UNESCO's Global Education Coalition
The Global Education Coalition (GEC) stands as a dynamic global platform for multistakeholder cooperation to drive education transformation to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4.
In the face of rising global education challenges, responsive and coordinated cooperation is at the heart of UNESCO's efforts for forging a new social contract that drives the futures of education. The Coalition has grown into a significant network of over 200 institutional partners, representing a diverse spectrum of organizations, all united by a common goal to advance inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning
UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition was formed in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic caused school closures around the world and amplified existing education inequalities. Bringing together partners from a range of sectors, the Coalition set out to mitigate these disruptions by mobilizing support and coordinating local, national, regional, and global responses to ensure the continuity of learning.
Coalition Members
UNESCO's Global Education Coalition flagships
The Coalition partners work around three central flagships:
- Connectivity
- Teachers
- Gender equality
Missions
Aims to equip 1 million youth with employability skills
Expanding courses beyond digital to include 39 courses and scaling up to hit the goal of reaching 1 million people.
Digital Transformation Collaborative
Digital transformation in education will not happen without highly cooperative multistakeholder partnerships.
The Digital Transformation Collaborative (DTC) is a tech-focused subgroup of the 200+ Global Education Coalition partners that aims to mobilize resources at national scale in collaboration with governments to advance their visions for leveraging sustainable digital transformation in education to achieve SDG 4.
More about UNESCO's Global Education Coalition
How the Coalition works
Match on-the-ground needs with local and global solution
Mobilize actors and resources to develop effective and unified responses
Coordinate action to maximize impact and avoid overlap and reach the disadvantaged
Provide distance education, leveraging hi-tech, low tech and no tech approaches
Frequently asked questions
The GEC is an open platform with agile coordination methods. UNESCO’s role is to broker and facilitate cooperation, build synergies, and help match country needs with the resources and services of Coalition Members. The GEC currently comprises of 208 partners, with 58 private sector members; 32 multilateral organizations; 78 non-governmental organizations and civil society actors; 33 networks and associations; 7 international media organizations. (see full list).
Most GEC programmes engage two or more Members. The benefit of this model is the ability to scale up programmes that would not be possible with single-partner projects. By fostering dialogue and exchange among stakeholders and mobilizing and coordinating international solidarity, the Coalition facilitates the delivery of solutions that can actively change things at the national and local levels.
Over the last three years, the Coalition has made significant strides in developing unique and effective partnerships that have made tangible impacts at all levels of the education ecosystem and across multiple regions, countries, and contexts. The Global Education Coalition has:
- Helped over 615,000 youth develop employability skills.
- Trained 654,796 teachers.
- Supported over 800,000 learners studying foundational subjects like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
- Reached 1,880,552 of the most marginalized girls and women.
The last 12 months have seen GEC Members offer unprecedented levels of support and commitment in the face of multiple unfolding and ongoing crises.
Over the last three years, the Coalition has made significant strides in developing unique and effective partnerships that have made tangible impacts at all levels of the education ecosystem and across multiple regions, countries, and contexts. The Global Education Coalition has:
- Helped over 615,000 youth develop employability skills.
- Trained 654,796 teachers.
- Supported over 800,000 learners studying foundational subjects like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
- Reached 1,880,552 of the most marginalized girls and women.
The last 12 months have seen GEC Members offer unprecedented levels of support and commitment in the face of multiple unfolding and ongoing crises.
The GEC has proven its effectiveness at responding to crises beyond the pandemic and in doing so has gained valuable experience and developed stronger links between Coalition Members that can power the scaling of its ambitions. The Coalition now has an opportunity to support countries in their digital transformation programming.
In the past year, actions shifted from COVID-response to supporting the resilience of education systems in different crisis situations and advancing the transformation of education. At the Transforming Education Summit in September 2022, several Coalition partners came together to lay the foundations for the Digital Transformation Collaborative, a sub-group of the Coalition which will work directly with countries to co-create sustainable plans for digital transformation at scale.
In 2023 and beyond, as the Coalition moves from the pandemic response to the transformation agenda, this group will facilitate bold new, scalable, and sustainable partnerships. These collaborations aim to help realize the power of digital transformation, close educational divides, and support actions and investments for pilot projects to be brought to scale at a national level and in a sustainable way.
The GEC will continue to play an important role in supporting the global education agenda through its members working on the ground across all levels of education in countries and regions all around the world.
Members commit to: (a) supporting one or more of the Coalition’s three objectives, (b) responding to UNESCO requests, and (c) working cooperatively with other Coalition members to ensure impactful and coordinated responses at the global, regional, and country levels.
If your organization would like to join the Coalition and can make commitments to advance progress toward one or more of the Coalition’s objectives, please send an email to globalEDcoalition@unesco.org. In your message, please explain, in detail, what strengths your organization would bring to the Coalition and what it can do to support the education response to COVID-19, taking account of Coalition priorities.
No, requests should be directed through national authorities to UNESCO. This will help ensure a coordinated response and active engagement of countries and ministries of education.
Decisions about how and where to deploy assistance are based on three factors: (a) country needs on the ground, (b) the resources of Coalition members, and (c) the potential for impact with a particular focus on disadvantaged groups. UNESCO assesses all requests received from countries and works to match them with commitments and offers of assistance from Coalition members. All deployments are demand-driven.
Governments can request assistance from the Global Coalition via formal correspondence to UNESCO. Governments wishing to support Coalition objectives or flagships should contact the UNESCO Secretariat.
Global Education Coalition reports
