AGENDA 21, CHAPTER 36



          PROMOTING EDUCATION, PUBLIC AWARENESS
                       AND TRAINING



NOTE:     This is a final, advanced version of a chapter of
          Agenda 21, as adopted by the Plenary in Rio de
          Janeiro, on June 14, 1992.  This document will be
          further edited, translated into the official
          languages, and published by the United Nations
          for the General Assembly this autumn.


                      INTRODUCTION

36.1.  Education, raising of public awareness and training
are linked to virtually all areas in Agenda/21, and even
more closely to the ones on meeting basic needs,
capacity-building, data and information, science, and the
role of major groups.  This chapter sets out broad
proposals, while specific suggestions related to sectoral
issues are contained in other chapters.  The Declaration
and Recommendations of the Tbilisi Intergovernmental
Conference on Environmental Education/1/ organized by
UNESCO and UNEP and held in 1977, have provided the
fundamental principles for the proposals in this document.

36.2.  Programme areas described in the present chapter
are:

     (a)  Reorienting education towards sustainable
development;

     (b)  Increasing public awareness;
     (c)  Promoting training.

                     PROGRAMME AREAS

A.  Reorienting education towards sustainable development

Basis for action

36.3.  Education, including formal education, public
awareness and training should be recognized as a process by
which human beings and societies can reach their fullest
potential.  Education is critical for promoting sustainable
development and improving the capacity of the people to
address environment and development issues.  While basic
education provides the underpinning for any environmental
and development education, the latter needs to be
incorporated as an essential part of learning.  Both formal
and non-formal education are indispensable to changing
people's attitudes so that they have the capacity to assess
and address their sustainable development concerns.  It is
also critical for achieving environmental and ethical
awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour
consistent with sustainable development and for effective
public participation in decision-making.  To be effective,
environment and development education should deal with the
dynamics of both the physical/biological and socio-economic
environment and human (which may include spiritual)
development, should be integrated in all disciplines, and
should employ formal and non-formal methods and effective
means of communication.


Objectives

36.4.  Recognizing that countries, regional and
international organizations will develop their own
priorities and schedules for implementation in accordance
with their needs, policies and programmes, the following
objectives are proposed:

     (a)  To endorse the recommendations arising from the
World Conference on Education for All:  Meeting Basic
Learning Needs/2/ (Jomtien, Thailand, 5-9/March/1990) and
to strive to ensure universal access to basic education,
and to achieve primary education for at least 80/per/cent
of girls and 80/per/cent of boys of primary school age
through formal schooling or non-formal education and to
reduce the adult illiteracy rate to at least half of its
1990 level.  Efforts should focus on reducing the high
illiteracy levels and redressing the lack of basic
education among women and should bring their literacy
levels into line with those of men;

     (b)  To achieve environmental and development
awareness in all sectors of society on a world-wide scale
as soon as possible;

     (c)  To strive to achieve the accessibility of
environmental and development education, linked to social
education, from primary school age through adulthood to all
groups of people;

     (d)  To promote integration of environment and
development concepts, including demography, in all
educational programmes, in particular the analysis of the
causes of major environment and development issues in a
local context, drawing on the best available scientific
evidence and other appropriate sources of knowledge, and
giving special emphasis to the further training of decision
makers at all levels.

Activities

36.5.  Recognizing that countries and regional and
international organizations will develop their own
priorities and schedules for implementation in accordance
with their needs, policies and programmes, the following
activities are proposed:

     (a)  All countries are encouraged to endorse the
recommendations of the Jomtien Conference and strive to
ensure its Framework for Action.  This would encompass the
preparation of national strategies and actions for meeting
basic learning needs, universalizing access and promoting
equity, broadening the means and scope of education,
developing a supporting policy context, mobilizing
resources and strengthening international cooperation to
redress existing economic, social and gender disparities
which interfere with these aims.  Non-governmental
organizations can make an important contribution in
designing and implementing educational programmes and
should be recognized;

