"TRANSFORMING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT LEARNING ON THE WAY TO THE SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE"
8 December 2023, Geneva, Switzerland
Lourdes Rodriguez recently represented Teach the Future at the UN SDG:Learn Retreat focused on transforming sustainable development education leading up to the 2024 Summit of the Future. Alongside partners from across the UN, NGOs, private organizations and academia, attendees took stock of current initiatives and explored visions for advancing equity in education globally.
The focus was on identifying areas where collective efforts could address emerging challenges and capitalize on new opportunities to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In line with the Summit's core expectations centred on reshaping education and envisioning learning societies, with education and lifelong learning acknowledged as global public goods, partners engaged in collaborative brainstorming sessions on how to champion this agenda leading up to the Summit.
The opening sessions, where Lourdes was a co-facilitator, set the stage to dream big, while still grounding participants in today’s realities through visioning exercises to imagine possible and prefered futures. It was powerful collectively outlining commitments to guide progress toward our shared dreams.
Lourdes also had the opportunity to introduce the importance of meaningful youth engagement and the need to institutionalize the inclusion of futures thinking in the curriculum.
Events like these renew Lourdes’ energy to keep collaborating with partners worldwide to enact positive change. And she's proud that Teach the Future can contribute their expertise in including futures thinking in schools, creating inclusive, liberating learning ecosystems that honor student rights and help all young people reach their full potential.
The connections made here will seed further growth. Lourdes believes that if they tend carefully to this fragile sapling of sustainable education — supporting each interlinked branch, from policy to curriculum to accessibility — in time it will blossom to uplift all global learners.
-Lisa Giuliani
Virtual Attendee :)
Learn more by visiting a short article (with photos) about the event and the presentation.