Why does the Sustainable Development Goal on Education (SDG 4) matter for OECD countries?

The Sustainable Development Agenda is a universal and ambitious agenda that challenges every single country in the world to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 – and this is why it matters for OECD countries. In this context, Sustainable Development Goal 4 sheds light on education policy issues which were not traditionally included in the international development agenda and which remain highly relevant for OECD member and partner countries. In particular, Sustainable Development Goal 4 stresses the importance of providing equitable access to education and lifelong learning opportunities that lead to effective learning outcomes. It also emphasises the need to adapt the content of education to include relevant topics such as human rights and gender equality. The challenge, however, remains to collect quality and comparable data to monitor the wide range of Sustainable Development Goal 4 indicators. With the 2030 deadline in view, OECD countries can play an important role in pushing strongly for the collection of more and better quality data and developing the methodologies to assess education systems in OECD countries and beyond.