Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is one of the priority areas of SEAMEO. To support the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development from 2005 to 2014, SEAMEO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT), organized the first joint initiative between Southeast Asia and Japan to promote ESD among schools and communities in Southeast Asian countries. The initiative is called the “SEAMEO-Japan Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Award”.
The SEAMEO-Japan ESD Award is held annually from 2012 to 2014 to promote and share best practices in ESD in schools across Southeast Asia. The objectives of the award scheme are:
- to raise awareness of ESD in schools and communities across Southeast Asia;
- to promote ESD best practices in schools and communities across Southeast Asia;
- to share and exchange knowledge and best practices on ESD in schools across Southeast Asia and Japan, and;
- to encourage networking among schools and communities which implement ESD practices in both Southeast Asian countries and Japan.
Each year the award will be held under a new theme that highlights emerging issues in the region related to ESD.
Due to recent natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, landslides, droughts, cyclones and storms that have caused massive destruction, including the loss of lives and a devastating effect on communities in Japan and in Southeast Asian countries, the organizers agreed to organize the very first award under the theme of “Education for Disaster Risk Reduction”.
The theme aims to:
- raise awareness of Education for Disaster Risk Reduction among schools and communities in Southeast Asia;
- promote and share best practices of Education for Disaster Risk Reduction within schools and communities in Southeast Asia, and;
- enable schools and communities in Southeast Asia plan strategies that help reduce risk and losses caused by natural disasters.
All public and private schools in the 11 SEAMEO Member States (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam) were invited to submit the school projects/programmes related to the theme.
The award was supported by the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. Entries were assessed on the following criteria: innovation and creativity, strategy/modality of implementation, reliability, sustainability, impact, and applicability. The 2012 judging committee consists of the experts from Japan and Southeast Asia in the areas of education, ESD, and Education for Disaster Risk Reduction.
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SEAMEO-Japan Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Best Practices
