Handbook of lifelong learning for sustainable development

Abstract

The UN Sustainable Development Summit held in New York in September 2015 has led to the adoption of a new sustainable development agenda, which builds on the eight Millennium Development Goals. Even though reaching a quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development, and despite the fact that much progress has been made towards increasing access to education at all levels, lifelong learning for sustainable development is not yet as developed as it should be. It is based on the perceived need to explore and present concrete case studies which illustrate how lifelong learning for sustainable development can be realised that the “Handbook of Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development” has been produced. This book contains a set of papers from the “World Symposium on Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development” held in Malta in March 2017. The event was jointly organised by the University of Malta, Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), the Hamburg University University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP), in cooperation with various UN bodies, government offices and authorities, universities, enterprises, NGOs and grassroots organisations from across the world. Consistent with the need for more cross-sectoral interactions among the various stakeholders working in the field of lifelong learning for sustainable development, the aims of the “World Symposium on Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development” were as follows: I. to provide research institutions, universities, NGOs and enterprises working with lifelong learning for sustainable development with an opportunity to display and present their works in this field; II. to foster the exchange of information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of projects on lifelong learning for sustainable development, especially successful initiatives and good practice; III. to discuss methodological approaches and experiences deriving from case studies and projects; IV. which aim to show how lifelong learning for sustainable development may be implemented in practice; to network the participants and provide a platform so they can explore possibilities for cooperation. Last but not least, a further aim of the event was to document and disseminate the wealth of experiences on lifelong learning for sustainable development available today, which takes place via this publication. The “Handbook of Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development” focuses on “strengthening capacity building in lifelong learning for sustainable development”, meaning that it will serve the purpose of showcasing experiences from research, field projects and best practice in lifelong learning for sustainable development, which may be useful or implemented across the world. Education and sustainability researchers from a wide range of countries have contributed to this publication, and we thank all authors for their efforts. Their works help to reiterate the potential of lifelong learning for sustainable development and its contribution to the sustainable development agenda.