It’s not often that UN diplomats speak about what really motivates them.

So it was illuminating when Anwarul Chowdhury talked about how the concept of global citizenship had inspired and guided his thinking during four decades of high level diplomatic and administrative work at the UN.

“We are part of a bigger humanity,” said Ambassador Chowdhury during a workshop on 27 August 2014 before some 200 people in a crowded UN conference room. “The oneness of humanity is the spirit that drove me all these years at the UN.

All UN work relates to the core of being a global citizen,” he said.

Sponsored by Soka Gakkai International, with co-sponsorship from the Baha’i International Community, the event sought to facilitate discussion about  education for global citizenship as a vital element of  achieving a transformative post-2015 development agenda.

The workshop, titled “Education for Global Citizenship,” also featured presentations by Anjali Rangaswami of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and Min Jeong Kim of the UNESCO Global Education First Initiative Team. Saphira Rameshfar of the Baha’i International Community moderated the discussion.

In opening remarks, Ms. Rameshfar noted that the world faces numerous interconnected global challenges, from climate change to migration.

“All require global solutions in order to be properly addressed,” she said, as well as enormous financial, technical, human and moral resources.

“But these resources will only be freed up as the peoples of the world develop a profound sense of responsibility for the fate of the planet and for the well-being of the entire human family,” said Ms. Rameshfar.

Ambassador Chowdhury said that education for global citizenship can help unlock the human potential for sustainable development and “as a pathway to peace.”

“We generally focus on young people when we talk about global citizenship, but it is for all of us, we all need it,” especially decision makers, said Ambassador Chowdhury, whose long career at the UN has included serving as Permanent Representative of  Bangladesh, President of the Security Council, President of the UNICEF Executive Board, and as an Under-Secretary General concerned with least developed countries.

Ms. Rangaswami spoke about the key role that  NGOs have played in helping to shape discussions about the post-2015 development agenda, noting that one of the proposed sustainable development goals makes specific mention of the need for  education for global citizenship.

Ms. Kim discussed the UN Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative, which among other things seeks to broaden outreach and engagement on global citizenship education with a focus on learning and teaching for sustainable development.

She also pointed to the recent meeting on Global Education for All in Muscat, Oman, which drew 250 participants last May, as another indicator of the growing interest in the promotion of global citizenship.

Other co-sponsors of the workshop included the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace, which Amb. Chowdry founded; Human Rights Education Associates; the UN Sustainable Development Education Caucus; and the Values Caucus.

“The change we envision is for our current and emerging generations to think of themselves as world citizens, to understand their personal responsibility to promote sustainable development, and to dedicate their energies towards finding solutions to the challenges currently facing humanity,” said Ms. Rameshfar, closing the meeting.