The Asia-Pacific region faces pressing and interconnected challenges, including widening socioeconomic and educational disparities, growing environmental vulnerabilities and rapidly shifting political landscapes. Addressing these uncertainties requires forward-thinking approaches that empower individuals and societies to shape their own futures. In this context, UNESCO highlights Futures Literacy—the capability to envision desirable futures rather than merely predicting probable ones shaped by current challenges.

With education at its core, the Recommendation on Education for Peace and Human Rights, International Understanding, Cooperation, Fundamental Freedoms, Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development (hereafter ‘UNESCO 2023 Recommendation’) underscores its transformative role in shaping peaceful and sustainable futures. As a key driver of this vision, Global Citizenship Education (hereafter ‘GCED’) equips learners with the knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and behaviors needed to become agents of peace and architects of their own futures. To fully realize its potential, GCED must extend beyond theory and be translated into practice in ways that are personally meaningful and contextually relevant. To support this process, the Road Map to Implement the UNESCO 2023 Recommendation in Asia-Pacific provides contextualized principles and priorities to guide our collective actions.

The 24th Asia-Pacific Training Workshop(APTW) on EIU/GCED marks an important step in advancing these efforts. Adopting a blended format, the workshop will feature an online pre-workshop to establish foundational knowledge, followed by an in-person main workshop to explore learner-centered pedagogical approaches, hands-on activities and field visits. With a strong emphasis on action-oriented learning, participants will design, refine and implement GCED action plans within their own contexts. Through peer learning and expert feedforward, they will enhance their capacity to drive transformative change in communities while expanding GCED networks.

Beyond a one-time event, the workshop offers post-workshop mentorship and grants to support participants demonstrating exemplary GCED practices, enabling them to expand and sustain their initiatives. This opportunity is open to all participants committed to advancing the transformative power of GCED through action. By turning commitment into action, challenges into opportunities and aspirations into reality, we can collectively shape peaceful and sustainable futures for all.