Making evaluation work for the achievement of SDG 4 target 5: equality and inclusion in Education

The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Education 2030 Framework for Action has placed gender parity, equality and inclusion in education at the heart of the international development agenda and is specifically formulated in SDG 4 Target 5. Now, as never before, relevant and contextualised evidence, driven in part by robust evaluation data, is needed to track and strengthen progress on educational equity. To this end, a group of international organisations, led by UNESCO, have combined efforts to explore how their education evaluations can better support Member States to strengthen progress on gender parity, equality and inclusion in education.

The following report synthesises evidence from publicly available independent evaluations from 13 organisations, highlighting evidence gaps and summarising ‘what works’ for whom and in what contexts for advancing gender equality and equity for vulnerable groups. The study also reports on responses to the synthesis from national stakeholders in five countries: Ghana, Guatemala, Lebanon, Nepal and Peru. The report culminates in a discussion and recommendations, which outline the need for greater coordination and collaboration in four key areas to further enhance the contribution of evaluations to global and country level progress on SDG 4 Target 5.