1 / 49

Ryokichi HIRONO, Professor Emeritus, Seikei University, Tokyo In Gratz, Austria 21-23, 2005

PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELPMENT THROUGH EDUCATION IN THE ERA OF GLOBALISATION: A JAPANESE PERSPECTIVE. Ryokichi HIRONO, Professor Emeritus, Seikei University, Tokyo In Gratz, Austria 21-23, 2005. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION

udell
Download Presentation

Ryokichi HIRONO, Professor Emeritus, Seikei University, Tokyo In Gratz, Austria 21-23, 2005

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELPMENT THROUGH EDUCATION IN THE ERA OF GLOBALISATION: A JAPANESE PERSPECTIVE Ryokichi HIRONO, Professor Emeritus, Seikei University, Tokyo In Gratz, Austria 21-23, 2005

  2. CONTENTS • INTRODUCTION • DATA ON SD POLICIES, PROGRAMMES AND ACTIONS BY DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS IN JAPAN, 2003-2005 • HISTORICAL EXPERIENCES OF SD IN JAPAN, 1868-1990 • CURRENT EFFORTS FOR MAINSTREAMING SD IN JAPAN, 1991-2005 • PROMOTING SD THROUGH EDUCATION/ LEARNING: EMERGING EXPERIMENTS 6. MAJOR FOCUS OF JAPAN’S INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN SD

  3. 1. INTRODUCTION

  4. 1) Need for A Long-Term Vision and Strategy for Creating a Sustainable Society at all levels, i.e., institutional, community, local, provincial and national, in all countries, followed by Capacity Enhancement of all stakeholders ranging from individuals and families through private and public sector organisations to governments and international organisations; 2) Need for Long-, Medium- and Short-Term Strategies and Plans of Education/Learning at all levels, primary, secondary and tertiary, for creating a sustainable society;3) Need for a Consensus among all stakeholders at all levels of governance on the basic principles

  5. and approaches to creating a sustainable society: Respect for human dignity, Intra-and inter- generational equity, Efficiency, Social justice, Participation, Decentralisation to community, Diversity, Transparency, Accountability, etc. 4) Focus Capacity Enhancement for promoting sustainability on: 1) Human resources development and utilisation; 2) Financial resources mobilisation; 3) Technology development and absorption; 4) Institutional development; and 5) Management and governance restructuring.

  6. 2.DATA ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICIES, PROGRAMMES AND ACTIONS BY DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS IN JAPAN, 2003-2005/2

  7. 1. National Government • Installment and renewal of environmental legislation, ordinances and guidelines including environmental impact assessment • Installment and performance monitoring of renewed National Agenda 21 • Information sharing with, and support to, all stakeholders in society • Participation of stakeholders in decision-making processes through advisory councils, town gathering, public comments and organisational recommendations

  8. 1. National Government Within the bureaucracy and state-owned and –financed organisations including public universities, target setting and performace monitoring on: 1) Use of recycled paper • Use of energy-saving office equipment • Use of water-saving equipment • Use of low-pollution vehicles • Green purchasing programmes • Reduction of paper, electricity, petroleum, water, and waste materials/equipment, and 7) Promotion of the recycling of all materials

  9. 2. Local Governments • Installment of environmental legislation, ordinances and guidelines including environmental impact assessment • Installment and performance monitoring of Local Agenda 21 at prefectural, municipal and village levels (all 47 prefectures, 18 cities) • Support to and information sharing with all community stakeholders (12.4; 43.7; 66.4; 33.0) • Participation of community stakeholders in decision-making processes(40.7; 38.2; 26.6) 6) Green purchasing programmes(94.9; 46.3;12,7)

  10. 3. Individual Citizens 1) Reduction, reuse and recycle of all materials (70.4%) • Green purchasing (70.0% eco-mark) • Energy-saving lifestyles (56.8% electricity; 78.0% bicyles; 38.0% public transport; 29.2% home electrical appliances; 19.8% solar water heating equipment) • Water-saving lifestyles (70.0 water; 60 .0 use of environmentally friendly soaps) • Participation in public lectures and seminars on environmentally SD (91.0)

  11. 3. Individual Citizens • Participation in community activities for environment (22.0% greening towns; 19% recycling) • Financial and manpower support to greening and other environmental action programmes by local and national governments • Well-informed of the Kyoto Protocol (28.3% males; 12.7% females) • Positive responses to internalising environmental cost into consumer prices (53.4% males; 41.2% females) 10) Participation in clean-up events (55.8% fun)

