ABSTRACT
The Commission for Sustainable Development is the United Nations’ newest agency. It was formed after the 1992 Earth Summit to review international efforts to implement Agenda 21, the action plan that was agreed at the Summit. However, the task of coordinating and promoting the various elements of the action plan has been allocated to appropriate UN agencies. Thus, responsibility for Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 on ‘Education, Training and Public Awareness’ has been allocated to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the international agency responsible for catalysing educational innovation around the world. One of UNESCO’s first tasks in carrying out its duties on Chapter 36 was to develop a position paper on education as a ‘force for the future’ in helping advance the transition towards sustainable development. The quotation at the head of this chapter comes from this paper (UNESCO-EPD 1997).
