The Sixth Regional SDG-Education 2030 Partners Meeting was successfully held during 23-24 April, in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
The meeting was attended by 13 representatives from partner organizations of the regional Arab SDG-Education 2030 Support Group. The partner group meets regularly and serves as a key mechanism to strengthen coordinated support for Education 2030 across the region. It aims to enhancing the national-regional-global nexus for effective coordination and implementation of SDG4.
The Sixth Regional Meeting was organized jointly by UNESCO and the current Chair of Partners Group, Regional Center of Educational Planning (RCEP), who kindly hosted the meeting.
The objectives of this meeting were three-fold:
- Debrief partners on the work of global mechanism and discuss/agree on regional response/action;
- Discuss and agree on partners actions on Dead Sea Commitments for 2019-2020; and
- Discuss a new regional initiative of monitoring of and reporting on national commitments to SDG4, as per Dead Sea Commitments.
The Dead Sea Commitments (2019-2020) was adopted at the Third Arab Regional Meeting on SDG–Education 2030 (AR-MED III) held at Dead Sea, Jordan (November 2018). It builds on the Dubai Roadmap for Education 2030 in the Arab Region (2017/2018), and aims at guiding the implementation of member states’ and partners’ commitments towards achieving Education 2030 in a coordinated, coherent and transparent manner.
At the Sixth Regional Partners Meeting, partners presented their planned actions within the Dead Sea Commitments matrix and agreed on the need to find a better mechanism of supporting to coordinate these actions at both regional and national level. Partners reached the consensus that working together is the key to efficiently support member states and the region towards the Education 2030 Agenda. In order to do so, the importance of sharing and disseminating knowledge and the need to involve new partners such as foundations, bilateral donors, major INGOs and other multilateral organizations were emphasized.
The meeting also introduced the preparation of the first five-year national reporting on Education 2030 commitments. Partners agreed to assist member states in developing monitoring reports under the guideline provided by UNESCO. Other issues raised include the need for better representation and more strategic engagement by Arab Member States representatives at Global Steering Committee, as well as the importance of engaging youth in the Education 2030 campaign.
The meeting facilitated updates and exchanges among partners and concluded with solid actions points for future steps, which include:
- Consolidate actions, geographical coverage and partnership for Dead Sea Commitments matrix;
- Elaborate guidelines on national monitoring and reporting process, as well as an overview of countries who are submitting voluntary national reports, submitted questionnaires for the 2019 HLPF report on SDG4, alignment of strategic plans to SDG4, and availability of data;
- Continue to improve knowledge sharing and management;
- Develop a concept note on engagement of youth.
The meeting was attended by the following partners:
- The Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS)
- The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)
- The Collective Consultation of NGOs on Education 2030 (CCNGO)
- Early Childhood Development Resource Centre (ECDRC)
- Global Partnership for Education (GPE)
- The Arab League (LAS)
- Open Society Foundation
- The Regional Center for Quality and Excellence in Education (RCQE)
- UNICEF
- WFP
The regional Arab SDG-Education 2030 Support Group is determined to continue its work towards a future of quality education with no one left behind.
