An agenda for sustainable development was adopted by the international community in September 2015 to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change while ensuring that no one is left behind through 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Education, which is fundamentally captured in one goal – Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) – aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, and carrys equal importance to the other 16 goals. 

National governments have the primary responsibility for the successful implementation of SDGs in their respective countries as agreed at the global level. Through the Incheon Declaration, adopted at the World Education Forum in May 2015, UNESCO, as the sole UN agency mandated to cover all aspects of education, was entrusted to lead and coordinate the achievement of the SDG4 with its partners through the Education 2030 Agenda. 

UNESCO is supporting the Government of Nepal to develop its national capacity to align the SDG4 targets with the national education policies, including and beyond the School Sector Development Plan (SSDP, 2016-2023), through technical assistance, capacity building and coordination with other stakeholders. The government with the technical support of the UNESCO Kathmandu Office, has already taken substantial steps towards establishing awareness among stakeholders in Nepal’s education sector and planning the implementation of the SDG4. UNESCO’s support to the government for the preparation of the Education for All (EFA) National Plan of Action (2001-2015) and for the achievement of the global EFA policy goals within the national context helped Nepal to meet several targets including increasing children’s access to school education.   

UNESCO further supports the government in strengthening the Education Management Information System (EMIS) to be more comprehensive, with wider coverage of all sub-sectors of education improving the process of monitoring progress towards SDG4.