For the first time ever, the United Nations’ annual High-level Political Forum is being held virtually. Running from Tuesday, 7 July, to Thursday, 16 July, it sees governments gather to measure the progress made so far on meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Focused on progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education, UNESCO and the SDG-Education 2030 Steering Committee convened a high-level event on 9 July to discuss education post-pandemic, looking specifically at lessons learned, strategies moving forward, and the widening financing gap.
EI call for social and policy dialogue
Education International’s Deputy General Secretary, Haldis Holst, was the only teacher representative speaking at the event. Underlining that too many countries have failed to involve teachers in their response to the pandemic, she called on governments to engage in social and policy dialogue with educators and their unions.
“We call on governments to trust the professionalism of educators as you transition back to onsite education – as you design the health and safety measures, consider measures for ensuring equity, and address issues around wellbeing and mental health,” she said. “Make equity a top priority and consider equity audits as a systematic approach to identifying and addressing inequity in your education systems.”
National reviews
The 2020 High-level Political Forum continues next week, when 47 countries have volunteered for so-called national reviews and will be presenting their results. These reviews look at progress towards each SDG as well as the national-level implementation and monitoring architecture, and involvement of civil society, including trade unions.
All sessions of the High-level Political Forum 2020 are streamed online and you can find the programme here.
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