     (b)  Governments should strive to update or prepare
strategies aimed at integrating environment and development
as a cross-cutting issue into education at all levels
within the next three years.  This should be done in
cooperation with all sectors of society.  The strategies
should set out policies and activities, and identify needs,
cost, means and schedules for their implementation,
evaluation and review.  A thorough review of curricula
should be undertaken to ensure a multidisciplinary
approach, with environment and development issues and their
socio-cultural and demographic aspects and linkages.  Due
respect should be given to community-defined needs and
diverse knowledge systems, including science, cultural and
social sensitivities;

     (c)  Countries are encouraged to set up national
advisory environmental education coordinating bodies or
round tables representative of various environmental,
developmental, educational, gender and other interests,
including non-governmental organizations, to encourage
partnerships, help mobilize resources, and provide a source
of information and focal point for international ties.
These bodies would help mobilize and facilitate different
population groups and communities to assess their own needs
and to develop the necessary skills to create and implement
their own environment and development initiatives;

     (d)  Educational authorities, with the appropriate
assistance from community groups or non-governmental
organizations, are recommended to assist or set up
pre-service and in-service training programmes for all
teachers, administrators, and educational planners, as well
as non-formal educators in all sectors, addressing the
nature and methods of environmental and development
education and making use of relevant experience of
non-governmental organizations;

     (e)  Relevant authorities should ensure that every
school is assisted in designing environmental activity work
plans, with the participation of students and staff.
Schools should involve schoolchildren in local and regional
studies on environmental health, including safe drinking
water, sanitation and food and ecosystems and in relevant
activities, linking these studies with services and
research in national parks, wildlife reserves, ecological
heritage sites etc.;

     (f)  Educational authorities should promote proven
educational methods and the development of innovative
teaching methods for educational settings.  They should
also recognize appropriate traditional education systems in
local communities;

     (g)  Within two years the United Nations system should
undertake a comprehensive review of its educational
programmes, encompassing training and public awareness, to
reassess priorities and reallocate resources.  The
UNESCO/UNEP International Environmental Education Programme
should, in cooperation with the appropriate bodies of the
United Nations system, Governments, non-governmental
organizations and others, establish a programme within two
years to integrate the decisions of the Conference into the
existing United Nations framework adapted to the needs of
educators at different levels and circumstances.  Regional
organizations and national authorities should be encouraged
to elaborate similar parallel programmes and opportunities
by conducting an analysis of how to mobilize different
sectors of the population in order to assess and address
their environmental and development education needs;

     (h)  There is a need to strengthen, within five years,
information exchange by enhancing technologies and
capacities necessary to promote environment and development
education and public awareness.  Countries should cooperate
with each other and with the various social sectors and
population groups to prepare educational tools that include
regional environment and development issues and
initiatives, using learning materials and resources suited
to their own requirements;

     (i)  Countries could support university and other
tertiary activities and networks for environmental and
development education.  Cross-disciplinary courses could be
made available to all students.  Existing regional networks
and activities and national university actions which
promote research and common teaching approaches on
sustainable development should be built upon, and new
partnerships and bridges created with the business and
other independent sectors, as well as with all countries
for technology, know-how, and knowledge exchange;

     (j)  Countries, assisted by international
organizations, non-governmental organizations and other
sectors, could strengthen or establish national or regional
centres of excellence in interdisciplinary research and
education in environmental and developmental sciences, law
and the management of specific environmental problems.
Such centres could be universities or existing networks in
each country or region, promoting cooperative research and
information sharing and dissemination.  At the global level
these functions should be performed by appropriate
institutions;

     (k)  Countries should facilitate and promote
non-formal education activities at the local, regional and
national levels by cooperating with and supporting the
efforts of non-formal educators and other community-based
organizations.  The appropriate bodies of the United
Nations system in cooperation with non-governmental
organizations should encourage the development of an
international network for the achievement of global
educational aims.  At the national and local levels, public
and scholastic forums should discuss environmental and
development issues, and suggest sustainable alternatives to
policy makers;

     (l)  Educational authorities, with appropriate
assistance of non-governmental organizations, including
women's and indigenous peoples' organizations, should
promote all kinds of adult education programmes for
continuing education in environment and development, basing
activities around elementary/secondary schools and local
problems.  These authorities and industry should encourage
business, industrial and agricultural schools to include
such topics in their curricula.  The corporate sector could
include sustainable development in their education and
training programmes. Programmes at a post-graduate level
should include specific courses aiming at the further
training of decision makers;

