Education for Sustainable Development -Community Learning Centers as the Platform for the Community Based Disaster Preparedness

Abstract

Climate change and Disasters are the challenges to the sustainable society. The concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was declared at the WSSD (World Summit for Sustainable Development) that was held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002. United Nations proclaimed the 10year period (2005-2015) as the United Nations Decade of ESD (UNDESD) to promote ESD worldwide. The roles of the non-formal education and life-long learning are as important as the formal education system. Community Learning Centers (CLCs) that were introduced into the Asian Countries by the initiatives of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Office. This program is based on the social learning system of “Kominkan” (public- citizen-hall) in Japan. In the Kominkan summit 2007, Kominkan-CLC was acknowledged as the platform of the community to link the CBOs (Community Based Organizations) for the learning activity to promote ESD as “Okayama Declaration” in 2007. In the final year of the decade of ESD (2005-2014), the World Congress on Education for sustainable Development was held in Nagoya and Okayama.  One of the stakeholders meetings of the congress, International Community Learning Center and ESD was held in Okayama. The roles of Community Learning Centers (CLCs) were discussed among the 650 international participants. Disaster Risk Reduction was one of the specific topics of the agenda. In the conference document of  “Okayama Commitment2014”, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and the ESD in the community were mentioned in the document. In the charter of Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), the role of the community was emphasized to create the resilient community to mitigate the damages of the disaster and prepare for the future disaster. In the UN decade of the disaster (2005-2015), the role of the community was emphasized for the immediate disaster response and preparedness. In the aspect of ESD, Community based disaster preparedness program had been done at the public schools of Miyagi prefecture before the Great Eastern Great Earthquakes (2011). Based on those experiences, the lives of the school children were saved from the Tsunami disaster in the Earthquakes.  To strengthen the capacity of the community, the role of the education in the community would be reaffirmed. ESD should be integrated with HFA and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a community based strategy for the disaster to create the resilient community and society.

Keywords: ESD (Education for Sustainable Development), CLC (Community Learning Center), UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), Okayama Commitment 2014, HFA (Hyogo Framework for Action), MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)