Patrick Paul Walsh, University College Dublin and Vice President of Education at SDSN,
Plenary Session Tue 31 Jan 2023, 10.25 – 13.00
Trusteeship Council Chamber
https://sdgs.un.org/statements/university-college-dublin-49995
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
The Transforming Education Summit, a key initiative of Our Common Agenda, elevated education to the top of the global political agenda to recover from losses during COVID-19 and sow the seeds for Education to be the great enabler for the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The elevation of education needs to be a key policy message coming out of the UN Partnership Forum, and Coordination Segment, that serve as an input to the July 2023 HLPF and the 2023 SDG Summit as well as the overall work of the ECOSOC and other key inter-governmental processes throughout 2023.
SDG 17 Partnerships will be critical for revitalizing national and global efforts to transform education.
In 2020, SDSN launched the global initiative Mission 4.7 in partnership with UNESCO, the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, and the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. Mission 4.7’s vision is a world in which the SDGs are achieved through lifelong learning using relevant educational content, educational programs and professional training to advance sustainable development. Various initiatives were presented at three virtual side events at this forum.
On solutions day during TES SDSN organised a session on “Transforming ESD -Implementing the UNESCO Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation with Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships”, co-organised by UN Academic Impact, UNESCO and the Permanent Missions of Ireland and Ghana to the UN.
Key recommendations include,
Partnerships are needed to create OER that are high-quality digital resources with open licences.
Partnerships are also the key to transfer OER across institutions globally using library repositories..
Finally partnerships are key to having the required SDG Knowledge linked to Science Policy Practice Interfaces across all sectors. This will be the topic of an informal Spotlight Session 5 at this forum.