     (m)  Governments and educational authorities should
foster opportunities for women in non-traditional fields
and eliminate gender stereotyping in curricula.  This could
be done by improving enrolment opportunities, including
females in advanced programmes as students and instructors,
reforming entrance and teacher staffing policies and
providing incentives for establishing child-care
facilities, as appropriate.  Priority should be given to
education of young females and to programmes promoting
literacy among women;

     (n)  Governments should affirm the rights of
indigenous peoples, by legislation if necessary, to use
their experience and understanding of sustainable
development to play a part in education and training;

     (o)  The United Nations could maintain a monitoring
and evaluative role regarding decisions of the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development on
education and awareness, through the relevant United
Nations agencies.  With Governments and non-governmental
organizations, as appropriate, it should present and
disseminate decisions in a variety of forms, and should
ensure the continuous implementation and review of the
educational implications of Conference decisions, in
particular through relevant events and conferences.

Means of implementation

36.6.  The Conference secretariat has estimated the
average total annual cost (1993-2000) of implementing this
programme to be about $8 billion to $9 billion, including
about  $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion  from the international
community on grant or concessional terms.  These are
indicitave and order of magnitude estimates only and have
not  been reviewed by governments.  Actual costs and
financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and
programmes Governments decide upon for implementation;

36.7.  In the light of country specific situations, more
support for eduducation, training and publuic awareness
activities related to environment and development could be
provided, in appropriate cases, through measures such as
the following:

     (a)  Giving higher priority to those sectors in budget
allocations, protecting them from structural cutting
requirements;

     (b)  Shifting allocations within existing education
budgets in favour of primary education, with focus on
environment and development;

     (c)  Promoting conditions where a larger share of the
cost is borne by local communities, with rich communities
assisting poorer ones;

     (d)  Obtaining additional funds from private donors
concentrating on the poorest countries, and those with
rates of literacy below 40/per/cent;

     (e)  Encouraging debt for education swaps;

     (f)  Lifting restrictions on private schooling and
increasing the flow of funds from and to non-governmental
organizations, including small-scale grass-roots
organizations;

     (g)  Promoting the effective use of existing
facilities, for example, multiple school shifts, fuller
development of open universities and other long-distance
teaching;

     (h)  Facilitating low-cost or no-cost use of mass
media for the purposes of education;

     (i)  Encouraging twinning of universities in developed
and developing countries.]


             B.  Increasing public awareness

Basis for action

36.8.  There is still a considerable lack of awareness of
the interrelated nature of all human activities and the
environment, due to inaccurate or insufficient information.
Developing countries in particular lack relevant
technologies and expertise.  There is a need to increase
public sensitivity to environment and development problems
and involvement in their solutions and foster a sense of
personal environmental responsibility and greater
motivation and commitment towards sustainable development.

Objective

36.9.  The objective is to promote broad public awareness
as an essential part of a global education effort to
strengthen attitudes, values and actions which are
compatible with sustainable development.  It is important
to stress the principle of devolving authority,
accountability and resources to the most appropriate level
with preference given to local responsibility and control
over awareness-building activities.


Activities

36.10.  Recognizing that countries, regional and
international organizations will develop their own
priorities and schedules for implementation in accordance
with their needs, policies and programmes, the following
activities are proposed:

     (a)  Countries should strengthen existing advisory
bodies or establish new ones for public environment and
development information, and should coordinate activities
with, among others, the United Nations, non-governmental
organizations and important media.  They should encourage
public participation in discussions of environmental
policies and assessments.  Governments should also
facilitate and support national to local networking of
information through existing networks;

     (b)  The United Nations system should improve its
outreach in the course of a review of its education and
public awareness activities to promote greater involvement
and coordination of all parts of the system, especially its
information bodies and regional and country operations.
Systematic surveys of the impact of awareness programmes
should be conducted, recognizing the needs and
contributions of specific community groups;

     (c)  Countries and regional organizations should be
encouraged, as appropriate, to provide public environmental
and development information services for raising the
awareness of all groups, the private sector and
particularly decision makers;

