leadesd

In their efforts to accelerate the achievement of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the LEAD-ESD partner countries—Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, and Uganda—have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the capacities of educators in Teacher Training Colleges and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, as well as heads of institutions, education officials, and policymakers. Their goal is to integrate sustainability principles into education systems. These countries recognize the urgent need to equip educators, policymakers, and institutions with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to localize and operationalize ESD through targeted institutional and national capacity-building initiatives.

The Leadership for Education for Sustainable Development (LEAD-ESD) programme was launched at Kenyatta University in a regional inception workshop held from 16th – 18th June 2025. The aim of the regional inception workshop was to enhance the understanding of the LEAD-ESD project by participants and to seek support from the ministry of education officials on the implementation of the project in the country.

Sustainability issues in the eastern Africa region, like in the rest of the world, cut across domains ranging from climate change, deforestation, air pollution, biodiversity loss, food waste, unsustainable energy through fossil fuels, ocean acidification, reduced inequalities, water scarcity and pollution, unsustainable agriculture and water management, among others. These are compounded by lack of policy and governance and coherent inter-sectoral strategy to address the challenges which present in varied in degrees across countries in the region. The Leadership for Education for Sustainable Development (LEAD-ESD) initiative is anchored on several national, regional, continental and global policies, frameworks, guidelines and goals to address sustainability issues through education.

By empowering teacher educators, education officers, and policymakers at all educational levels—from ECCE, to primary, secondary, tertiary and through TVET—UNESCO's LEAD-ESD Program seeks to propel the implementation of SDG 4.7.