Looking toward Rio 2012: Recognizing Children as Essential Stakeholders in the Green Economy Agenda

Guest Blog by Earth Child Institute.

Almost twenty years ago, at the first UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Agenda 21 was established. Agenda 21 delivered a forward looking plan of action for sustainable development which highlighted the importance of expanding children’s access to education at international, regional, national, and local levels, and on topics including the environment; with schools serving as hubs for community mobilization around environmental awareness and stewardship. However, while Agenda 21 was remarkably child and education friendly, twenty years of political processes have largely failed to translate these principles into the funding and frameworks for systemic action, which when mainstreamed throughout schools all over the world, have potential to bring about sustainable change.

Meaningful efforts toward implementation of Agenda 21 related goals on education for sustainable development (ESD) have been made in some parts of the world, such as in Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan, with measurable and significant strides. Read a full article on this topic. Yet, full integration into development priorities – such as those toward achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, emerging strategies and frameworks for national adaptation plans for action to address climate change, and the emerging Green Economy platform – has not occurred to date.

Therefore, as we approach the 20th anniversary of Agenda 21, it is imperative that world leaders and policymakers acknowledge the increasingly urgent call to take action with and for children. Efforts to engage with and empower the world’s 2.2 billion citizens under the age of 18, who comprise nearly a third of all humanity, through the implementation of Agenda 21’s commitment to children is essential and overdue. For example, Chapter 25 states that “the involvement of today’s youth in environment and development decision-making and in the implementation of programmes is critical to the long-term success of Agenda 21”. Yet, we point out that someone who was newly born when the nations of our world adopted this important document, is now at the age of maturity, and faced with an environmental, economic and social crisis that might have been different today, had these important commitments to our children been operationalized in decades past.

In 2012, as the world reconvenes in Rio to assess current environmental challenges and evaluate progress made since the development of Agenda 21, Earth Child Institute (ECI) plans to emphasize the importance, not only of recognizing children as key stakeholders in the policy-making process, but also of promoting environmental education for sustainable development as a means of enabling future leaders to find innovative solutions to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change and environmental degradation in their lives, communities, and countries. These efforts increase the awareness within communities on the risks environmental issues pose to their health and livelihoods. Within a framework promoting investment in human capital and active citizenry, school models such as the Child Friendly School approach promoted by UNICEF and the Forest Community School approach promoted by ECI and Planet2025, can cut across various sectors to develop sustainable environmental actions with and for children.

The engagement of children and young people in their communities is directly related to the Rio 2012’s green economy theme, which addresses sustainable development and poverty eradication. The conference will aim to incorporate long-term environmental approaches into all levels of policy-making, as well as emphasizing the need to converge economic and environmental goals in order to achieve Agenda 21’s objectives. As pointed out by the conference’s description, this success will require “intragenerational and intergenerational equity”. By including and encouraging interaction between children and youth in a process that has excluded them so far, actors will help give continuity to the work started in 1992. Investments in green economy, when combined with investments in life skills-based environmental education from an early age, will ensure greater returns. It will shape more qualified and informed citizens who can ensure effective sustainable development, while attracting investments that make strides toward poverty eradication, and robust social, economic and environmental conditions for all people.

At Rio 2012, ECI and its partners in the Power of One Child Global Network, which represents small to medium sized NGOs working on issues related to children and the environment, hope to successfully influence countries to recognize children as stakeholders and support them in their communities. ECI aims to have these initiatives mentioned in the final outcome document of the conference in 2012.

Prepared by Donna Goodman, Winnie Hagemeyer, and Joyce-Lynn Njinga from Earth Child Institute.