From MDGs to SDGs, a process well underway - The World Beyond 2015 - Is Higher Education Ready?

Last month saw a number of important developments in the run-up to the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the preparations for a broader set of follow-up goals.

The UN's Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) concluded 16 months of discussions and negotiations to produce their proposal for a set of universal SDGs that will build on the success of the MDGs and converge with the Post-2015 development agenda. The resulting SDGs Outcome Document contains a set of 17 goals that span the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental issue areas), each accompanied by a set of targets and means of implementation.

Meanwhile, the 2014 Millennium Development Goals Report was launched by Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, presenting the latest assessment of global and regional progress towards the MDGs. The report shows that significant progress has been made across all goals and millions of lives have been saved – but much more effort is needed in many areas.

The 2014 Human Development Report, also published last month, suggests that although poverty is declining overall, almost 800 million people are at risk of falling back into poverty if setbacks occur. Mr Ban said “Our efforts to achieve the MDGs are a critical building block towards establishing a stable foundation for our development efforts beyond 2015.”

But what about higher education?

The MDG Report mentions tertiary education only in MDG 3 – the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women – where it concludes that gender disparities are more prevalent at higher levels of education. In the SDGs Outcome Document, SDG 4 aims to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all’. It includes a target for governments to ‘ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university’ by 2020, and calls for governments to expand their international scholarship programmes too.

Do these proposals go far enough in terms of recognising the role higher education plays in achieving sustainable development? Let’s keep collecting evidence of the positive impact of higher education on global development – submit your opinions, analyses and case studies here. We look forward to receiving your thoughts.