International Cooperation: ESD and DRR in Japan

Abstract

United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) has ended in 2014. However, local and global issues or challenges caused by environmental, economic, social, and cultural background are spreading and getting more serious day by day locally and globally, such as climate change, biodiversity, disaster risk reduction, religious conflict, and so on. Therefore the significance and necessity of ESD should be sustained toward the future beyond DESD. In 2014, at the end of DESD, the “UNESCO ESD World Conference” was held in Nagoya, Aichi, and Okayama, Japan, along with the “World Conference of Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs)” and “World Conference of UNESCO Associated Schools,” and the declarations or proposals were stated by each conference including some side events for ESD promotion in the future. Through these conferences, UNESCO launched the “Global Action Programme on ESD” to sustain and enhance ESD at post-DESD in the world. Also, the Ministry of Education in Japan (MEXT) has started the “ESD Promotion Program for Fostering Global Human Resource” since 2014 to promote ESD beyond DESD by establishing consortium in each region. On the other hand, in March 2015, the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) was held in Sendai City, Japan, and launched the “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030” to enhance the efforts to strengthen disaster risk reduction as the follow-up to “Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005–2015.” Moreover, the United Nations are discussing to launch “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” from 2015 following to “Millennium Developing Goals (MDGs),” and it will be enforcing to promote ESD and DRR for the achievement of SDGs. This chapter will discuss international cooperation of ESD and DRR through the new trend at post-2015.