Domains of ESD
To carry out the ESD programme, Agenda 21 identified four major domains:

Improving Basic Education
Education is a basic right, irrespective of cast, colour, creed or sex. Therefore, the aim should not only be to upgrade educational content but also make it mandatory for everyone to attend school for a minimum number of years. This will also help reduce the gender gap prevailing in many developing societies.

Reorienting Existing Educational Programmes
As conventional education places little or no emphasis on sustainable development issues, reorienting current educational systems is necessary to inculcate principles, skills, perspectives and values relating to sustainability. This requires teaching and learning values that guide and motivate people to pursue sustainable livelihoods and participate in the decision-making process for sustainable living.

Developing Public Awareness and Understanding of Sustainability
The first step to introducing the concept of sustainability in a society is to raise awareness regarding its need among stakeholders. An informed public will clearly be more receptive to improving their environment and adjusting their needs accordingly.

Training
This is a focused form of education in which people are trained to perform a particular job efficiently. The agenda lays stress on training leaders from government, non- government and private sectors in environmental management in order that they can integrate its principles in their programmes and train their staff to work in a sustainable manner.

(ESD Toolkit by Rosalyn Mckeown http://www.esdtoolkit.org/discussion/default.htm)

UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014)
As the lead agency, UNESCO officially launched the DESD on March 1, 2005, in New York, USA. As the DESD Draft International Implementation Scheme states: “The vision of DESD is a world where everyone has the opportunity to benefit from quality education and learn the values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable future and for positive societal transformation.”

Since ESD continues to evolve there is a need to develop enhanced clarity regarding not only the concept but the meaning and aim of sustainable development on which it is hinged. DESD aims to address this by presenting a plan for the next ten years.

The overall goal of DESD is to integrate sustainable development values into all aspects of learning to encourage behavioural change compatible with a sustainable and just society for all.

This translates into four objectives for the decade:

• Facilitate networking, linkages, exchange and interaction among ESD stakeholders
• Foster improved teaching and learning in ESD
• Help countries make progress towards attaining Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through ESD efforts
• Provide countries with new opportunities to incorporate ESD into their education reform efforts

DESD has far reaching implications, potentially touching every aspect of life. Likewise, DESD pursues a global vision which presents three key areas of sustainable development as underlying dimensions of ESD:

Society: Included under this head is understanding social institutions and their role in change and development as well as the democratic and participatory systems that facilitate expression of opinion, selection of governments, consensus and resolution of differences

Environment: This entails enhancing awareness regarding the value of ecological resources and their vulnerability to human activity and decisions with a commitment to factoring environmental costs and concerns in social and economic policy development

Economy: The effort should be to increase sensitivity to the limits and potential of economic growth and its impact on society and environment in order to assess personal and societal levels of consumption on the basis of environmental and social justice

DESD calls for re-orienting educational approaches, including curriculum and content, pedagogy and examinations. The implementation of DESD depends on the strength of stakeholders’ commitments and cooperation at local, national, regional and international levels. Networks and alliances will be the crucial element, forging a common agenda at relevant forums.

Potentially, the outcomes of DESD will impact the lives of thousands of communities and millions of individuals as new attitudes and values inspire decisions and actions making sustainable development a more attainable ideal.