UNESCO at Johannesburg

Programme of UNESCO events at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (26 August - 4 September 2002). Synoptic calendar

As reflected by the number and range of activities accessible through this web portal, UNESCO has long been involved with issues related to sustainable development. As one of the United Nations specialized agencies, UNESCO has contributed to many of the streams of action generated by the Rio Conference on Environment and Development. This contribution builds on its mandate in the fields of education, science, culture and communication, and on its role as interagency task manager for two chapters of Agenda 21: Chapter 36 on ‘Educating for a Sustainable Future’ and Chapter 35 on ‘Science for Sustainability’.

In the lead-up to the Johannesburg Summit, many programmes and units within UNESCO have undertaken assessments of recent, ongoing and planned activities, with a view to reinforcing or forging innovative alliances of the type envisaged in the Johannesburg Type 2 Partnership arrangements.

In this vein, UNESCO was involved in a number of parallel events, side-events and partnership initiatives associated with the World Summit.

In addition to a consolidated exhibition at Ubuntu village, high profile events included a one-and-a-half-day side event on Educating for a Sustainable Future (joint event with the South African Government and its Ministry of Education) and a round table on cultural diversity, biological diversity and sustainable development (jointly with UNEP).

A wide variety of other events and launching activities took place, in such fields as water, oceans, biological diversity, renewable energy, indigenous knowledge, life support systems, Earth observation.