The UN General Assembly meets this week in New York and will formally approve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), putting in place the post-2015 agenda for the international community.
But what are the SDGs, exactly, and what do they hope to accomplish?
As you can see in the above photo, the 17 SDGs encompass a wide range of goals to end poverty, hunger and inequality, promote education for all and address governance and specific aspects of environment protection. Each goal has corresponding targets so that policy makers have tangible ways to focus policy initiatives.
Have a look at this UN site for the particulars of each goal, “fast facts,” related to the goal, the specific targets and helpful links. Just click on each box for the details.
In all, the SDGs are meant to create an all-encompassing 15-year framework to form a pathway to a better, more equitable, world.
The term Sustainable Development is not new. It was first used in the 1980s, coined by the Brundtland Commission in recognition of the fact that all aspects of development are dependent on each other. Good health, for example, is improved by education and a reduction in pollution. Clearly, no development goal exists in a vacuum. And this is particularly true when it comes to education.
Education is crucial for the successes of all the SDGs. This blog post by the Global Partnership for Education explains why this is true.
The specific education goal, SDG4, focuses on ten targets and is driven by the underlying principal that every child has the right to a free education. Universal pre-primary, primary, and secondary education, are the fundamental components that are intended to provide the basis for life-long learning.
The key to success, though, will be to maintain the global will to create and implement the policies we need to achieve these goals and to find the necessary funding, especially for low and low/middle income countries. UNESCO estimates that the additional financing needs for the education goals amount to $39 billion annually. Yet, development aid to the education sector has been falling. Clearly, the global community will have to step up it’s commitment if we are to see universal education for every child.