ADEA WGEMPS contributes to UNESCO’s publication on Global Citizenship Education

Published on Friday, 7 March 2014

ADEA has been active in the area of peace education since several years, as peace is a prerequisite to building cohesive and sustainable societies.  Its ICQN on Peace Education, led by the Kenyan Ministry of Education, promotes peace-building through education, advocating for national policies that address governance, institutional and pedagogical aspects of conflict prevention.

Peace building through education is also a concern cutting across all ADEA’s programs. ADEA’s Working Group on Education Management and Policy Support (WGEMPS) is thus contributing to the forthcoming UNESCO publication on global citizenship education (GCE), with the following recommendations:

  • National ownership and partnerships between governments and other stakeholders are critical as peace building goes beyond the education sector.
  • Teaching peace education is a continuous process and should be taught before and after conflict – during conflict, the focus can be on a mediation process.
  • Teaching peace education needs to take a holistic dimension covering formal, non-formal and informal settings.
  • Rethink the strategy for teacher preparation: advocate for retraining of teachers with greater focus on values, attitudes and behaviour change.
  • Reflect on how to include peace education into other subjects such as Mathematics and Science as well as inside and outside the classroom.
  • Devote greater attention to inner spirituality (appealing to the heart, mind and soul). This requires learning to know oneself before knowing others.
  • Consult, engage and plan with the youth as they are an important constituency.

These are some of the outcomes of the parallel session organized by ADEA at the UNESCO international forum on Global Citizenship Education (GCE) that took place in Bangkok last December under the theme “Preparing learners for the challenge of the 21st Century”. The ADEA session focused on “Global Citizenship Education and Peace-building and Conflict Prevention” and involved the ICQN on Peace Education and INEE’s Working Group on Education and Fragility.

Peace building targets all: learners, managers, educators, communities and literate and illiterate adults. GCE therefore has a central role in strengthening the efforts of partners such as ADEA and INEE in advocating for good governance systems that promote equity and the efficient use of public resources as these are lost during conflict.

Contact Shem Bodo, WGEMPS Program Manager: s.bodo@afdb.org.