Around 500 participants from all 193 UN Member States participated at the High-Level SDG Action Event on Education at headquarters of UN in New York. The high-level event included participation of the President of the General Assembly, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, the Director-General of UNESCO, High-level representatives from Member States (including Ministers) and observers, women, young stakeholders, civil society, UN agencies, education experts, innovators and other relevant stakeholders.

The Office of the President of the General Assembly, worked with UNESCO, UNICEF, FAO, the Global Partnership for Education, the Global Commission on Education, and the Global Education 2030 Steering Committee, among others, in preparing this event. Member States were invited to contribute to the content of the event and to contact the OPGA in this regard.

The President’s High-Level SDG Action Event on Education highlighted the growing momentum around the implementation of SDG 4, including in the area of SDG Learning. It sought to galvanize the efforts of the world’s leading education stakeholders and to raise awareness about the obstacles and opportunities for achieving universal access to quality education and lifelong learning including through technical and vocational education and training.

The objectives of the meeting were:

• To outline the case for more and better financing to achieve SDG 4, through domestic resource mobilization, bilateral aid and multilateral efforts as well as strong political will and good policies;
• To encourage integration of innovative technologies in teaching and learning so as to scale up filling the global gap in access and quality education;
• To further highlight the importance of addressing the challenges which young people are facing in accessing and completing basic and higher education, in conditions of social and geographic fragmentation, and in post-conflict and post-disaster regions;
• To emphasize the importance of raising awareness and teaching about the SDGs including for the 126 million children who will be eighteen years old in 2030.

Best regards,

Roland K. Jahnke