Application Date
16 March - 7 April 2021
Parent Sector : Education Sector (ED)
Duty Station : Bangkok
Job Family : Education
Type of contract : Non Staff
Duration of contract : From 1 to 6 months
Recruitment open to : External candidates
Application Deadline (Midnight Paris Time) : 7 April 2021
Project Background
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 marked the start of an ambitious and transformative global agenda for peace, prosperity for people and the planet. At the heart of the 2030 Agenda are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries.
Today, more than 258 million children and youth remain out of school, six out of ten are not acquiring basic literacy and numeracy after several years in school and 750 million adults remains illiterate.[1]
The ambitions for education are essentially captured in Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) of the 2030 Agenda which aims to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong opportunities for all’. SDG4 is a transformative and holistic and is at the heart of other SDGs. Education is central to the realization of the 2030 Agenda as every goal in the 2030 Agenda requires education to empower people with the knowledge, skills, and values to live in dignity, build their lives and contribute to their societies. Education also enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is key to escaping poverty.
While governments hold the main responsibility for ensuring the right to quality education, the 2030 Agenda is a universal and collective commitment. It requires political will, global and regional collaboration and the engagement of all governments, civil society, the private sector, youth, UN and other multilateral agencies to tackle educational challenges and build systems that are inclusive, equitable and relevant to all learners.
The Education2030 Framework for Action provides guidance to governments and partners for the implementation of SDG4 at country, regional and global levels. The regional roadmap to achieve SDG4 is to facilitate coordination, cooperation and partnership among all stakeholders to SDG4-Education2030. UNESCO must exercise its leadership in SDG4 and is responsible for the coordination and implementation at the global, regional and national level to achieve this goal through partnerships, policy guidance, capacity development, monitoring and advocacy.
Main Task
The year 2020 began with a renewed sense of commitment to SDGs in the “Decade of Action”, however, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had a direct impact on the equitable access to quality education. While the world focuses on immediate health, economic and social welfare responses, education is overshadowed and progress towards achieving SDG4 have stagnated.
There has never been a more crucial time as now to embark on an effort to keep the momentum on the agenda of education as a top priority. In the six years since the inception of SDG4, there is still limited knowledge and attention on SDG4 within and beyond education sector. To gain greater attention to and understanding of SDG4 in the Asia-Pacific Region, strategic and continuous engagement with the media, communities and the private sector needs to be sought. Advocacy on SDG4-Education2030 will need to extend beyond governments. Driven by the urgency to accelerate progress, the Decade of Action towards 2030 will focus on mobilizing ‘everyone and everywhere’, raising accountability, and ‘supercharging’ ideas to solutions.
The communication strategy is vital to enhance visibility of SDG4, improve and promote understanding and knowledge sharing on SDG4 and education issues to the wider public in the region, influence decision making and strengthening cohesion in the region. The regional Communication and Advocacy Strategy on SDG4 will be in line with the Regional SDG4 Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific.
[1] UNESCO Institute of Statistics
