Brussels, 20 October 2025

Re-think, Re-feel, Re-do: Learning from SEKEM

On 24–28 September 2025, ECSWE participated in the World Goetheanum Forum hosted by SEKEM in Egypt. The forum offered a space to reflect deeply on sustainable development, reconnect with inner and outer sources of renewal, and showed that regeneration is possible when people act together.

ECSWE was rep­re­sent­ed by Haj­na Tijssen and Mar­gare­ta Van Raem­don­ck at the World Goetheanum Forum 2025. The top­ic was re-think, re-feel, re-do sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. It was organ­ised by the World Goetheanum Asso­ci­a­tion in coop­er­a­tion with Deme­ter Inter­na­tion­al, the Egypt­ian Bio-Dynam­ic Asso­ci­a­tion, the Ital­ian Natu­ra Si, Eosta, the Robin food Coali­tion, the Club of Rome, the Heliopo­lis Uni­ver­si­ty, the World Eth­ic Forum, the World Future Coun­cil, and the Research Insti­tute of Organ­ic Agriculture.

The almost 100 par­tic­i­pants came from all over the globe, shar­ing the con­vic­tion that we need action by every indi­vid­ual human being towards a viable future as cus­to­di­ans of our Moth­er Earth. Humans are destroy­ing our habi­tat, but humans also have the capac­i­ty to sup­port the Earth to regen­er­ate all that is destroyed. SEKEM in Egypt, where the con­fer­ence took place, is show­ing how impor­tant steps towards regen­er­a­tion can be tak­en. The place is a pio­neer of sus­tain­abil­i­ty as a holis­tic ini­tia­tive. Here, beyond bio­dy­nam­ic agri­cul­ture, an econ­o­my of love is cul­ti­vat­ed, with a com­mu­ni­ty that is social­ly inclu­sive, cul­tur­al­ly nur­tur­ing, and eco­nom­i­cal­ly just.

Too little, too late? A shared feeling transforms

The first evening one could feel that most peo­ple had a feel­ing of fail­ure. Many old­er par­tic­i­pants in the con­fer­ence had sev­er­al decades of expe­ri­ence and ded­i­ca­tion towards sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. Younger par­tic­i­pants felt lost. It all seemed like “too lit­tle, too late” for real progress towards a pos­i­tive future. Grad­u­al­ly, as con­ver­sa­tions deep­ened and con­nec­tions formed, a feel­ing of opti­mism and courage began to appear. Not in the least because of the grow­ing feel­ing of com­mu­ni­ty among par­tic­i­pants from Asia, South and Cen­tral Amer­i­ca, Europe, and espe­cial­ly Africa.

Re-think: toward a new narrative on sustainability

A new nar­ra­tive for sus­tain­abil­i­ty was draft­ed dur­ing the Forum. SEKEM’s ide­al of adding ecol­o­gy to the three­fold spheres of human activ­i­ty served as the start­ing point. But out of the work in the con­fer­ence grew the idea of embed­ding the three spheres into ecol­o­gy and co-cre­ation, with Earth as a liv­ing enti­ty embrac­ing these spheres. To the spir­i­tu­al the cos­mic sources were added. At the heart of this vision lies the inner and indi­vid­ual source of spir­it, remind­ing us that sus­tain­abil­i­ty is as much an inner trans­for­ma­tion as it is an out­er one.

Re-feel: the power of place and encounter

Meet­ing with so many in this oasis in the mid­dle of the desert that SEKEM is, empow­ered the feel­ing of con­nect­ed­ness with peo­ple and nature. The whole con­fer­ence was organ­ised with pos­si­bil­i­ties of encoun­ters with peo­ple and the well-nur­tured nature all around the premis­es. This allowed ideas and con­cepts to sink into the deep­er lay­ers of feel­ing which is extreme­ly impor­tant as a basis for action towards regen­er­a­tion of the earth.

Re-do: inspiration from real-world initiatives

The major­i­ty of par­tic­i­pants were all involved in real life sus­tain­able actions. Many were young farm­ers. Oth­ers were liv­ing in small eco-vil­lages or were involved in adult edu­ca­tion on sus­tain­abil­i­ty or bio-dynam­ic farm­ing. Get­ting to know each other’s sto­ries of what can be done cre­at­ed the con­vic­tion that indi­vid­ual peo­ple are not pow­er­less and can make a dif­fer­ence. The more peo­ple on Earth con­nect in “the art of becom­ing” with­out being demor­alised, the clos­er we get to become the cus­to­di­ans of the Earth.

Crucial role for education

School­ing is cru­cial for all peo­ple to believe in the poten­tial of each and every one to be part of the solu­tions rather than of the prob­lems. The world as a whole lacks, for instance, the knowl­edge of the results of organ­ic and bio-dynam­ic agri­cul­ture, agro- and eco-forestry. But knowl­edge is only step one. Cre­at­ing con­nec­tions which strength­en the feel­ing of belong­ing and respon­si­bil­i­ty is also necessary.

Last but not least, learn­ing from doing is indis­pens­able. School edu­ca­tion, ECSWE’s core busi­ness, could def­i­nite­ly become a part of the solu­tion. School­ing of chil­dren and young peo­ple is impor­tant but that is more for the long term, school­ing adults is at least as impor­tant to give trac­tion to what needs to hap­pen. SEKEM, the desert eco-vil­lage that host­ed this years’ World Goetheanum Forum, is a bril­liant prac­tice exam­ple of how this can be brought to chil­dren and adults alike. It offers peo­ple devel­op­men­tal path­ways from kinder­garten to pri­ma­ry edu­ca­tion, to sec­ondary and voca­tion­al edu­ca­tion, and even uni­ver­si­ty education.

A shared commitment moving forward

Leav­ing SEKEM, par­tic­i­pants car­ried with them not only new insights but also a renewed sense of pur­pose. The forum made clear that regen­er­a­tion begins with the courage and imag­i­na­tion of indi­vid­u­als who choose to act togeth­er. As ECSWE rep­re­sen­ta­tives, we returned inspired by the pow­er of con­nect­ed com­mu­ni­ties, by the trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial of edu­ca­tion, and by the liv­ing exam­ple of SEKEM. The work ahead is urgent but it is also full of pos­si­bil­i­ty. With every step tak­en in aware­ness, com­pas­sion, and co-cre­ation, we con­tribute to shap­ing a future in which both peo­ple and the plan­et can tru­ly thrive.

Further reading