UNESCO SDG 4-Education 2030 input paper on global education coordination: background paper

The appetite for correcting global governance gaps in education has accelerated among international funders of education and within UN agencies in recent years, in part stimulated by UNESCO’s own effort to build a global coalition to respond to the educational emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the extraordinary session of the Global Education Meeting in October 2020, UNESCO was asked by Member States and the international education community to design and lead a consultation process with a view to improving the global cooperation mechanism and governing systems for SDG 4-Education 2030 coordination. To this end, a Working Group was established to develop a proposal. As part of this process, UNESCO commissioned a short analytical report to serve as an input paper to the Working Group’s discussions and negotiations as they elaborate a fully-fledged proposal for strengthening global education coordination. In this input paper and based on the terms of reference we review current coordination mechanisms and the expectations of key stakeholders for improved coordination; explore alternative models and examples of effective coordination in other sectors; and suggest opportunities for improving the reach and effectiveness of current mechanisms.