission for UNESCO
before the Committee on Education, Research andTechnology Assessment of the Deutschen Bundestag,2010. This refers to his assessment that curricula are still
more focused on EE, preferably with some additionalsocial aspects, than on curricula with decision-making
structures based on the three ESD domains. This goallacks a clear statement on the structure of ESD curriculawith regard to the current state of curricula.
(c) ... furthermore ESD’s successes and efficiency must
be made transparent.
Comment: There are no hints on how to do this anduntil now no efforts have been made to check the efficiency of the process of implementation through bottom-up surveys, still lacking within the activities of theGerman Commission for UNESCO.
(d) ... international exchange, especially the exchange
between the North and the South.
Comment: The emphasis on the exchange between
the North and the South, one of the most serious barriers,
may cause the impression of a unilateral transfer from theNorth to the South, certainly not at the same level as
previously requested. Here they should have referred tothe appropriate communication level, namely ‘scientificcommunities.’(e) ... for the second half of the Decade it will be important to achieve greater visibility of ESD.
Comment: Here the efforts really have to bestrengthened, especially in Germany, where only 13% of
the public knows what is meant by the term ‘sustainable
development,’ thus ‘public awareness raising’ is still a
big problem, re-confirmed at the World Conference inBonn 2009 by the members of the German UNESCO
Commission, who were puzzled about the current lack ofsuccess in addressing the public and asking for ideas on
how to succeed.
6.2 Japan
Within the Japanese goals for the second half of theDecade (UNDESD Japan Report, 2009) three major
initiatives have been emphasized, (a) Evaluation andrevision, (b) Dissemination and (c) Fostering closer alliances. A top priority will be put on strengthening ESD inschool initiatives with regard to responsible citizens in
the future, because more sustainable societies will depend on them.
(a) Evaluation and Revision: The Government is still
looking for methods to evaluate the effectiveness of ESD
initiatives. There is an urgent need for finding anappropriate evaluation system to monitor the progress of
ESD. With regard to this, the revision of Japan’s Action
Plan (2006) will be of vital interest since most of the ESD
stakeholders will be asked to evaluate their efforts

133(Nakayama 2008).
(b) Dissemination: A register system for ESD
programs and a support system will be set up for
improving the visibility of ESD, giving ESD a concrete
form and encouraging its dissemination. Additionally anationwide campaign was started in 2009 to increase thenumber of UNESCO-associated schools as well as
boosting fiscal support for ESD programs in the registered schools. Further efforts are also planned for awareness raising in schools, especially training programs foradministrative personnel, local boards of education andteachers.
(c) Fostering Closer Alliances: In 2008 the government revised the National Course of Study for Primaryand Secondary Schools towards including ESD. At thesame time, steps were taken for promoting joint community-school ESD initiatives. Two initiatives are being
implemented at the higher education level: a university
network for supporting UNESCO-associated schools intheir efforts to promote ESD (ASP UnivNET), and an
environmental graduate school network for strengthening
ESD programs. At the community level the government
will support various ESD programs and deploy coordinators to promote ESD there.
Within the Japanese goals for the second half of theDecade there is also a focus on global promotion of ESD,
referring to the International Forum on ESD Dialogue
held in Tokyo in 2008. Those goals include (a) todevelop ”model projects” that can be undertaken jointly
by multiple stakeholders, (b) to establish a framework forcooperation among all stakeholders, including privatecompanies, and (c) to increase the number and quality of
UNESCO-associated schools.
The overall strategy of the Japanese initiatives is
directed at producing concrete results with the insightthat priority goals must be set first, followed by draftingof an action plan for achieving them.

7. Summary and Conclusion
There are widespread efforts within the community
towards implementing ESD goals by 2014 and beyond.
These efforts have been accompanied and supported by
UNESCO’s Action and Strategy Goals in 2009 and 2010,
which had been adopted under the impression that theLead Agency might be faced with a lost decade, which
had been confirmed by its own findings: lack of humanand financial resources, difficulties in making linkages
with ESD (e.g., EFA and MDGs), weak inter-sectoralcollaboration, lack of appropriate tools for ESD anddifficulties in assessing ESD (UNESCO, 2009a, p36).
Considering these deficiencies and referring to
UNESCO’s collection of goals makes us aware of theprincipal defects: lack of a survey on the priority of goals
and lack of an action plan for dealing with these challenges and other barriers. What the adopted action goals
are promising and what we will get are vague. There is acovert incoherence as well as an overt disenchantment(Entzauberung) between the goals’ unknown results andthe surveys’ known ones.

