UNESCO, in collaboration with SWEDESD, organized a Regional Workshop on Advancing ESD Policy in the Mekong region in Ha Noi

More than 100 participants joined in the regional workshop, including delegates from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Thailand and representatives from the Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam, other ministries, government agencies, development partners, embassies, civil society organizations and the private sector in Viet Nam. Representatives from UNESCO Offices and German National Commission for UNESCO (German NATCOM) came to share experiences in promoting ESD policies. The workshop served as a platform where participants from all five countries had the opportunity to exchange about national ESD policy landscape and ESD innovations in each of the five Mekong countries.

Ms. Ai Chuman, Second Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Viet Nam, emphasized in her opening remarks that ESD is very important in the context of rapid economic development in the Mekong region, expressing support for further collaboration between Japan and the Mekong region in the promotion of ESD. On a similar note, representatives of UNESCO Ha Noi Office and SWEDESD – Uppsala University, Mr. Toshiyuki Matsumoto, Officer-in-Charge of UNESCO Ha Noi Office, and Ms. Eva Friman, Director of SWEDESD, reaffirmed the pivotal role of ESD in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), through non-formal education and lifelong learning opportunities as well as formal education.

The workshop concluded with a mutual agreement among all participants to further promote ESD and scale ESD innovations in their own country through a multi-stakeholder approach and coordination among different sectors.

Resources

• Workshop documents
• Presentations