On Friday, July 12th, the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), Light for the World, RESULTS and GCE-US convened a special day-long event, Unifying the Playing Field: Local and Global Movements to Advance the Right to Education. This special side event for the High Level Political Forum (HLPF), convened by the United Nations, took a closer look at the various efforts and challenges in achieving Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG4), the right to inclusive and equitable quality education for all. The day was filled with rich discussion on collaborative advocacy efforts around the right to quality, inclusive education undertaken by local civil society organizations, national education coalitions, and international organizations.
On July 12th, during the UN High Level Politcal Forum on SDGs, RESULTS, Light for the World, the Global Campaign for Education, and GCE-US convened the special event, "Unifying the Playing Field: local and global moments to advance the right to education." Throughout the day leaders from around the globe shared insights on the best practices and challenges we need to overcome for building sustainable, gender equitable, inclusive, peaceful and resilient societies.
With the 116th United States Congress sworn in just over a month ago, it is a crucial time for us to be thinking about how we as advocates can align ourselves with our Congressmen and Congresswomen to fight for the quality, inclusive, free education for all that GCE-US is so passionate about.
"In January 2015, the World Assembly of the Global Campaign for Education formally recognised the need to represent and include youth-led movements more formally in its structure. Many of our members already work in partnership with youth-led organisations, and it was time to give them the place they deserve in the global education civil society movement.
This year, the GCE goes one step further by hosting a Youth Caucus during our World Assembly in November.
The idea? Let the Youth exchange and debate, and have their voice heard in the definition of GCE’s new strategic plan and policy positions." From the Global Campaign for Education
GCE-US holds a Youth Advocacy Summit which gives youth advocates a platform to speak to their representatives to advocate for global education on Capitol Hill. The summit includes a training day with panelists from various coalition members within the Global Campaign for Education and a day of scheduled congressional meetings where the Youth Advocates can directly speak to their representatives about why access to quality education around the world matters to them. Read about my experience here.
At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, world leaders gathered to meet and discuss many pressing topics. Thanks to your advocacy, global education was front and center. Here are highlights from the 72nd UN General Assembly:
A new costing tool has been developed by a partnership of Brookings and the World Bank to address a gaping need for data in early childhood development services.
Just over a year on from the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its associated 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Brookings Center for Universal Education, the Global Campaign for Education-US and the Global Education Monitoring Report team hosted the launch of the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) and Gender Review. The GEM report – hosted and published by UNESCO – provides an analysis of SDG 4 targets and respective indicators (inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities) as well as a consideration of the interaction of SDG 4 with all other SDGs on the sustainable development agenda.
Early childhood development can sound technical or overly complicated, a jumble of dozens of interventions across all sectors. Really though, it’s quite simple: giving each child all of the things he or she needs to grow up strong and healthy, feel secure, learn and succeed. ECD interventions are critical for ensuring that all children are given a fair start in life and an equal chance to reach their full potential, no matter who they are or where they were born.
