KARACHI, March 20: It is high time for developing countries to pay heed to education for sustainable development (ESD). The developing countries have to work quickly on this front to keep up with the west on ESD programmes.
This was said by Sindh Minister for Education and Literacy Dr Hamida Khuhro,.
She was the chief guest at the inaugural session of the two-day conference Learning to Live on Planet Earth organised by International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in collaboration with Unesco Islamabad at a local hotel.
The conference was a part of the projects taken up to acknowledge UN’s decision to announce 2005-14 as the Decade of ESD.
Addressing the inaugural session, and the launch of IUCN publication Azsarenau Sochiyay Inkar Kijyay, Kum Kijiyay, Dr Khuhro said ESD was the ultimate solution for developed and developing countries.
She said countries like Pakistan were making efforts to meet challenges.
Education, she added could play a pivotal role in making the world attain acceptance of SD in a society.
The IUCN Country Manager, Sohail Malik in his welcome address focused on the need for ESD and what the organization was doing for it.
Imtiaz Alvi, a World Bank representative while giving his presentation, Sustainable Development Pakistan: Prospects and Challenges said the ESD concept should be communicated to the layman in a way that it doesn’t sound alien to him.
He further mentioned that among the greatest challenges that the country faced were that of population growth, education and unemployment.
Frits Hesselink, speaking next, briefed the guests about how Netherlands has adopted the SD programme.
He outlined SD’s major concerns to be increase in extremes of poverty and wealth, population growth, biodiversity loss, deteriorating air and water quality, climate change and human rights.
Coordinator Education Programme Zohra Rehmat Ali and Saquib Hanif thanked the guests at the end of the first session.
During the second session, a series of workshops began which would continue today, the second day as well.
The participants include officials of federal and provincial ministries of education, environment and commerce, NGOs and human rights’ activists.