Okayama City and the Okayama ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) Promotion Commission held a ceremony to award the two winning projects for the “ESD Okayama Award 2022,” which recognizes outstanding ESD activities in the world, in the first part of the “Okayama ESD Forum 2022.”
ICLEI Japan supported the event to enhance ESDs.

The video of the ceremony can be viewed on YouTube now.

The award ceremony was held on November 19, 2022, at the Okayama International Center in Okayama City, inviting each representative of the organizations which initiated the winning project: the network called “Initiative ‘Hamburg Learns Sustainability’” (Federal Republic of Germany) and the NGO called “Green Growth Africa Sustainability Network” (Federal Republic of Nigeria).

In the presence of about 60 participants, including high school and university students from Okayama Prefecture and representatives of ESD-related organizations in and outside the prefecture, Deputy Mayor of Okayama City, Mr. Masahiro Takenaka delivered a congratulatory speech, and the Chairperson of the Okayama ESD Promotion Commission and the ESD Okayama Award Steering Board, Dr. Hiroshi Abe gave a critique of the awarded projects.

Afterward, Mr. Ralf Behrens, a representative of the “Initiative ‘Hamburg Learns Sustainability’,” spoke about the awarded project. The Initiative “Hamburg Learns Sustainability” Has Started the “Hamburg Master Plan ESD 2030”, and Mr. Adedoyin Adeleke, a representative of the “Green Growth Africa Sustainability Network” spoke about the award-winning project Environmental Education Programme, and each answered questions from the audience.

The ESD Okayama Award 2022 received 157 applications from 51 countries and regions, the largest number ever since the program was launched in 2015.  Of these, 10 passed the preliminary screening, and two were selected to receive the Award.

The YouTube archive is available,

The detailed contents of the two awarded projects are here (in English).

The ESD Okayama Award aims to showcase good ESD practices worldwide and advance SDGs further since ESD is a key enabler of the achievement of all targets of SDGs. The ESD Okayama Award is organized by Okayama City and the ESD Okayama Award Steering Board※.

※The composing organizations of the Board are as follows:

• United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS)
• UNESCO Bangkok, Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education
• Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)
• Japan Council on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD-J)
• The Goi Peace Foundation
• Okayama ESD Promotion Commission