     (d)  Countries should stimulate educational
establishments in all sectors, especially the tertiary
sector, to contribute more to awareness building.
Educational materials of all kinds and for all audiences
should be based on the best available scientific
information, including the natural, behavioural and social
sciences, and taking into account aesthetic and ethical
dimensions;

     (e)  Countries and the United Nations system should
promote a cooperative relationship with the media, popular
theatre groups, and entertainment and advertising
industries by initiating discussions to mobilize their
experience in shaping public behaviour and consumption
patterns and making wide use of their methods.  Such
cooperation would also increase the active public
participation in the debate on the environment.  UNICEF
should make child-oriented material available to media as
an educational tool, ensuring close cooperation between the
out-of-school public information sector and the school
curriculum, for the primary level.  UNESCO, UNEP and
universities should enrich pre-service curricula for
journalists on environment and development topics;

     (f)  Countries, in cooperation with the scientific
community, should establish ways of employing modern
communication technologies for effective public outreach.
National and local educational authorities and relevant
United Nations agencies should expand, as appropriate, the
use of audio-visual methods, especially in rural areas in
mobile units, by producing television and radio programmes
for developing countries, involving local participation,
employing interactive multimedia methods and integrating
advanced methods with folk media;

     (g)  Countries should promote, as appropriate,
environmentally sound leisure and tourism activities,
building on The Hague Declaration of Tourism (1989) and the
current programmes of the World Tourism Organization and
UNEP,  making suitable use of museums, heritage sites,
zoos, botanical gardens, national parks, and other
protected areas;

     (h)  Countries should encourage non-governmental
organizations to increase their involvement in
environmental and development problems, through joint
awareness initiatives and improved interchange with other
constituencies in society;

     (i)  Countries and the United Nations system should
increase their interaction with and include, as
appropriate, indigenous people in the management, planning
and development of their local environment, and should
promote dissemination of traditional and socially learned
knowledge through means based on local customs, especially
in rural areas, integrating these efforts with the
electronic media, whenever appropriate;

     (j)  UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP and non-governmental
organizations should develop support programmes to involve
young people and children in environment and development
issues, such as children's and youth hearings, building on
decisions of the World Summit for Children;/3/

     (k)  Countries, the United Nations and
non-governmental organizations should encourage
mobilization of both men and women in awareness campaigns,
stressing the role of the family in environmental
activities, women's contribution to transmission of
knowledge and social values and the development of human
resources;

     (l)  Public awareness should be heightened regarding
the impacts of violence in society.

Means of implementation

36.11.  The Conference Secretariat has estimated the
average total annual cost (1993-2000) of implementing the
activities of this programme to be about $1.2 billion,
including about  $110 million from the international
community on grant or concessional terms.  These are
indicitave and order of magnitude estimates only and have
not been reviewed  by Governments.  Actual costs and
financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon,  inter-alia, the specific strategies and
programmes Governments decide upon for implementation:


                 C.  Promoting training

Basis for action

36.12.  Training is one of the most important tools to
develop human resources and facilitate the transition to a
more sustainable world.  It should have a job-specific
focus, aimed at filling gaps in knowledge and skill that
would help individuals find employment and be involved in
environmental and development work.  At the same time,
training programmes should promote a greater awareness of
environment and development issues as a two-way learning
process.

Objectives

36.13.  The following objectives are proposed:

     (a)  To establish or strengthen vocational training
programmes that meet the needs of environment and
development with ensured access to training opportunities,
regardless of social status, age, gender, race or religion;

     (b)  To promote a flexible and adaptable workforce of
various ages equipped to meet growing environment and
development problems and changes arising from the
transition to a sustainable society;

     (c)  To strengthen national capacities, particularly
in scientific education and training, to enable
Governments, employers and workers to meet their
environmental and development objectives and to facilitate
the transfer and assimilation of new environmentally sound,
socially acceptable and appropriate technology and
know-how;

     (d)  To ensure that environmental and human ecological
considerations are integrated at all managerial levels and
in all functional management areas, such as marketing,
production and finance.

Activities

36.14.  Countries with the support of the United Nations
system should identify workforce training needs and assess
measures to be taken to meet those needs.  A review of
progress in this area could be undertaken by the United
Nations system in 1995.

