Paul Williams - Senior Project Manager
11 Sep 2023
The United Nations’ fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) for #Agenda2030 is to ensure the provision of inclusive and equitable education for all globally. Sadly, we are way off track. The hard facts make harrowing reading:
Systemic changes in how education is financed, delivered, and prioritized must be made immediately if we, as a global people, are to achieve the United Nations’ education goals by 2030.
One specific target of SDG4 reads: “[…] substantially expand the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology [...]” (United Nations website, 2023).
The United Nations’ fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG5) is to achieve complete gender equality by 2030. The current statistics are even more alarming. At the current rate of change, it will take:
The United Nations’ delivery timeline for these targets is 2030. Think about that. Now consider what happens if we superimpose the gender statistics upon the education statistics for poor, authoritarian, lawless, military-led, patriarchal, undemocratic, or corrupt countries. Religious and populist extremism also play their part. You may start to wonder just how many women and children globally do not have access to basic information technology education and training.
SDGs 4 and 5 are of global concern and urgent. Without equal and inclusive education and training for all, no matter the gender or nationality, the other fifteen goals will not be achievable by 2030. This includes climate change and global peace and strong institutions. Indeed, a specific target of SDG5 is to: “Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women.”
It's not too late (although by the thinnest of margins) to make these systemic changes.
It will require the concerted and coordinated effort of multinational institutions, NGOs, national and local governments, and an exponential increase in the number of public/private partnerships.
What can we do?
A goal without a plan is just a dream.
Collectively, we can do this.
Some food for thought:
Use your imagination, look around you. Everyone can help.
I've spent the past 22 years (and counting) developing, designing and managing all aspects of content management systems, digital publishing and content creation/curation, ecommerce, online subscriptions, community management and most MarTech platforms. Key roles have been at The Economist and NTT Data, where I was the Project Director of Sitecore implentations. And now, of course, Konabos!
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