  12. 4. Private Sector Corporations • Installation of corporate environmental policy (71.4% listed; 55.7% unlisted) • Setting quantitative environmental achievement targets (68.3% vs. 51.8%) 3) Installation of concrete environmental action programmes (79.5 vs. 72.6) • Full knowledge and data on environmental impact of corporate activities (47.8 vs. 35.4) • ISO14001 certification at all establishments (27.2 vs. 23.5)

  13. 4. Private Sector Corporations • Installation of environmental accounting and auditing (23.1 vs. 12.0) • Disclosure of environmental report and information to the public (42.5 vs. 22.2) • Environmental management as business opportunities (36.7 vs. 30.9) 9) Environmental management as corporate social responsibility (59.4 vs. 63.0)

  14. 5. Universities • Installation of corporate environmental policy (78% public universities vs 82% private) • Setting quantitative environmental achievement targets only in limited areas (waste disposal) 3) Installation of concrete environmental action programmes (76% vs 80% ) • Full knowledge and data on environmental impact of corporate activities in limited areas (72% vs. 74%) • ISO14001 certification (12% vs. 10%)

  15. 5. Universities • Installation of environmental accounting and auditing (14% vs. 16%) • Disclosure of environmental report and information to the public (16% vs. 18%) • Environmental education in the undergraduate and graduate curricula (72% vs. 62%) 9) Environmental management as corporate social responsibility ( 78% vs. 82%)

  16. 3. HISTORICAL EXPERIENCES IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN JAPAN, 1868-1990

  17. 1) Priority during the 19th and the first two-thirds of the 20th century toeconomic growth and development at the expense ofsocial equity and environment (intra- and inter-generational) at home and abroad;2) Rapid accumulation of wealth in the hands of the bourgeoisie and equally rapid impoverishment of the landless peasants in rural communities(Nohson Ikki) and the working class in urban communities (Komugi Tohge ), interrupted by rural riots and working class protests;

  18. 3) A steady (at first) and an accelerated (later) process of environmental destructionthrough rapid industrialization ( as in How Green our Valley Was ! and Modern Times in the West) and urbanization(Oirawa Tsuraiyo !),followed by the worsening quality of life and the encroachment on human rights associated with national policies of Catching Up with the West and Growth Now and Equity/Environment Later during the first half of the 20th century and those of reconstruction of the war-damaged economy immediately after the World War II.

  19. 4) Dim Light Beyond the Tunnel in the second half of the 20th century: Rise of trade union movement and other social groups pressing on governments for legislative, administrative and judiciary measures in favour of better economic and social wellbeing, e.g., higher wages, better working conditions, child protection, improved social security programmes in health, employment and pension for their members as well as for property and progressive income taxation for arresting the worsening income distribution, but not for environmental protection until after the 1960s under the prevailing societal priorities.

  20. 5) An increasingly serious concern since the 1960s among the people with a rapid pace of deterioration in air, water and soil quality: Rise of socially conscious non-governmental organisations (NGOs), domestic and international, pressing on governments for legislative, administrative and judiciary measures for arresting environmental degradation, initially targeted at industrial pollution afflicting directly on the health of the people, then urban pollution and global environmental deterioration including climate changes, ozone layer destruction, marine pollution, biodiversity and tropical deforestation.

  21. Intensive efforts by diverse stakeholders since the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment in 1972 to build consensus on critical issues relevant to sustainable development policies at the national and local levels, which essentially had been made possible by the active exercises of freedom and other constitutional rights by the masses of educated populationas well as by the support of mass media(GNP Kutabare – Down with GNP －Movement by Asahi and others).

  22. A growing concern among the general public with growing disparities between the North and the South, and among and within the North and the South: a series of UN-sponsored global conferences during the 1990s on poverty reduction, child and human rights, environment, population, gender, social exclusion and habitat, culminating in the Millennium Summit Declaration and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) unanimously adopted by member states at its General Assembly in the fall of 2000 and reinforced at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002...

