We’ve submitted our input to the consultation on the Third SDG National Implementation Plan, led by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.
Why is this relevant for achieving SDG 4 worldwide?
In its previous National Implementation Plan, Ireland rightly addressed its international approach to the SDGs. The commitment to the 2030 Agenda goes beyond national implementation: progress at home only has lasting impact when situated within a wider global context. The 2030 Agenda seeks global prosperity, well-being for all, peace, and justice—outcomes on which Ireland, like all countries, depends.
A cornerstone of this, is SDG 4 and education.
Yet, SDG 4, the commitment to education, is absent from the chapter on the international approach in Ireland’s Second NIP. So, we’ve urged that education not be overlooked again in the development of the next plan.
In particular, when setting out Ireland’s ambitions to advance the SDGs at country level, we ask that the next NIP recognises education as a cross-cutting driver for reducing poverty and hunger and for delivering all objectives under A Better World, Ireland’s International Development Cooperation Strategy.
And as Ireland has explicitly acknowledged that access to education cannot wait until the cessation of hostilities (Irish Aid Annual Report, 2024), we ask that ambitions relating to humanitarian assistance and reaching the most vulnerable individuals and communities explicitly include education in emergencies. Because education is a critical element of life-saving protection and assistance, which simultaneously promotes resilience and provides tools for long-term recovery and peace.
We also address the need for departments to work together, as this is crucial to shape the global policy agenda, especially with regard to the climate-education-nexus and the development of the Fourth Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which seeks to address gaps in access to free pre-primary and secondary education. We also recommend that the next NIP must build on the last NIP’s commitment to influencing the global financing architecture, which urgently needs an update to become fairer in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda.
Lastly, we address the shrinking civil society space and the threat from anti-democratic movements. We ask that the NIP addresses the partnership with and the protection of civil society space throughout as a mainstreamed objective, and that it is given explicit attention, and is clearly articulated as a key driver in the implementation of the SDGs.
This includes pro-actively including civil society in policy spaces and to support civil society in connecting and forming networks, which drive collective action, amplify impact, and strengthen the reach and effectiveness of their work, while ensuring diversity and the full range of perspectives are reflected.
🔗Read the full submission here.
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