Resources
Explore a wide range of valuable resources on GCED to deepen your understanding and enhance your research, advocacy, teaching, and learning.
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The Right to Education: What’s at Stake in Afghanistan?; A 20-Year Review Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: UNESCO This report takes stock of the achievements in education made by Afghanistan over the past 20 years and sets out immediate action to safeguard the right to education for all learners following deep political change in the country in 2021.Although Afghanistan lags far behind countries across South and West Asia on most development indicators, it has made impressive progress in education over two decades. Enrolment has increased ten-fold, with substantial gains for girls and female literacy. Female teachers have been hired. Steady efforts have been made to expand the school network across the country.The country has ratified key international normative instruments relating to the right to education; enshrined this right in the Constitution and adopted a wide range of policy measures to increase access, improve education quality and reduce gender, socio- economic and rural/urban disparities.But the challenges remain colossal, with half the primary school-aged children not enrolled in school and very low learning outcomes. The country is highly dependent on external aid to sustain its education system. It needs to uphold state obligations on the right to education without any discrimination and continue removing barriers that impede progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal on education to build the country’s future. 
Counting the Cost: Achieving Literacy in Countries of the Global Alliance for Literacy Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) This paper seeks to determine the cost of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) Target 4.6: 'By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy'. In an effort to answer this question, UNESCO ran simulations and identified the cost and funding gap for the 29 member countries of the Global Alliance for Literacy within the Framework of Lifelong Learning (GAL). This paper argues that 739 million youth and adults require additional literacy programmes of which 580 million are located in 9 of the 29 member countries (the E-9 countries). Based on the results of the simulation, an estimated US$ 190 billion is needed to achieve Target 4.6 by 2030 in the 29 GAL countries. The E-9 countries account for 80% of this cost as the large majority of the global population of youth and adults who lack basic literacy skills live in these territories. The estimation considers the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on GDP growth and presents several scenarios for consideration. If the 29 member countries allocate the recommended 3 per cent of their national education budget to youth and adult literacy, a funding gap of US$ 17 billion will still remain. However, this gap is greater in the 20 non-E9 countries, which account for US$ 12 billion of the funding gap. These 20 non-E9 countries already experience massive challenges for investing in their public education system due to low economic growth and low education development outcomes. A detailed description of the UNESCO GAL simulation model used to estimate the total cost and identify the financing gap for the 29 countries is presented to help interpret the results. The paper ends with a set of recommendations for governments and the international community to work together and ensure the availability of lifelong learning opportunities for all, especially those often left behind. 
The SDGs PlayBook Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: Nigeria Youth SDGs Network Nigeria Youth SDGs Network is a coalition of youth lead and youth serving civil society organizations localizing the United Nations SDGs in Nigeria. Their mission is to amplify the voices of young Nigerians and enhance their participation in the developmental agenda of their country. NGYouthSDGs focuses on civic participation, livelihoods and employments, capacity development and education.The Youth SDGs Playbook provides the know-how for young to act towards ensuring the sustainable development of their community through their own personal and collective efforts. 
Education for Environmental Citizenship in Focus: A Booklet for Teachers With Practical Ideas for Implementation of Education for Environmental Citizenship Year of publication: 2019 Corporate author: European Network for Environmental Citizenship (ENEC) The European Network for Environmental Citizenship (ENEC) – funded as a COST Action (CA16229-Horizon 2020) – brings together more than 130 experts from 38 countries with the objective to improve the understanding, the practice and the assessment of Environmental Citizenship in Europe and the participating countries. Environmental Citizenship has been an influential concept in many different arenas such as economy, policy, philosophy, organizational and corporation management and marketing and could be better exploited and established furthermore in the field of education as well. The contemporary environmental crisis with climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution and all other local and global environmental problems demand an education that is capable of empowering environmental citizens. Education plays a key role in shaping future environmental citizens. The Education for Environmental Citizenship pedagogical approach is a proposal that points in this direction. The approach recommends specific elements as stages and steps, but it is not mandatory to follow all of them, or to apply them in a particular linear order. Depending on the environmental problem under study, the level of education (e.g., primary or secondary) and the educational settings (e.g. formal or non-formal), the necessary differentiations and amendments can be made. 
The Big Conversation: Climate Change; Final Report Year of publication: 2021 Author: Michael Bruter | Sarah Harrison | Sandra Obradović | Elisabet Vives Corporate author: British Council | London School of Economics and Political Science This research draws on experience from the field of international cultural relations as well as the latest academic research on values, behaviours and norms to understand more about how we can create the conditions for co-operation on shared global challenges.It delivers new insight on values and attitudes towards climate change among the populations of China, India, Japan and Mexico – selected to represent a diverse range of major world economies who are also important players in the global climate change debate.The research also draws on the experience of international cultural relations experts to provide new insight on how to strengthen international cooperation on climate change and the important role that cultural relations can play in supporting that. 