  23. 4. CURRENT EFFORTS FOR MAINSTREAMING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN JAPAN: 1991-2005

  24. Only a Partial Success ! 1) A greater awareness among governments, private sector and other stakeholders of the adverse impact of environmental degradation on economic, social and cultural sustainability, resulting in tireless efforts by governments in partnership with all other stakeholders to realise a sustainable society,develop sustainable development policies and strategies at national and local levels (National and Local Agenda 21) and assist developing countries in achieving environmentally sustainable development.

  25. 2) Initiatives in forging an international consensus on frontal attack on global warming (Kyoto Protocol); 3) Tax and financial incentives for sustainable patterns of production and consumption, including technology and production system for agriculture, construction, manufacturing, mining, power, private and public service delivery, transportation; 4) Financial schemes dedicated to sustainability; 5) Mainstreaming environmentally sustainable

  26. development in all educational programmes at all levels and in all training programmes in all branches of government and private sector enterprises; 6) Corporate social responsibility and securing of ISO14000 certificates by multinationals as well as by small and medium-sized enterprises; 7) Legal & administrative measures in various communities for promoting sustainable patterns of consumption and lifestyle; 8) Rapid growth of civil society organisations

  27. (CSOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) to inform, publicise, agitate, educate, train and reorient grass-root people at local and national levels on the critical importance of sustainable development ranging from issues ofhuman rights including child, gender and senior citizens, development, health, education, peace and security including conflict resolution and prevention and peace-building (ESD-J); 9) Public & private foundations to increase their assistance to NGOs in carrying out SD projects.

  28. 10) Major factors contributing to the partial success lie in an increasing awareness among major stakeholders in Japan of the negative impact of: i) Double TL policies/practices: too little and too late in formulating government policies in response to emerging issues, because of the lack of well-respected political leadership in resolving the vested interest conflicts among major actors of development and because of an increasing rigidity and conservatism toward reforms among the

  29. well-to-do and the middle-class population;ii) Delayed shift in strategic goals, priorities and targets on environmentally sustainable development, particularly in promoting both renewable energy sources and sustainable production, distribution and consumption patterns, as well as in overhauling policies and institutions in agriculture, small enterprise, banking and insurance, transportation and communication and public service delivery sectors including education and health in favour of consumers/beneficiaries ratherthan suppliers’ interests;

  30. iii) Barriers to enhancing political, economic and social sustainability at the national and local level: national parliamentary election system not properly reflecting population movements between and within prefectures, ministerial secretariats not responding to the popular demand for smaller, transparent and efficient government machinery and for rationalizing, privatizing and abolishing public sector project corporations. Many, if not most, of these public project corporations are now all targets of reforms including privatization, for four reasons: first, they have now outlived

  31. their objectives, secondly their objectives can now be better served by private sector corporations, thirdly with an incredibly high level of fiscal deficits outstanding, continued subsidies to these public project corporations are no longer tenable, and fourthly a hard evidence of inappropriate governance and corruptive practices in many of these public project corporations and entities; andiv) Delays in social and institutional restructuring at the organizational level: group orientation outliving its usefulness, restraining individual initiatives and resisting essential reforms in favour of sustainable development and lifestyles.

  32. 5. PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH EDUCATION/LEARNING: EMERGING EXPERIMENTS

  33. A number of experiments are now being conducted in local communities all over Japan. • Emphasis on experiential education/learning and problem-solving learning at all levels of school education, and outside schools, e.g., families, communities, public and private sector organisations, professional bodies as well as local and national governments (Musashino Approach); • Reorienting teacher training programmes, curriculum, textbooks and other teaching materials, teaching methods and teaching guidelines in favour of promoting sustainable development and lifestyle;

  34. 3) Revamping the existing school administration and school construction programmes in favour of sustainable development and lifestyle (Shiki Approach); • An emphasis on community schools and community-oriented education/learning, with full participation of all stakeholders: representatives of school administrators, teachers, parents, private sector enterprise managers, NGOs, CBOs and community residents as well as students, when and where appropriate, in respective communities,

  35. going beyond the current involvement of parent- teacher associations and local and prefectural boards of education (Matsudo Approach); • Installation of multi-stakeholder council and functional roundtables at the community level, empowered to make decisions and monitor implementation thereof on school curriculum, teacher training and retraining programmes, teacher evaluation and re-assignment, and similar institutional setups at local, prefectural &national

  36. levels, to support community-level efforts and review the performance of all education/ learning programmes including financial reports and make necessary recommendations to concerned authorities (Monbusho Model School Approach); • Introduction of improving the efficiency, effectiveness and outcome of school teaching and administration on the basis of the agreed school reform programmes owned by each school with participation of all stakeholders through numerical

