Featured image: Delegates to Jubilee on Education, launching of Education for Hope at the residence of the Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to Italy in Rome.

By 2070, segments of the southern hemisphere of the planet Earth will have 30 to 100% more population than today. The struggle for these youth needing to acquire skills to hold even minimal livelihoods needs a strong educational transformation if this increase is to be a peaceful change, rather than one causing civil unrest within these regions. Importantly, inequity and injustice affecting people experiencing poverty, marginalisation or dispossession can be partially alleviated with meaningful education, which remains inaccessible to many, especially marginalised and Indigenous communities worldwide. 

As a response to this problem, the South African Embassy in Rome and The Club of Rome (with support from the USA Association for The Club of Rome, the Canadian Association for The Club of Rome, and African members of The Club of Rome)  have launched “Education for Hope”, marking a defining moment for the global re-centring of education as a force for dignity, community and planetary regeneration.  

The launch occurred on 30 October 2025, in Rome, within the Jubilee of the Vatican in a week focused on education for pilgrims from schools and universities around the world, in the elegant Official Residence of H.E. Nosipho Nausca-Jean Jezile, Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to Italy and Permanent Representative to FAO, IFAD and WFP.  

From reflection to regeneration, linking two traditions 

The launch connected two key moral and intellectual traditions: the Ubuntu philosophy of Africa, affirming that “the village is the school”, and The Club of Rome’s enduring quest for human-centred transformation, from The Limits to Growth to The Fifth Element, consciousness as the integrating force for change. 
 
In the same way that the report to The Club of Rome No Limits to Learning urged humanity to transcend reductionist and competitive systems of thought, “Education for Hope” extends this invitation into lived educational practice, linked to “No Limits to Hope”. 

No Limits to Learning foresaw that humanity’s survival would depend not only on technological progress, but on our capacity to learn at higher levels of consciousness. Education for Hope is that learning embodied, it turns cognitive insight into collective practice, analysis into action and interdependence into education. 
 
In other words, if No Limits to Learning described the mental and systemic awakening needed for planetary stewardship, “No Limits to Hope” embodies the moral and communal awakening needed to live it. Together, they form The Fifth Element, the fusion of head, heart, hands, heritage and humanity, which the Education for Hope delegation presented in Rome as the living pedagogy of Ubuntu. 

Education as The Fifth Element 

The Fifth Element, as articulated by The Club of Rome, represents a synergy of consciousness, compassion and systemic renewal. Education for Hope translates this into the language of daily life, teaching that learning and being are inseparable, and that true knowledge is not only cognitive but relational, moral and ecological. 
 
Mamphela Ramphele, Honorary President of The Club of Rome (2018–2023) and Patron of Education for Hope, captured this integration when she said, “Education is an act of love, of freedom and of hope, the engine of possible change.” In her inaugural address at the meeting. 

Her words resonated as The Fifth Element itself, the human spirit in motion, transforming consciousness into community, and knowledge into justice.

Re-imagining learning through Ubuntu 

Rooted in Ubuntu, I am because we are, Education for Hope reframes education as a communal act of healing and co-creation. It is not a programme or policy but a living social movement emerging from the majority of the world and speaking to humanity, that education must once again make us more human, not more competitive. 
 
The movement’s collaboration with The Club of Rome reflects a deep alignment: 
• Both call for integral approaches that connect social justice, ecological stewardship and human consciousness. 
• Both envision education as the foundation of a regenerative civilisation, one that honours life’s interdependence and the wisdom of communities. 
• Both insist that hope is a discipline, a practical act of courage grounded in compassion.

Education for Hope and the Global Compact on Education 

In the same week as the launch, the delegation of twelve members from eight nations (South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Aruba, Japan, the USA, and Canada), also participated in the Vatican Educational Jubilee events at the Dicastery for Culture and Education’s Scientific Committee. They were honoured to assist in re-shaping the renewal of the Global Compact on Education, released at the event, expanding its vision to include inner life, digital humanism and peace as a lived pedagogy. 
 
By affirming Ubuntu as a guiding ethical foundation, the delegation ensured that most of the world, often the cradle of spiritual and ecological wisdom, now stands as a co-author of the renewed Compact. 

A pact of the heart for the planet 

At its heart, Education for Hope is a pact of the heart, a shared commitment to rebuild the moral, ecological and spiritual fabric of education. It invites educators, students and institutions to form constellations of hope, learning communities that live The Fifth Element through dialogue, service and reflection. 
 
The collaboration between The Club of Rome, the South African Embassy, and the Education for Hope movement demonstrates that the future of learning will not be found in curricula or technology alone, but in relationships of care, communities of purpose and education as the most powerful act of hope. 

Find out more about the project: https://educationforhope.org.za/  

If you want to get involved or financially support the project, contact jgilmour@leapinstitute.org.za or athorhaug@msn.com.