Gender-Responsive Education: Toolkit for Teachers, Teacher Educators, School Managers and Curriculum Developers in Africa Year of publication: 2020 Author: Dawit Mekonnen | Haregewoin Cherine Corporate author: UNESCO International Institute for Capacity-Building in Africa (IICBA) This GRE Toolkit is intended to address gender equality in education through intervention across the whole education sector. More specifically, the toolkit contributes to the enhancement of institutional capacities to develop gender responsive curricula, evaluate teaching-learning materials, organize/create gender responsive classroom interaction, eliminate stereotypes in teaching and learning materials, support improvement of the teaching methods and learning assessment techniques in schools and Teacher Training Institutes.The Toolkit is a guide for educators who plan to facilitate gender-responsive education. As such it consists of activities, tools and notes to the facilitators in addition to presenting conceptual discussions and relevant data. 
Toolkit for Designing a Comprehensive Distance Learning Strategy Year of publication: 2021 Author: Emily Morris | Yvette Tan Corporate author: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) The purpose of this toolkit is to provide practical guidance (tools, examples, and resources) for designing a comprehensive distance learning strategy that covers an entire education sector or system. 
Toolkit for Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC): Providing High Quality Education and Care to All Young Children Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: European Commission | European Union (EU) Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is the first step on the lifelong learning ladder. It provides young children with professional support to grow, learn and flourish. While it benefits all children, it is even more crucial to children who may face additional needs or difficulties due to individual or family circumstances, e.g. children living in poverty or precarious conditions, children with disabilities or special learning needs, or children from a migrant background or from a minority ethnic community. All children must therefore be able to benefit from high quality ECEC, independently from their individual or family circumstances. It helps them develop to the best of their abilities and supports their well-being. The European Union 2019 Council Recommendation for High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems offers a Quality framework for ECEC to support Member States to work towards achieving higher quality and more inclusive ECEC systems. The 2020 Communication from the European Commission on achieving the European Education Area by 2025 announced the release of a European toolkit for inclusion in ECEC, drawing on exchange of best practice and the input of experts and stakeholders. The Toolkit for inclusion in ECEC recalls political commitments made e.g. in the European Pillar of Social Rights, policy recommendations which have been adopted by EU Member States as well as research findings. They all converge towards the need and will to develop more inclusive ECEC systems and settings. To ensure equity for all children in accessing and benefitting from ECEC, the toolkit includes a set of practical solutions and measures to inspire ECEC policy makers at the national, regional or local level, as well as ECEC practitioners. It includes examples of good practice in ECEC settings and identifies useful ideas and resources to inspire leaders and staff across Europe to progress towards practice that is more inclusive. The toolkit aims to inspire decision-makers to use the examples of good practice to create appropriate conditions that can benefit all children and families. 
Positioning ICT in Education to Achieve the Education 2030 Agenda in Asia and the Pacific: Recommendations for a Regional Strategy Year of publication: 2018 Author: Hyojeong So | Kyungsim Yeon | Kyungsim Yeon | Jian Xi Teng Corporate author: UNESCO Bangkok This regional study is an important document for Asia-Pacific Member States as it consolidates data related to the effective use of ICT in education. One highlight of this study is the five priority areas for the use of ICT towards achieving SDG4 and Education 2030 that were identified based on a synthesis of the data:ICT for transforming and expanding TVET and higher education ICT for improving teacher qualityICT for improving access to and quality of secondary education ICT for enabling inclusive and equitable learningICT for monitoring and evaluation 
Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2022 Year of publication: 2022 Author: Ginette Azcona | Antra Bhatt | Julia Brauchle | Guillem Fortuny Fillo | Yongyi Min | Heather Page | Yuxi Zhang Corporate author: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) | UN. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN. DESA) The latest available Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 data show that the world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. COVID-19 and the backlash against women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights are further diminishing the outlook for gender equality. Violence against women remains high; global health, climate, and humanitarian crises have further increased risks of violence, especially for the most vulnerable women and girls; and women feel more unsafe than they did before the pandemic. Women’s representation in positions of power and decision-making remains below parity. Only 47 per cent of data required to track progress on SDG 5 are currently available, rendering women and girls effectively invisible.Nearly halfway to the 2030 endpoint for the SDGs, the time to act and invest in women and girls is now.“Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2022” presents the latest evidence on gender equality across all 17 Goals, calling out the long road ahead to achieve gender equality. It emphasizes the interlinkages among the goals, the pivotal force gender equality plays in driving progress across the SDGs, and women and girls’ central role in leading the way forward.