  37. quality assessment of performance in the areas of i) School master’s leadership, ii) school’s social responsibility, iii) students’ learning ability and school’s responses, iv) planning and implementation of school action programme, v) quality improvement of teaching and administrative personnel and organisational capability, vi) teaching methods and administrative procedures, vii) management and utilisation of all educational information, and viii) the outcome of school

  38. activities including extra-curriculum activities (Mie Approach); • Changing role of universities is now being observed in promoting sustainable development • Universities have now become independent and decentralised educational and research institutions, keeping abreast with changing needs and requirements of society including sustainability; • Universities are increasingly expected to provide not only liberal arts and scientific education useful to deepening knowledge on natural, social,

  39. biological and physical sciences but also useful to life experiences and job market requirements; • Universities are also increasingly involved in basic, applied and developmental researches in partnership with government and private sector enterprises promoting environmental sustainability • Universities are more than ever considered as part of the local community in which they operate, and as such have to work with other stakeholders in the interest of the community not only in usual educational activities but also in a wide-ranging

  40. public interest activities such as developing new competitive industries and employment generation; • Universities as educational and research centre are now asked to network various community resources such as public and private sector research institutes, hospitals, museums, chamber of commerce and industry, senior citizen’s homes, professional bodies (associations of lawyers, architects, medical doctors and engineers, etc.) and CSOs for education/learning and ventures for life- skills and – values including sustainable development and lifestyles (Mitaka Approach).

  41. 6. MAJOR FOCUS OF JAPAN’S INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

  42. 1) In Developing Countriesi)　Reducing poverty, ensuring basic human needs and enhancing human security (attaining MDGs) ii) Controlling and preventing natural disaster iii) Protecting and managing natural resources, including biodiversity protectioniv) Reducing industrial and urban pollutionv)　Protecting human rights, providing basic education and primary healthcare for all and reorienting governance for democratic participation, with increased transparency and accountability

  43. Protecting global environment (Kyoto Protocol) • Developing countries, particularly those with rapid economic growth and emitting substantial greenhouse gases are being urged to join developed countries in the global agenda for reducing global warming and promoting sustainable development through intensifying their own national efforts for sustainable development beneficial to their own people (Post Kyoto Regime);

  44. 2) In Japan and other developed countriesi) Reorienting their respective economic and social development policies and programmes in favour of national and global environmental sustainability in line with AGENDA 21, WSSD Implementation Plan and other accords;ii) On the basis of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities as agreed upon at UNCED 2002, Japan and other developed countries could take bolder and innovative actions for promoting sustainable development in all sectors in accordance the international agreements and protocols, and those developed countriesthat

  45. have not ratified such agreements should do so on the basis of an internationally agreed timetable; (Johannesburg Declaration); iii) Such bolder and more innovative actions that Japan and other developed countries could take might include among others fiscal and financial incentives for private sector to accelerate R & D for energy- and resource-saving technology and production of greener products and services, for central and local governments to restructure their own public services and regulatory framework in

  46. favour of environmental sustainability, and for individual households to shift to sustainable lifestyles; • Universities in Japan and elsewhere could assist developing countries in the above task through policy-based, financial and technical cooperation programmes in and outside their official development assistance (ODA) commitment (Macro-, sectorwide and project); vi) Installing international agreements, protocols and conventionsthat promote sustainable

  47. development at the global level, going beyond United Nations General Assembly resolutions and declarations by global conferences under the U.N. auspices during the 1990s, and binding all member states as partially seen in the Kyoto Protocol on the basis of the common but differentiated responsibilities, with substantial penalties on those violators; vii)Reorienting national development cooperation policies and strategiesin favour of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);

  48. viii) Reinforcing the cooperation programmes of international organizations including the United Nations, the Bretton Woods Institutions and the regional development banks, all in favour of promoting sustainable development and capacity developmentin developing countries; andix) Restructuring the Commission on Sustainable Development into the restructured ECOSOC called SD Council having oversight on the entire range of Global Public Goods, andempowered to evaluate all actions of member states of the United Nations to promote National and Local Public Goods including SD education.

  49. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION For any comments and questions, please send your emails to the following addresses: ryokichi@iea.att.ne.jp hirono@iges.or.jp

More Related