Sustainable Development Goals for Education

Sustainable Development Goal 4 - “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” 

With the stand-alone Goal 4 on education and its related targets, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes that education is essential for the success of all sustainable development goals (SDGs). Education is also included in goals on health, growth and employment, sustainable consumption and production, and climate change.

UNESCO facilitated consultations of Member States and key stakeholders over the past two years on the future education agenda which culminated in the World Education Forum held in Incheon, Republic of Korea in May 2015. With the Incheon Declaration, the education community committed to Education 2030, which is encapsulated in SDG 4. The Incheon Declaration, entrusts UNESCO to lead and coordinate Education 2030.

“We know the power of education to eradicate poverty, transform lives and make breakthroughs on all the Sustainable Development Goals,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova in her opening address on that occasion.

The Incheon Declaration is an historic commitment to transform lives through a new vison for education, building on the worldwide committment to Education for All (EFA) initiated at Jomtien in 1990 and reiterated at Dakar in 2000,  while effectively addressing current and future global and national education challenges..

Related Information

• Education is key for achieving the SDGs (VIDEO)
• Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Global Action Programme on ESD
• Education indicators
• Empowering teachers, building sustainable societies