Ubuntu Network

Ubuntu Network Themes

DE and ESD are concerned with building a greater understanding of local and global development - the impact, the issues and the interdependencies, so that we as consumers and global citizens take responsibility for our day-to-day actions.

Sustainable development can be seen as either:

The areas of interest that are associated with DE/ESD are numerous.

UNESCO describes ESD as promoting ideals and principles that seek to achieve sustainability - they describe areas such as intergenerational equity, gender equity, social tolerance, poverty alleviation, environmental preservation and restoration, natural resource conservation, and just and peaceable societies (UN Report on the Decade of ESD).
The UNECE also includes as relevant poverty alleviation, citizenship, peace, ethics, responsibility in local and global contexts, democracy and governance, justice, security, human rights, health, gender equity, cultural diversity, rural and urban development, economy, production and consumption patterns, corporate responsibility, environmental protection, natural resource management and biological and landscape diversity (UNECE Strategy for ESD).

The Ubuntu Network has selected six themes which underpin its approach to DE/ESD. The themes are closely related and overlap significantly. All of the areas listed above can be categorised into one or more theme.

1. Development and Underdevelopment

2. Environmental Sustainability

3. Human Rights and Responsibilities

4. Equality and Inequality

5. Similarity and Difference

6. Peace and Conflict

Themes 3, 4, 5 and 6 are used by the NCCA in its framework to support integration and teaching of intercultural knowledge and understanding, skills and capacities, and values and attitudes in primary and post primary education.