From UNESCO

•  Education ministry officials and technicians from throughout the region are convening on July 23 and 24, 2018 in Cochabamba, Bolivia for a high-level technical meeting to review the proposed roadmap for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4, Education 2030, in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• The document was agreed to during previous meetings. It will be improved upon during this technical meeting and then submitted for discussion and approval to the participants at the II Regional Meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean on July 25 and 26, 2018.

“During these two days of joint work, we will have the opportunity to look in-depth at issues that are central to the future of education in the region,” said Claudia Uribe, Director of the Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago) at the inauguration of the meeting on the region’s educational priorities. The results of this analysis will inform the II Regional Meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean, which will follow this event.

In addition to strengthening the regional roadmap document, the goal of the high-level technical meeting is for participants to have the opportunity to exchange experiences and increase mutual learning, which is essential for cooperation in the context of the roadmap and for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (quality education) goals.

The event, which has been organized by UNESCO and the Ministry of Education of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, promotes the discussion and strengthening of the activities and plans proposed by working groups on policy and strategies, evaluation and monitoring, finance and government, and communication and awareness of the priority issues of the Buenos Aires Declaration (2017): lifelong learning, quality education, equity and inclusion, and teachers.

The Director General of Planning of Bolivia’s Ministry of Education, Susana Postigo, highlighted the 18 months of work conducted by her office and UNESCO ahead of these meetings. Postigo stated that these efforts “will lead to the implementation of our roadmap and, in 2019, to our own monitoring report on our challenges and progress.”

Discussion Sessions
In an effort to examine the challenges of implementing the 2030 Agenda at the global and regional levels and the mechanisms that have been designed to do so, participants examined the regional roadmap on Monday, July 23. They also considered the case of São Paulo (Brazil), where there is an interesting experience with the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals in the elementary school curriculum. There were also presentations on the role that education can play in facilitating the achievement of other SDGs, including gender equality and health.

During the second session on Monday, the thematic areas prioritized by the ministers for rethinking educational quality were addressed. The discussion, which will continue on Tuesday, July 24, is expected to produce recommendations and concrete proposals for the collective implementation of the 2030 Agenda. These will be presented at the meeting of ministers as inputs for promoting policies.

The third session, which will take place on Tuesday, July 24, will feature discussion of a regional monitoring mechanism proposed for the Education 2030 Agenda to provide a snapshot that can be used to assess, measure and monitor how SDG4 is implemented in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The closing ceremony will include remarks by Minister of Education of the Plurinational State of Bolivia Roberto Aguilar and Claudia Uribe, the Director of OREALC/UNESCO Santiago, who will present the conclusions of this regional technical meeting.

At the end of the two days, the officials, experts, technicians, specialists and participants will attend the official inauguration of the II Regional Meeting of Education Ministers of Latin America and the Caribbean.

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The II Regional Meeting of Education Ministers of Latin America and the Caribbean will take place on July 25 and 26, 2018 at the Hotel Regina Resort & Convenciones in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Education officials who participate in this and other regional meetings on the topic will be in attendance.

More information:

• Official website for the Cochabamba meetings