Enhancing projects on sustainable development in the National Education System in France and in French-speaking Africa

To support and implement projects in favour of sustainable development beginning at school, UNESCO wants to create a working IT platform that will help develop and coordinate initiatives launched in the network of French schools associated with it: the réSEAU network.

réSEAU is a group of French schools associated with UNESCO. It promotes its work and its values in the National Education System. Among the various projects undertaken by these pilot schools, projects in favour of sustainable development are increasingly numerous.

To utilise this work and facilitate exchanges between schools, teachers and pupils located throughout France, the French commission of UNESCO wants to develop an IT platform dedicated to sustainable development. This new facility, for which it is enlisting the help of the Veolia Foundation, will help better coordinate all the projects already under way, to share the experiences of all parties, and to highlight the exemplary projects.

This platform could also address the issue of correspondence courses for interested teachers and headmasters.

A project extended to French-speaking Africa in the future

The present development phase of the project concerns French schools only. The French commission of UNESCO has already requested the aid of the National Education System of the Ministry of the Environment for the implementation of some of the project development phases.

The project is then expected to be extended to a dozen African countries which have already been selected. On the whole, UNESCO estimates that 21 700 persons can benefit from this project through correspondence courses and the creation of a resource centre open to all.

Far more than a simple IT project, this future platform will be an essential tool to guarantee a transfer of skills between France and the Subsaharan countries and enrich the north-south dialogue on the issues of sustainable development.