134

D. GROSS & S. NAKAYAMANational goals, such as Germany’s and Japan’s goals
for the second half of the Decade, which are either
adapted or transferred from UNESCO’s sets of action andstrategy goals, reflect these deficiencies. However a
re-orientation has taken place within Japan’s strategy on
ESD goals (UNDESD Japan Report, 2009), based on an
approach where a ranking of the goals will be available
and an action plan doable, even with a focus on the global
promotion of ESD. Germany has remained with a listingof individual measures where the chances of success will
be uncertain, where the ranking of the goals remains
invisible and where the goals are not integrativelyaligned with each other either. In other words an overall
strategy is missing (Deutscher, 2009).
A ranking of the goals would have offered appropriate
strategies for strengthening those with promising outcomes and promoting those with minor chances of being
successfully implemented. The identified results of thesurvey may be used within the near future (Fig. 4). All
stakeholders may be invited to promote the goals byintra- and inter-sectoral cooperation and make use of thisknowledge for an action-oriented planning, based on
their regional and cultural characteristics.

The results of the SURVEY:
DRIVERS
Goals perceived to be realized satisfactorily# develop knowledge through ESD networking (schools,
universities, education centres and education networks)# integrate ESD by involving NGOs and development partners# dialogue on ESD by sharing and recognition of good practice# develop and implement ESD policies through approaches thatinvolve the scientific community# engage the commitment, solidarity and potential of youth andtheir organisations and networks in enhancing ESD. Foster young
people’s ownership of ESD questions and issues.
# new knowledge development for ESD through higher education
institutions# Global syndromes (e.g. climate change): engage the expertise available
within the UN system to strengthen ESD in key sustainable development
conventions for example focussing on climate change( ‘climate change’ itself might be at the top of the list, vid. Fig.1)

and BARRIERS: they need to be decreased, especially at the policy level.
BARRIERS
Goals perceived to be realized nearly satisfactorily and unsatisfactorily# mobilize adequate resources# linkages between ESD and EFA as well as funding into EFA and the MDGs
# implement ESD through coordinated policies that involve business andcorporate sector# to support teachers to evaluate ESD processes# to support teacher education institutions# develop and implement ESD policies through approaches that also involve civilsociety# promoting the role and the contribution of media for fostering public awarenessand understanding of sustainability issues# ESD should actively promote gender equality# public awareness-raising policies# training of business leaders

Fig. 4 Drivers and barriers: both should be integratively used for promoting ESD.

Drivers and Barriers to Implementing ESD with Focus on UNESCO’s Action and Strategy Goals

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Dieter GROSSDieter Gross is a Senior Consultant for SFI(Sustainable Future Instructions) and Spokesman
and Representative for ESD in the Association ofGerman School Geographers (VDSG e.V.). In
1992 he led an international R&D project onbehalf of the Federal Environment Agency,
focused on the implementation of EE and ESD in curricula, demonstrated
by the design of an ESD reference curriculum, followed by international
surveys on the state of implementation. Within the past decade he has taken
part in numerous international conferences and given lectures on ESD.
Since 2006 he has been the co-leader of a German-Japanese Project on
ESD.

Shuichi NAKAYAMA
Shuichi Nakayama, Ph.D. & D.Litt., is a
Professor Emeritus at Hiroshima University andthe Hiroshima University of Economics, Japan.
He was a member of the Japanese National
Commission in UNESCO for 2001-2007 andhe served as the Chair of the Education
Sub-Committee in the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO in
2002-2007. During his chairship, promotion of ESD in Japan was the main
focus. He also served as Chair of the Working Group for a proposal to
UNESCO for an international implemention scheme for UNDESD in June
2003, as Co-editor with Derek Elias, ESD Coordinator at UNESCO
Bangkok Office for A Situational Analysis of ESD in the Asia and PacificRegion (UNESCO Bangkok, 2005) and Working Paper: Asia-PacificRegional Strategy for ESD (UNESCO Bangkok, 2005) and as a consultant
for the ESD Team of UNESCO Bangkok in 2004. He has presented papers
on the promotion of ESD at numerous international conferences in Asia
since 2003. As a counterpart in Dieter Gross’s German-Japanese Joint
Project, he organized a conference for ESD curriculum development inHiroshima and Tokyo in 2006 and Berlin in 2008.
Website (in Japanese) http://www.esd-geography.com/(Received 21 September, Accepted 24 December)