he Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in peril. Converging challenges of climate change, armed conflicts, mass displacement, and other protracted crises are derailing global efforts to achieve human security through the SDGs.
With its power to transform minds, build resilient economies, and ensure human rights for all, education must be put front and center as we make the sprint towards 2030. SDG4, an inclusive and equitable quality education for all, is the single best investment we can make in delivering on each and every one of the SDGs. For every U.S. dollar invested in girls’ education, we see a substantial return of $2.80, thus, ensuring girls complete secondary education could boost GDP by an average of 10%, according to the World Bank.
By supporting universal education, we are also building the necessary environments, systems, and transformative pathways to deliver on global promises outlined in the 2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement, Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other international accords.
The Global Learning Crisis
The challenges are enormous. New global estimates from Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, indicate that as many as 224 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents are in need of quality, holistic education worldwide. Of these, as many as 72 million are out of school altogether. That’s more than the total population of the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.
On the frontlines of conflicts and crises in places like Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Ukraine, and beyond, there have been either dramatic setbacks or stagnating progress toward SDG4 as well as a significant learning achievement gap. More than half of the world’s crisis-impacted girls and boys are failing to achieve minimum learning proficiencies even when they are in school, according to the new ECW estimates.
It’s a global crisis. Initial findings from the public, unedited report on SDGs from the UN Secretary-General indicate that, “Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was already off-track to achieve its education targets. If no additional measures are taken, only one in six countries will meet SDG4 and achieve universal access to quality education by 2030.” He goes on to say, “In 2020, approximately a quarter of primary schools globally do not have access to basic services such as electricity, drinking water and basic sanitation facilities.”
In addition to building schools, temporary learning environments, and basic services for the world’s learners, more efforts need to be made on delivering quality interventions that make a difference. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 147 million children missed over half a year of in-person instruction and 24 million learners may never return to school at all. Furthermore, the climate crisis is creating an even more pressing learning crisis, disrupting the education of 40 million children every year—according to the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
While the vital importance of education is clear, it remains one of the most underfunded areas of Overseas Development Assistance, private-sector funding, and individual giving. Each year we spend over $2 trillion on the military—more than $6 billion a day. With just $1.5 billion, ECW could provide 20 million crisis-impacted girls and boys with a quality education over the next four years. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), with just $4.85 billion annually, we could provide education for the all the world’s refugees.
Hope on the Horizon
The pathway toward SDG4—and, thus, all the other SDGs—requires that we embrace a new way of working, ensure localized interventions that build resilience in the young generation and communities, and invest in humanity. We must break down silos; deploy joint programming; and make use of the United Nations coordination structures, then crowd-in resources. A coordinated and collaborative education investment between governments, humanitarians, and development actors is at the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, and with financing, we can translate it in action.
For example, investments from ECW have reached more than 8.8 million children worldwide since 2016, along with an additional 31 million who were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021. With more than 140 active grants across 20-plus countries, ECW and its partners are working to create solutions that address the root causes of learning loss. In particular, investments through ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programs crowd-in resources from traditional donors, the private sector, and strategic global partners to provide a wide array of holistic educational support—including gender empowerment, school feeding, mental health and psychosocial support services, disability inclusion, teacher trainings, and other interconnected supports—that provide crisis-impacted girls and boys with a safe environment and continued quality education.
With just seven years left to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030, the necessary environments, systems, transformative pathways, and partner coordination are in place. The addition of proper financing, including fully funded education joint programs, would allow us to take a leap forward towards the 2030 Agenda. The ultimate test will be investing in the 224 million children and adolescents who are impacted by conflicts, climate change, and forced displacement. Not theirs, but ours.
a global affairs media network
Education is Imperative to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
Photo via Adobe Stock.
September 19, 2023
Our ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is in peril. Putting education—and SDG 4—at the core of our efforts can help change that—an inclusive and equitable quality education for all is the best investment we can make on achieving all the SDGs, writes Yasmine Sherif.
T
he Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in peril. Converging challenges of climate change, armed conflicts, mass displacement, and other protracted crises are derailing global efforts to achieve human security through the SDGs.
With its power to transform minds, build resilient economies, and ensure human rights for all, education must be put front and center as we make the sprint towards 2030. SDG4, an inclusive and equitable quality education for all, is the single best investment we can make in delivering on each and every one of the SDGs. For every U.S. dollar invested in girls’ education, we see a substantial return of $2.80, thus, ensuring girls complete secondary education could boost GDP by an average of 10%, according to the World Bank.
By supporting universal education, we are also building the necessary environments, systems, and transformative pathways to deliver on global promises outlined in the 2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement, Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other international accords.
The Global Learning Crisis
The challenges are enormous. New global estimates from Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, indicate that as many as 224 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents are in need of quality, holistic education worldwide. Of these, as many as 72 million are out of school altogether. That’s more than the total population of the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.
On the frontlines of conflicts and crises in places like Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Ukraine, and beyond, there have been either dramatic setbacks or stagnating progress toward SDG4 as well as a significant learning achievement gap. More than half of the world’s crisis-impacted girls and boys are failing to achieve minimum learning proficiencies even when they are in school, according to the new ECW estimates.
It’s a global crisis. Initial findings from the public, unedited report on SDGs from the UN Secretary-General indicate that, “Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was already off-track to achieve its education targets. If no additional measures are taken, only one in six countries will meet SDG4 and achieve universal access to quality education by 2030.” He goes on to say, “In 2020, approximately a quarter of primary schools globally do not have access to basic services such as electricity, drinking water and basic sanitation facilities.”
In addition to building schools, temporary learning environments, and basic services for the world’s learners, more efforts need to be made on delivering quality interventions that make a difference. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 147 million children missed over half a year of in-person instruction and 24 million learners may never return to school at all. Furthermore, the climate crisis is creating an even more pressing learning crisis, disrupting the education of 40 million children every year—according to the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
While the vital importance of education is clear, it remains one of the most underfunded areas of Overseas Development Assistance, private-sector funding, and individual giving. Each year we spend over $2 trillion on the military—more than $6 billion a day. With just $1.5 billion, ECW could provide 20 million crisis-impacted girls and boys with a quality education over the next four years. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), with just $4.85 billion annually, we could provide education for the all the world’s refugees.
Hope on the Horizon
The pathway toward SDG4—and, thus, all the other SDGs—requires that we embrace a new way of working, ensure localized interventions that build resilience in the young generation and communities, and invest in humanity. We must break down silos; deploy joint programming; and make use of the United Nations coordination structures, then crowd-in resources. A coordinated and collaborative education investment between governments, humanitarians, and development actors is at the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, and with financing, we can translate it in action.
For example, investments from ECW have reached more than 8.8 million children worldwide since 2016, along with an additional 31 million who were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021. With more than 140 active grants across 20-plus countries, ECW and its partners are working to create solutions that address the root causes of learning loss. In particular, investments through ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programs crowd-in resources from traditional donors, the private sector, and strategic global partners to provide a wide array of holistic educational support—including gender empowerment, school feeding, mental health and psychosocial support services, disability inclusion, teacher trainings, and other interconnected supports—that provide crisis-impacted girls and boys with a safe environment and continued quality education.
With just seven years left to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030, the necessary environments, systems, transformative pathways, and partner coordination are in place. The addition of proper financing, including fully funded education joint programs, would allow us to take a leap forward towards the 2030 Agenda. The ultimate test will be investing in the 224 million children and adolescents who are impacted by conflicts, climate change, and forced displacement. Not theirs, but ours.
