ETHOS

In 2015, the international community committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Since then, governments, non-state actors and education stakeholders worldwide have worked to advance this shared ambition.

Yet, evidence from the 2026 Global Education Monitoring Report shows that progress toward SDG 4 remains uneven and increasingly fragile. Gains in access have slowed, learning outcomes remain critically low, inequalities by income, geography and gender persist, financing gaps are widening, and the out-of-school population has risen for a seventh year in a row, reaching an estimated 273 million children and youth.

As the 2030 horizon approaches, education systems face not only persistent SDG 4 challenges, but also accelerating global shifts, including climate and environmental pressures, rising inequalities and polarization, technological transformation and threats to peace and democracy.

Together these realities call for a renewed reflection on the priorities and directions of education beyond 2030 — education that equips every person not only to navigate a changing world but also to actively contribute to more just, peaceful and sustainable futures.

The Global Consultations

The SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee (HLSC) launched a three-year global consultation process (January 2026 to December 2028) to identify the priorities for education after the 2030 Agenda. The decision was taken in the context of the 10th anniversary of the 2030 Agenda, building on the commitments of the Fortaleza Declaration of the 2024 Global Education Meeting (GEM).

This consultation process seeks to identify and build consensus around education priorities (“what”) and strategies (“how”) beyond 2030, ensuring that the proposed agenda is holistic and responsive to global and local realities. Upholding education as a fundamental human right, and inclusion and equity as the cornerstone of the post-2030 education agenda, the consultation aims to prioritize the inclusion of marginalized and underrepresented voices.

The ongoing Phase 1 consists of the foresight exercise and a global youth and student consultation. These first work streams will result in a working paper Global Education Futures Outlook Beyond 2030 and the Youth Agenda on Education Beyond 2030, respectively, to be presented at the 2027 Global Education Meeting.

The 2027 Global Education Meeting will kick off the Phase 2 consultations (regional, national and stakeholder groups), engaging governments, civil society, teachers, youth and many other education actors.

Contributions from all consultations will be synthesized into a consolidated framework (Phase 3), to inform the United Nations about inter-governmental discussions on the post-2030 development agenda.