Participatory development of the next National Action Plan on Education for Sustainable Development (DE0036)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? UNESCO has launched a new programme – ESD for 2030 – to embed education for sustainable development in education systems around the world. While retaining much that has proven itself from earlier programmes, it sets new areas of thematic focus, such as the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), technological progress, and transformative action, i.e. independent action towards a sustainable future. The present German ESD process, to incorporate ESD into the structure of the German education system, is to be brought into line with these changes. Furthermore, the National Action Plan that was adopted in 2017 must be updated with new commitments if the SDGs are to be achieved. ESD stakeholders must therefore commit themselves to new targets and measures. UNESCO’s new “ESD for 2030” programme also calls upon member states to reach a broader public with impactful ESD communication and information activities.

What is the commitment? As part of a consultation process, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is involving the general public by asking these questions: “How should education develop to implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda and its SDGs?”, and “What does that require from public-sector institutions, business, and social actors?” Participants are invited to suggest specific activities that might help education for sustainable development become more of a fixture in the general syllabus. Feedback from the consultation process will feed into the German ESD process to inspire new commitments from the actors for the National Action Plan on Education for Sustainable Development, which will then be adopted by the National ESD Platform.

How does the commitment contribute to overcoming the challenge?The NAP process will be based on broad civic participation, achieved in part by widening consultations across all of the stakeholders concerned, and by communications via the ESD portal and social media. In this way, it will reach actors that have not so far taken part. This approach will improve the quality and exactitude of possible commitments, while raising the visibility and acceptance of the measures derived from them. It will also expand and strengthen the network of actors that are important in implementing those measures in their capacity as stakeholders, multipliers, experts and affected parties. The structure of the ESD process gives the various actors involved in ESD a direct say in agenda-setting. The outcome should be an ambitious next National Action Plan on ESD. Public consultations also mean that the actors in the ESD process – Federal, Länder and local governments, as well as other social stakeholders – will have to respond directly to the specific wishes of those taking part in the ESD consultation process.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?This commitment not only bolsters participation in connection with the Sustainable Development Goals and their implementation, but in itself already represents real-life participative processes. This makes it an additional factor consolidating the principle of open government at this level.Additional information The National Action Plan on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD NAP) can be ac-cessed via the ESD portal. The commitments in the most recent ESD NAP can be called up using a special search engine. The key commitments resulting from the consultations and the subsequent ESD process are likely to be presented following the implementation of this third NAP.• National ESD Platform announces commitments (Q3 2023)• ESD agenda conference to present the new NAP to the general public (Q4 2023)Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 4 (Quality education)

Milestones Start Date Implementation by Consultation process to gather proposals for new commitments for the National Action Plan on Education for Sustainable Development Q1 2022 Q2 2022 ESD bodies evaluate the results of the consultation process Q2 2022 Q3 2022 New commitments are formulated within the ESD bodies, as well as at the annual ESD meeting in 2022 Q3 2022 Q4 2022 Consolidation process within the ESD bodies, and adoption by the National ESD Platform Q1 2023 Q2 2023

Action Plan Review

Commitment 6.7: Participatory development of the next National Action Plan on Education for Sustainable Development