comite national francais > Presentation

The French National Committee for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

The implementation of the Decade by each country will be overseen by a committee with powers which are appropriate to the administrative and political structure. In France, the committee is a national committee made up of 45 members.

The national committee of France was officially inaugurated on October 11th 2005 by Gilles de Robien (National Minister for education, higher education and reseach) and by Nelly Olin (Minister for ecology and sustainable development).

The french national committee was formed at the appropriate time and has the objective of bringing together the authorities and bodies known for their action in the field of sustainable development, representative of the different sections of our society, gathered in a logical way by those active at the state level, from local and regional authorities, the world of enterprise and society at large. This structure will permit the committee to be in touch with the feelings of french society and to be aware of the best ways of introducing education for sustainable development.

The committee is closely associated with the various agencies of the United Nations, particularly UNESCO and a good link is assured with the secretary general of the French Commission of UNESCO.

What is the role and objectives of the committee.
The committee has to define targets and learning materials for education for sustainable development, and lead the way so that the framework of the decade is achieved in accordance with the recommendations of UNESCO and ESD, making particular reference to the initiatives development in the framework of the National Development Strategy for sustainable development and in liaison with the relative constitutional law in the Charter for the Environment.

Six steps are particulary important :

• Place more centrally the rôle played by early education and research into the implementation of sustainable development for beginners, from the youngest age, as a process of learning which will continue throughout life.
• Take into acccount the global and varied dimensions of sustainable development : the environment, social, economics, culture and develop links between these areas so as to facilitate liaison with resources, the exchanges and the interactions between sections making up ESD.
• Make proposals to the public at large in the framwork of their activities, their places and modes of learning to sensitively lead to a better unterstanding of sustainable development in their professional, family and leisure activities.
• Proposer aux divers publics, dans le cadre de leurs activités, des espaces et des dispositifs d'apprentissage et de sensibilisation les conduisant à une meilleure appropriation du développement durable dans leurs activités professionnelles, familiales et de loisir.
• Put in place measures of changes that occur in education and others that will record the rapid changes of society in order to be able to respond more effectively to present and future needs, particularly noting good practicie and new methods which encourage sustainable development.
• Stage exhibitions in liaison with ESD at local national and international levels so as to educate the public ofprogress made in the field of research as well as of more general information.
• Lastly, promote international cooperation for ESD, particularly for the direction taken by the committee for the decade.

In the carrying out of these objectives, the french committee will in its work ensure that the values of the programme for the decade are protected, that they adhere to the scope and time framework but are also sufficiently flexible taking into account the needs of those involved with projects, the rapid evolution of the world in which we also evolve.

The implementation of these steps will take place in three stages : identification, proposals and evaluation :

> identification :
Many initiatives are contained in the framework of ESD, others will emanate from the state, enlightened industrialists, regional groups, society in general and others which operate on a local, regional, national or international scale. It is important to list these initiatives whether they operate top down or bottom up, inflence to analyse not only the goals which have been achieved but equally to identify barriers and concrete solutions.

> Proposals :
The committee must be able to make impressive progress on a number of fronts to embed the concept of sustainable development in all of the sectors of education and training and the french media. These proposals constitute the French national action plan which will permit France to make significant progress towards the achievement of sustainable development. The national plan must be presented in out line to the Paris symposium in June 2006 and completed by the end of 2006.

> Evaluation :
It is important that the committee evaluate progress made with the implementation schedule of the Decade. To achieve this goal, the french national committee will form a group of experts who will be responsible for the identification and application of quality standards to measure the effectiveness of the implementation of the Decade and make proposals for keeping of a range of operational systems. This group of experts will be in liaison with another group of experts in the European Economic Commission of the United Nations, which will participate in the French initiatives, but also with the programmes of the European Economic Community and with organisations responsible for studying environmental performance such as the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development.