2020 Annual Parliamentary Hearing at the UN

Education as a key to peace and sustainable development: Toward the implementation of SDG 4.

Education has long been recognized as a necessary precondition for sustainable development in all its dimensions – economic, social and environmental. Without an educated people there can be no democracy, no peace and no prosperity.

Yet still today too many girls and boys lack access to public education or education that delivers quality outcomes, and the agenda of lifelong education for all, including working-age adults, is far from realized. The poor, women and girls, migrants, people with disabilities and other marginalized groups have less access to educational opportunities than those who are better off. Around the world, education is often underfunded and unaffordable. While higher education is no longer a guarantee to a good job, in many countries there is a growing mismatch between workers’ knowledge and skills and actual employment opportunities in the real economy.

This joint IPU-UN hearing will call for greater political resolve to ensure that the Sustainable Development Goal on education, SDG 4, is fully realized by 2030. As a priority theme of the 74th General Assembly, education is an important part of a series of events at the United Nations that will include the observance of the International Day of Education on 24 January.

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