Resources

The main responsibility for implementing the SDG4-Education 2030 Agenda lies with governments, with UNESCO and partners providing support through coordinated policy advice, technical assistance, capacity development and monitoring of progress at global, regional and national levels. By their position, UNESCO field offices have a key role to play in providing such support at country level and therefore require adequate technical capacity to fulfil their mission.

These guidelines aim at providing a basic resource to field offices for ensuring adequate technical support to national authorities in this process. In doing so, it takes into account different profiles of country needs and capacities, thus avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach. Countries may have different levels of awareness of, or political commitment to, Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). In all cases, UNESCO is expected to ensure that all the relevant information about SDG4-Education 2030 is properly disseminated and that national authorities and stakeholders are reminded of its importance. To assist field offices in this task UNESCO has developed and made available a number of resources and support materials, notably the Unpacking SDG4-Education 2030 Guide, parts of which are excerpted here, and will continue coordination efforts in this respect.

Inevitably, field staff will have to adapt the guidelines provided here to the reality of the country they are serving. That is why this document is full of resources and pointers that can be combined and tailored to fit the particular context of each country. At the same time, field staff are invited to require additional technical guidance from the corresponding regional bureaus, which can rely on the backstopping of Headquarters services and support from the specialized institutes.

These guidelines represent a first attempt to provide specific directions and resources to allow field offices to technically support Member States. After a first evaluation, in which all field staff are invited to participate, the guidelines will be improved so as to make them even more suitable and useful. They will also be supplemented with other material to ensure that UNESCO plays its role as the leading United Nations agency in the field.