Thematic Forum: How learning cities can foster global citizenship and environmental stewardship

Key question

How can cities create learning opportunities that promote a sense of global citizenship and encourage people to make the positive changes necessary to secure sustainable development?

Objective

The objective of this forum is to discuss holistic and integrated strategies for offering a wide range of learning activities that foster global citizenship and environmental stewardship among children and adults alike.

General description

Lifelong learning can play a significant role in empowering people to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Empowering people to take action requires a holistic and integrated approach to learning and education. Learning cannot stop at raising citizens’ awareness of social, economic and environmental issues. A fifth pillar, ‘learning to transform’ must be added to the four pillars of learning proposed by the UNESCO Delors Commission: ‘learning to know’, ‘learning to do’, ‘learning to be’, and ‘learning to live together’. Furthermore, learning and development activities for sustainable development need to integrate knowledge, resilience and a sense of both global solidarity and individual responsibility. To foster cohesion and integration, learning activities need to encourage dialogue between different generations, ethnicities and religions.