Educational Games, Hands-on Activities for SDGs and Sustainability

The UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development held as a virtual conference from 17 to 19 May 2021. The conference is organized by UNESCO in cooperation with and supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany, and with the German Commission for UNESCO as advisory partner. It look at how education can best be harnessed to address interconnected global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, green and circular economies - and participants called upon to commit to the Berlin Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development that outlines a range of policy measures encompassing teaching, learning, professional training and civic engagement. In November 2019, the 40th session of UNESCO General Conference adopted a new global framework on ESD called ‘Education for Sustainable Development: Towards achieving the SDGs’ or ‘ESD for 2030’. UNESCO organized a global series of online workshops on how to transform society through learning with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), launched in September 2020. ESD reassesses what we learn, where we learn and how we learn to ensure we develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that enable us to make informed decisions and actions on global problems such as the climate crisis and the COVID-19 crisis. Transforming learning to transform societies towards sustainability is the aim of the ESD for 2030 framework.

#ESDfor2030 - Acknowledged by the UN General Assembly through a Resolution on ESD, the new framework aims to scale up action from the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 - 2014) and the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD (2015 – 2019). The Conference was initially planned for June 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The world needs education for sustainable development a new global framework on ESD with the aim of building education systems that support learners of all ages to be active contributors to more peaceful, sustainable societies, and develop a sense of responsibility for our planet in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Work on ESD, SDGs - HRDEF presented a Live Meeting on above topic on 18th May, 2021 and SDGs Marketplace Booth during the world conference. Why we need new paradigm for ESD, SDGs, and Climate Change Education. We are working on educational Games for Learning Sustainability Concepts, SDGs by Youth, Community for couple of years and presented our work at the TECH 2017, 2018 UNESCO MGIEP Global conference. We designed, developed games, hands-on activities for understanding difficult concepts related to sustainable development in an interactive way. To know role of games, hands-on activities to understand ESD, SDGs, we use games in schools, and after school program for students and youth in different settings as informal education for building sustainability concepts.

Games foster collaboration, problem-solving, behavior change, and computational thinking (21st Century Skills). Our focus on how can games introduce various topics (learning experience - climate change, water, energy, waste management), and improvement in learning through games playing. Thus, through ESD, we are providing transforming learning environments, building capacity of educators, and empowering youth on a local level. Join UNESCO's call for education to change so that we can all act for our planet's survival. Connect with us and share your views for transforming learning environments with innovative ESD approaches, initiatives, and exploring projects for SDGs with quality learning through ICT, Games based, and hands-on activities.