Transforming education to ensure climate action throughout society
The “Facility for Action for Climate Empowerment to Achieve Nationally Determined Contributions (FACE-NDC)” has made some steady progress in preparing the ground for a radical reform of formal climate change education in Zambia - from early childhood to tertiary levels, including non-formal education interventions.
Launched in October 2023, FACE-NDC - supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) - aims to support the development of contextualised, locally relevant and gender-transformative curricula to mainstream climate change mitigation action in Zambian society. These will be strengthened by the latest behavioural science approaches and findings.
FACE-NDC is being implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and four consortium partners, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Copperbelt University (CBU) and the University of Zambia (UNZA).
The project, piloted in Zambia, aims to stimulate climate change mitigation action across the country. This is to support Zambia’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 47% by 2030, an ambitious target in its nationally determined contributions (NDC). Climate change education has potential to not only drive changes in youthful behaviour and through youth skilling in the country, but also to empower youth to demand change from industry and the government.
Once developed and tested, the project’s tools and methodologies will be made available to other regions and countries around the world.
“We urgently need to change behaviour around the world to fight climate change. Education is important, but one-size-fits-all lessons have only very limited impacts, if any,” says FAO Natural Resources Officer Reuben Sessa. “Understanding how and why decisions are made in a particular context, can lead to much more effective interventions. Tailor-made training based on behavioural science and appropriate monitoring and evaluation are essential.”
Curriculum capers
A major milestone has just been reached in the ground-breaking education reform effort led by the Zambian government. It introduced the “Education for All” policy in 2021, abolishing all formal and informal fees in general education from pre-primary to secondary levels. In early June, the Cabinet of Zambia formally approved the National Education Curriculum Framework of 2023.
This followed a rigorous FACE-NDC review of climate change content in Zambian educational materials, as well as best practices from other countries. The project then provided technical support to the Zambian Ministry of Education to ensure that climate change education principles were integrated into the national framework.
The FACE-NDC project also supported capacity building for the curriculum design relating to climate change by training 50 specialists from the Ministry of Education’s Directorate of Curriculum Development, as well as key officers from the Directorate of Standards and Evaluation and the Directorate of Planning and Policy. This training covered key elements of curriculum design, piloting and implementation.
Informed by the new curriculum, climate change education content will be mainstreamed across early childhood, primary and secondary school subjects in the Zambian education system. Behavioural science principles will be embedded and reinforced in the curriculum to guide textbooks, lesson planning and implementation at the school level. Teacher training will be updated to ensure that these changes are implemented.
At the tertiary level, the IKI project has reviewed the renewable energies curriculum at UNZA and the Copperbelt University and initiated a proposal to strengthen materials related to the use of renewable energy in value chains.
Curriculum outlines have been developed within the framework of the FACE-NDC project for Masters and PhD programmes in Climate Change and Sustainability Education at UNZA with a strong behavioural science orientation. UNZA has issued advertisements (https://www.unza.zm/announcements/create-announcements-16) inviting the general public to apply for scholarships for the PhD programmes. Already, 185 candidates have applied and are currently being shortlisted by the project. Three successful candidates will be awarded scholarships in the first cohort of students.
Future steps
The IKI project is in the process of developing baseline surveys to be carried out over the next few months, to assess current knowledge, skills, competencies, norms and behaviours related to climate change in Zambia. This will help identify the most effective behavioural science interventions in this context, and enable monitoring and evaluation of project’s impacts.
The FACE-NDC project also supports non-formal education activities by strengthening clubs and civil society organisations to effectively reach the most vulnerable and marginalised groups. It will co-design locally relevant, behaviourally informed and gender-transformative educational resources and tools for this sector.
Once completed, the FACE-NDC project is expected to reach more than one million students in schools, tertiary institutions and universities, as well as voluntary organisations such as scout and girl guide groups.
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