On behalf of H.E. Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, H.E. Marwn Ahmad Al-Sawaleh, Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Education of the UAE conveyed the message of the Minister that “our future starts from school” and emphasized that UAE has done major structural transformation in education to provide facilities for the generation of innovators in the UAE and to develop students of best quality.

Anna Paolini, Director of UNESCO Doha and UNESCO Representative to the Arab States of the Gulf and Yemen, welcomed the participants on behalf of UNESCO. She discussed the purposes and aims of the 2-day coordination meeting emphasizing its significance to clarify the vision and scope of education in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the Gulf States.

Dr. Abdulsalam Aljoufi on behalf of ABEGS, stressed the importance of the meeting and highlighted that the GCC has been one of the most active clusters in the world in advancing the SDGs particularly on Goal 4-Education 2030.

Ms. Mahra Hilal Al Mutaiwei, Director, RCEP stressed the importance of implementing SDG4 focusing on education, in supporting capacity development of Ministries of Education as a necessary stepping stone to inclusive implementation of the SDG4-Education 2030 at global level.

The Coordination meeting was attended by 56 participants from various stakeholders including officials from GCC particularly ; high level ministerial representatives, national coordinators for Education 2030 and senior education planners from each GCC Member State, including international development and education partners, organizations, and civil society in this sub-region.

The ED 2030 Coordination meeting builds on the preparatory work initiated by the GCC States as part of the series of ED 2030 consultations (2015- 2016) in this sub-region.

The overall purpose was to build informed consensus in order to coordinate national strategies and develop relevant methodologies for national level implementation of SDG 4 as set out in the Framework for Action 2030 and adapted by the Gulf States. Results achieved are:

(1) Information disseminated on global SDG4 developments at global, regional, sub-regional and national levels to build consensus and ensure a continued shared understanding of SDG-4 implementation in the GCC states;

(2) GEM 2016 in the GCC region presented;

(3) Updates on status of SDG4-Education 2030 global and thematic indicators; and 

(4) Updates on SDG 4 and SDG-wide developments in the GCC by UN, civil society organizations, and private foundation in the sub-region.

In Special Session on GEM 2016, Mr. Aaron Benavot, Director, Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report), UNESCO HQs, Paris presented some significant findings from the Global Education 2030 Monitoring (GEM) Report 2016 highlighting the central role of educational quality and gender equity.

The Coordination meeting raised awareness raising on application of the Arab Region Roadmap SDG4-ED 2030 in the GCC and coordination and cooperation in the implementation of SDG4-Education 2030 at sub-regional and national  levels.  This meeting was organized by Faryal Khan, Programme Specialist for Education, and the Education team from UNESCO Doha.