UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Explanatory note for the 2019 call for nominations

Education for Sustainable Development empowers learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society, for present and future generations, while respecting cultural diversity. It is about lifelong learning, and is an integral part of quality education. ESD is holistic and transformational education which addresses learning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment. It achieves its purpose by transforming society.

Within the framework of the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD, the UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development honours individuals, institutions, organizations or other entities for outstanding projects or programmes in the field of ESD. The Prize was established by the UNESCO Executive Board at its 195th session, and officially announced at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD (November 2014, Aichi-Nagoya, Japan). It consists of three annual awards of US $50,000 for each recipient, and was awarded for the first time in November 2015.

1. Nominations

Nominations can be made by Governments of UNESCO Member States via their Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, and by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in official partnership with UNESCO. Nominations must focus on a specific ESD project or programme of the nominee. Each Permanent Delegation or NGO can make up to three nominations for any edition of the Prize. Self-nominations are not accepted.       

• Eligibility and Selection Criteria

The three winners will be selected by the Director-General of UNESCO on the basis of recommendations made by an independent international jury, consisting of five experts from all geographical regions. To be eligible, the project/programme of the nominee must:

• have already been running for at least four years
• show presence of evidence of results and a high impact relative to the invested resources
• be replicable and scalable
• contribute to one or more of the five Priority Action Areas of the GAP (advancing policy; transforming learning and training environments; building capacities of educators and trainers; empowering and mobilizing youth; accelerating sustainable solutions at local level).  
• Submission Procedure
• The nomination form must be completed online in English or French via a platform accessible through the UNESCO website under the following link: http://unesco.org/esd 
• Nominations must be submitted online by the Permanent Delegation to UNESCO of the concerned Member State, or by an NGO in official partnership with UNESCO, through their official UNESTEAMS account.* Self-nominations are not accepted.
• Attention should be paid to presenting the project/programme of the nominee in a clear and structured way, following the instructions given in the form and respecting the indicated word limit. All supporting material (e.g. publications, photos, videos) must be transmitted electronically through the online system.
• Nominations have to be submitted to info@unescoghana.org  by midnight of 30 March 2019 (UTC+1, Paris time). Kindly note that each Permanent Delegation or NGO may not submit more than three nominations.

For any other questions regarding the UNESCO-Japan Prize on ESD or the submission process, please contact the Ghana National Commission for UNESCO Secretariat.