36.15.  National professional associations are encouraged
to develop and review their codes of ethics and conduct to
strengthen environmental connections and commitment.  The
training and personal development components of programmes
sponsored by professional bodies should ensure
incorporation of skills and information on the
implementation of sustainable development at all points of
policy- and decision-making.

36.16.  Countries and educational institutions should
integrate environmental and developmental issues into
existing training curricula and promote the exchange of
their methodologies and evaluations.

36.17.  Countries should encourage all sectors of society,
such as industry, universities, government officials and
employees, non-governmental organizations and community
organizations, to include an environmental management
component in all relevant training activities, with
emphasis on meeting immediate skill requirements through
short-term formal and in-plant vocational and management
training.  Environmental management training capacities
should be strengthened, and specialized "training of
trainers" programmes should be established to support
training at the national and enterprise levels.  New
training approaches for existing environmentally sound
practices should be developed that create employment
opportunities and make maximum use of local resource-based
methods.

36.18.  Countries should strengthen or establish practical
training programmes for graduates from vocational schools,
high schools and universities, in all countries, to enable
them to meet labour market requirements and to achieve
sustainable livelihoods.  Training and retraining
programmes should be established to meet structural
adjustments which have an impact on employment and skill
qualifications.

36.19.  Governments are encouraged to consult with people
in isolated situations, whether geographically, culturally
or socially, to ascertain their needs for training to
enable them to contribute more fully to developing
sustainable work practices and lifestyles.

36.20.  Governments, industry, trade unions, and consumers
should promote an understanding of the interrelationship
between good environment and good business practices.

36.21.  Countries should develop a service of locally
trained and recruited environmental technicians able to
provide local people and communities, particularly in
deprived urban and rural areas, with the services they
require, starting from primary environmental care.

36.22.  Countries should enhance the ability to gain access
to, analyse and effectively use information and knowledge
available on environment and development.  Existing or
established special training programmes should be
strengthened to support information needs of special
groups.  The impact of these programmes on productivity,
health, safety and employment should be evaluated.
National and regional environmental labour-market
information systems should be developed that would supply,
on a continuing basis, data on environmental job and
training opportunities.  Environment and development
training resource-guides should be prepared and updated,
with information on training programmes, curricula,
methodologies and evaluation results at the local,
national, regional and international levels.

36.23.  Aid agencies should strengthen the training
component in all development projects, emphasizing a
multidisciplinary approach, promoting awareness and
providing the necessary skills for transition to a
sustainable society.  The environmental management
guidelines of UNDP for operational activities of the United
Nations system may contribute to this end.

36.24.  Existing networks of employers' and workers'
organizations, industry associations and non-governmental
organizations should facilitate the exchange of experience
concerning training and awareness programmes.

36.25.  Governments, in cooperation with relevant
international organizations, should develop and implement
strategies to deal with national, regional and local
environmental threats and emergencies, emphasizing urgent
practical training and awareness programmes for increasing
public preparedness.

36.26.  The United Nations system, as appropriate, should
extend its training programmes, particularly its
environmental training and support activities for
employers' and workers' organizations.

Means of implementation

36.27.  The Conference secretariat has estimated the
average total annual cost (1993-2000) of implementing the
activities of this programme to be about $5 billion,
including about $2 billion from the international community
on grant  or concessional terms.  These are indicitive and
order of magnitude estimates only and have not been
reviewed by Governments.  Annual costs and financial terms,
including any that are  non-concessional, will depend upon,
inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes
Governments decide  upon for implementation.


                          Notes

     1/   Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental
Education:  Final Report (Paris, UNESCO, 1978), chap./III.

     2/   Final Report of the World Conference on Education
for All:  Meeting Basic Learning Needs, Jomtien, Thailand,
5-9 March 1990, Inter-Agency Commission (UNDP, UNESCO,
UNICEF, World Bank) for the World Conference on Education
for All, New York, 1990.

     3/   See A/45/625, annex.


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Note 447      A21/37 Capacity Building
unced                                 7:19 am  Jul 10, 1992

From: UNCED 
Subject: A21/37 Capacity Building

A-21: CAPACITY BUILDING




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