26 September 2015: World leaders and education activists celebrated the inclusion of education as a stand-alone goal in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and called for action in support of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, on achieving quality education for all. At the high-level event organized by the Global Education First Initiative (GEFI), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his confidence that GEFI can help the international community achieve SDG 4. He noted that 59 million children are out of school while a quarter of a billion children are not learning the basics.

The event took place on 26 September 2015, in New York, US, on the margins of the UN Sustainable Development Summit.

Irina Bokova, Director-General, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Executive Secretary of the GEFI Steering Committee, said the Initiative has “widened the lens” away from access to the quality of education, lifelong learning, skills, teaching and content, education for sustainable development, and global citizenship education.

Peng Liyuan, First Lady of China and UNESCO Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls and Women’s Education, and Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, highlighted education as the major driving force for building more inclusive, resilient societies and achieving lasting peace.

Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education, highlighted the plight of displaced children and child refugees. Noting that there are currently 30 million displaced children around the world, 10 million of which are exiled from their countries and not receiving a school education, Brown explained that “Putting education first means that we must break through this barrier which denies millions of young people the chance of education in refugee contexts today.” He called for finding the finance to transform words into reality through investments that ensure that every child has a decent education. [UN Press Release] [UN Secretary-General Remarks]