Karachi, June 23: A consultative workshop on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for educators and communicators working for environmental conservation was held under the auspices of IUCN Pakistan.

The concept of ESD was introduced during the Rio conference in 1992. It got widespread acceptance after the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 as an essential tool to address the capacity needs for futuristic decision making that considers socioeconomic and ecological perspectives. The United Nations also dedicated a decade for ESD (DESD) 2005 -2014 to promote this concept globally and to assist governments to develop and implement ESD strategies together with other stakeholders. The purpose of this workshop was to promote ESD concept among educators and communicators and to consult them on launching and advocating DESD in Pakistan as highlighted by Hasan Akhtar Rizvi, Head, Education, Communication and Knowledge Management Programme of IUCNP.

Presentation was made on ESD and on some proposed initiatives of IUCNP by Zohra Rehmat Ali, Coordinator IUCNP’s Environmental Education Programme. Participants provided useful feedback for implementing this challenging and overarching notion in Pakistan. They also endorsed IUCNP’s plan to hold a high profile event for policymakers to launch DESD in Pakistan in collaboration with UNESCO in 2005. A workshop focussing on specific themes to explore ESD’s connection with sectors such as formal and non formal education, private sector, media, religious education, sustainable livelihoods and governance was also emphasised to develop key recommendations.

Hasan Rizvi briefed participants about a group of education and communication professionals being initiated by IUCNP. This would be an E- discussion group to interact and exchange ideas.

Participants hailed from Institute for Educational Development (IED), Provincial Institute for Teacher Education (PITE) Sindh, Indus Resource Centre, Habib Girls School, SOCIETY and various news papers and television channels such as Dawn, The News, Sindh TV and Geo TV.