Institutional Strengthening of Education for Sustainable Consumption (ESC): Advancing ESC policy and implementation strategies

National Roundtable Discussion

Recently the Government of United Republic of Tanzania, Vice President?s Office; jointly with National Environment Management Council (NEMC) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) invited environment stakeholders to participate in a National Roundtable Discussion on Education for Sustainable Consumption, Children?s Health and Environment Caretakers was among participant organizations invited. Sustainable consumption is an integral element of sustainable development, which Tanzania plans to archive through various policies and strategies. Tanzania takes Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as a cross cutting issue, aimed at unifying sectors efforts in creating a harmonious and peaceful society while reducing environmental degradation, poverty and diseases among communities. The challenges the country faces like climate change, resource shortages, poverty, and uneven distribution of both the benefits and impacts of development, will most likely be solved with the full participation of educated and motivated citizens having informed decisions. In this context, both ESD and Education for Sustainable Consumption (ESC) are essential for learning how to make lifestyle choices by seeking creative solutions and engaging in policy debates. ESC is a poignant concept for its ability to bridge and incorporate three major sustainability approaches, specifically Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), ESD, and sustainable lifestyles. The importance of education in facilitating a shift towards sustainable development and in promoting sustainable consumption patterns has been reaffirmed in the UN?s decision to launch a UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD, 2005-2014). ESC is a key issue addressed through the Marrakech Process on SCP, a global multi-stakeholder platform that supports SCP implementation at the regional and national levels.

ESC has also been identified as a priority area in Tanzania?s National Action Plan on SCP (2008-2017). This Action Plan, developed in the context of the African 10-Year Framework of Programmes (10 YFP) under the Marrakech Process on SCP, focuses on five priorities, namely energy efficiency, water and sanitation, habitat and urban sustainable development, industrial development and ESC as the crosscutting area.  Tanzania is experiencing an increased understanding of the social and economic dimensions of sustainability as well as its environmental basis. The Government of Tanzania has produced drafts of sustainability strategies, legislation and programmes aimed at improving resource use and sustainability. While there is progress in the implementation of such programmes and initiatives related to the environment in areas such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, addressing bio-diversity and tackling environmental degradation, more needs to be done to strengthen and scale-up existing programmes and activities, and development of new programmes.

Objectives of the National Roundtable Discussion

This roundtable discussion provided a platform for discussions on how to develop the best approaches and tools for ESC. More specifically, the objectives of the roundtable discussion were to:

¿span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">         Present the Review and Analysis paper on existing national initiatives relevant to ESC, sustainable development, sustainable consumption and production and education strategies in order to identify and understand what forces and interactions would be the most suitable to advance ESC, as well as the best way to integrate ESC into national policy frameworks;

¿span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">         Provide inputs on how to best coordinate policy and implementation strategies on ESC by adapting UNEP?s Here and Now! ESC Recommendations and Guidelines to Tanzania?s contexts, priorities and needs;

¿span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">         Explore how to integrate ESC in national education strategies and curricula (objectives and coherence with key SD and SCO policies, curricula development at all levels, teacher training policies etc) and in informal education strategies;

¿span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">         Examine how to incorporate ESC into teacher training activities (programmes, activities, teaching/learning methods, interactive tools, cooperation etc);

¿span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">         Based on this discussion, support participants in developing Tanzania-specific interactive teaching/learning tools to teach ESC in both the formal education curricula and informal education.

The outcomes of this national roundtable discussion are intended to inform the development of national guidelines and recommendations on ESC for Tanzania, to be developed and disseminated by NEMC, by 2012. These national guidelines and recommendations on ESC will also include a related national implementation strategy on ESC, consisting of a road map that will: a) define the necessary steps to cement ESC in curricula and at ground levels (schools, NGOs, etc.), b) identify the main actors of ESC implementation, and c) involve encouraging training and awareness-raising sessions at the national and local levels.