The three winners of the 2018 UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) announced

The Director-General of UNESCO named the three winners of the 2018 edition on 21 September 2018. They are: the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET) from Namibia; the Kalabia Foundation (YaKIn) from Indonesia; and the Let’s Do It Foundation from Estonia. Each of the three non-profit organizations will receive an award of US$ 50,000.

• NaDEET(link is external) was selected for its “Centre on NamibRand(link is external)” which, located deep in the Namib desert, runs programmes offering hands-on immersion in ESD for everyone from schoolchildren to community groups, educators and parents. Through experiential transformative learning, sustainable living is put into practice. With a focus on energy, waste and water, NaDEET also helps young people to engage with and overcome poverty.
• The Kalabia Foundation(link is external) wins the Prize for its experiential programme: “Environmental Education for the Heart of the Coral Triangle(link is external)”. It consists of a 34 metre-long ship staffed with local educators, bringing interactive marine conservation education to remote coastal villages of West Papua. Regional youth acquire knowledge, awareness and appreciation of their communities’ natural resources, while building a sense of responsibility to preserve the unique ecosystems around them.
• The Let’s Do It Foundation(link is external) is awarded for its international projects “World Clean Up Day(link is external)” and “Keep it Clean”, tackling environmental and social problems related to mismanaged solid waste. Initially started as a national scheme in Estonia, these projects are now mobilising and crowd-sourcing 20 million volunteers in 113 countries to map and deal with waste and to develop waste management plans for communities.

This year’s winners were chosen by an independent international jury from 87 nominations, submitted by the governments of UNESCO Member States and organizations in official partnership with UNESCO.

The award ceremony will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 9 October 2018.

More information

https://en.unesco.org/prize-esd/2018