“Connection, Appreciation and Action”: A Global Partnership Forum for Education
By Dr. Radhika Iyengar, Chair, Mission 4.7 Secretariat
September marked an important moment in global progress towards sustainable development. UN Member States convened at the Summit of the Future to reaffirm commitments to multilateralism and recommit to making progress towards the SDGs. Education has been, and will continue to be, a vital part of our global development agenda. To move the world towards achieving the SDGs and a sustainable future for all, we must ramp up educational efforts and mobilize effective actions that recenter our world on principles of care for people and the planet.
To this end, Mission 4.7 hosted a Global Partnership Forum alongside the Summit of the Future to share learning, practice, and offer a space for enhanced collaboration in education. The session, titled “Connection, Appreciation and Action”: Global Partnership Forum for Education, was a part of the Pre-Summit of the Future organized by SDSN on the 20th of September. The Partnership Forum focused on the power of Global Collectives. Mission 4.7 partners, or collectives, are organizations and thought leaders who have helped to find ways to make meaning out of SDG Target 4.7 in practical ways.
There have been important movements in education over the past five years, powered by collectives, that display the potential for education to transform global development. UNESCO’s engagement at COP26 in Glasgow (Nov 2021) was the first time the Greening of Education came outside its education shell and entered mainstream climate dialogue at the Conference of Parties. For the first time, Ministers of Education and Ministers of Environment came forward to sign a combined Ministerial letter to join a coalition. This was further strengthened by UNESCO’s launch of the Greening Education Partnership at the UN Transforming Education Summit (TES) in New York (September 2022). The Greening Education Partners, and the RewirED Summit, also took center stage at COP28 in Dubai. More recently, the UNESCO GEM Report paper on Education and climate change argues that “The education paradigm cannot rely solely on knowledge transfer but needs to focus on social and emotional, and action-oriented learning.” The power of the collectives includes the power of teachers, youth, policymakers, and researchers. Many stakeholders are now engaged in various dimensions of Education for Sustainable Development, including Climate Education, Environmental Education, Green Education, and Global Citizenship Education. Many countries have committed to Target 4.7 in their policies and curricular practices. However, many challenges remain in implementation.
This Partnership Forum convened several Mission 4.7 global partners, including Columbia University, SDSN, UNESCO, and others from academia and civil society. The special invitees helped to connect the dots and build upon individual momentum at a global level. The Forum will continue to help to make connections, appreciate the collectives, and take action by joining various movements to strengthen our collective mission. Participants shared practical solutions and grassroots movements and share collaboratively in a conversational format.
Questions and points reflected upon included:
What are some of the collectives in global education at the Higher Education level working on regarding green curriculum, systems thinking approaches, and institutional and infrastructural greening?
What are teacher collectives that teachers would like to join and get inspiration from? What are some opportunities for global teacher professional development?
Collectives are needed for curriculum development k-12 and beyond? Who is in the space, and what are they creating?
NGOs are superstars! They create some amazing programs that connect the hardest to reach.
Non-formal and informal educators need to share the limelight to share strategies.
Ultimately, the impact of the Forum will go beyond the one day event, and participants aim to continue to engage in dialogue and discussions to share best practices and the latest research to make SDG 4.7 ideation and implementation possible.
