Blog by Ponke Danker, INEW Coordinator
Earlier this month, from 31st October to 1st November, the 2024 Global Education Meeting (GEM) was held in Fortaleza, Brazil.
Convened by the UNESCO and scheduled right after the G20 Education Ministers’ Meeting under the Brazilian G20 Presidency, the Global Education Meeting aimed at fostering multilateral, cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder dialogue.
It was the fourth of its kind since the UN Sustainability Goals were adopted in 2015 and marked a crucial point to review the progress made towards SDG4 and the 2030 Agenda. Grounded in the understanding that education acts as a “social equaliser” and driving force of sustainable development, the over 650 participants, including over 50 Ministers as well as civil society representatives, adopted the so called “Fortalaza Declaration”.
You can tune in to the recording of the Opening Ceremony here.
SDG 4 is Off Track – GEM Report 2024/25
With 2030 fast approaching, it is clear that SDG 4 is off track. A global education crisis continues to grip the world. UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, addressing the GEM participants, stressed that there wasn’t “a moment to lose” and called for a closing of the financing gap for education and concrete solutions.
UNESCO, launching their 2024/5 Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) (download here) during the event, unveiled that 251 million children and youth remain out of school globally. This represents only a 1% reduction since 2015. The report finds that exclusion is exacerbated by social norms and poverty and publishes alarming statistics for certain countries, including Afghanistan with 6 out of 10 children out of school. It also reiterates that climate change poses challenges to schools.
With its thematic focus on Leadership, the report stresses the importance to include teachers and principals into policy processes and supporting their roles as change agents. The report publishes four recommendations of actions governments can take to “foster leadership in education at school and in the civil service” grouped under the four themes:
- Trust and Empower
- Select, Develop and Recognise
- Share, and
- Invest in System Leaders.
You can tune in to the recording of the Launch of the 2024/25 GEM Report here. And in the New Year, we at INEW will be collaborating with the GEM Team to launch the report here in Ireland, stay tuned for more info later this year.
Fortaleza Declaration
The Fortaleza Declaration (download here) aims to serve as a roadmap for addressing these challenges. Titled “Unlocking the transformative power of education for peaceful, equitable and sustainable futures”, it presents an ambitious plan. Stressing a “renewed sense of urgency”, the Declaration reaffirms education as a fundamental human right and public good and stipulates that
“[i]t is a prime duty of Governments and States to respect, protect and fulfil this right to education”.
The Declaration places strong emphasis on financing education appropriately. Importantly, it recognises that “education spending is not a cost to be minimized but a strategic long-term investment” and a “highest-return investment“.
Commitments to Action
The Fortaleza Declaration also sets out a number of critical actions and calls on governments to implement them – as a moral imperative and an economic and strategic necessity. Actions include:
- The commitment to integrate sustainability and crisis resilience into education systems through education for sustainable development. System capacity development, continuous professional development of teachers, and solutions tailored to local contexts are among the focus areas. The Comprehensive School Safety Framework (CSS) is recognised as a key tool for guiding resilience in climate crisis contexts.
- Accelerating action towards equity and inclusion.
- Actions to address the global teachers shortage and to reinforce participatory and democratic governance in education.
- Commitments towards domestic resource mobilisation, including progressive tax reforms and equitable taxation, raising the tax-to-GDP ratio to 15%, and delivering on the commitment to allocate 4-5% of GDP and 15-20% of total public expenditure to education.
- The call to meet the benchmark of 0.7% of donor gross national income (GNI) for Official Development Assistance (ODA) and to increase the share of ODA to education, while aligning international aid to education with national education sector plans.
Turning Words Into Action
It will now be critical to see whether this renewed commitment to education through the Fortaleza Declaration will help turning the tide on achieving SDG 4. It will, at large, depend on governments to fulfil their promises and implement the actions – many of which have long been recognised as essential.
Still, it remains a beacon of hope and a surge of energy to see so many dedicated advocates of education come together, agreeing on detailed instructions tackling root causes, such as underspent and a need for financial innovation, to achieve quality education for all worldwide. We need to stand together and guarantee quality education to all more than ever.
Photo Credits: © UNESCO/Aurélio Alves
