2016 UE4SD Conference

Alexander Leicht is Chief of the Section of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education, UNESCO, Paris. Before joining UNESCO in 2011, he was Head of the German Secretariat for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development at the German Commission for UNESCO in Bonn since 2004, where he also led the organizing team for the preparations of the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development in 2009. He also worked three years as a university teacher in Hungary and the United Kingdom and was originally trained as a teacher, with a graduate degree in literature, at the University of Marburg, Germany, and at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA. He holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

As Chief of the Section of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education at UNESCO, his current priorities include coordinating the implementation of the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the follow-up to the UN Decade of ESD, in its five Priority Action Areas policy, education institutions, educators, youth, and local communities (this includes climate change education, education for disaster risk reduction and education to promote sustainable consumption, among others); and supporting countries to strengthen, mainstream and develop Global Citizenship Education (GCED), including peace and human rights education, and the prevention of violent extremism through education.