The SDG4 High-Level Steering Committee's (HLSC) Functional Areas are interrelated and together create an overall enabling environment for accelerating progress towards the SDG4-Education 2030 agenda by facilitating global and regional cooperation on better evidence use for policy, data and monitoring, and financing. The Functional Area Technical Committees, co-chaired by two Sherpa Group members of which one is a Member State, aim to mobilize global and regional cooperation and harmonize initiatives.

Functional Area 1: Evidence-based Policy

Promote evidence-based policy formulation and implementation

 

  • Sherpa co-chairs: Jordan and the Open Society Foundations
  • Technical co-leads: OECD and UNESCO (Section for Education Policy and the International Institute for Education Planning)
  • Technical Committee members:
    • GPE
    • UNICEF
    • World Bank
    • GCE and ASPBAE (CCNGO representatives)
    • African Union Commission
    • ALECSO
    • Council of Europe
    • European Commission
    • OEI
    • SEAMEO
    • Jacobs Foundation

The overall objective of Functional Area 1 is to strengthen the institutional capacities of education authorities to use data and evidence for policy, planning and implementation.

This objective is partly derived from the one of the core problems identified in an strategic review conducted by NORRAG in 2022, which found that limited use of globally produced evidence in policy, planning and implementation at the country level is due to two broken feedback loops: (a) between researchers and decision makers and (b) between global and local levels.

The review made three recommendations. These recommendations have been developed as the basis for setting Functional Area 1’s strategic objectives, which are as follows:

  1. Increase the accessibility of locally relevant research and evidence syntheses and support governments in using data and evidence for policy making, planning and implementation, particularly for countries furthest behind in respect of progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4.
  2. Build knowledge and policy bridges between global and country levels through support to regional hubs, cooperation, peer learning and knowledge sharing.
  3. Advocate and support country-level uptake and use of evidence for education policy making, planning and implementation, particularly for countries furthest behind in respect of progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4.