DepEd and INNOTECH co-organize SDG4 Roundtable Forum

The Philippine Department of Education (DepEd), along with SEAMEO INNOTECH, organized a one-day Roundtable Forum entitled, “Measuring Progress Toward SDG4: Where are the goalposts and how do we know we are winning?” last 24 November 2017. This is in preparation for the 2017 Philippine Education Summit happening on the first week of December 2017.

SDG4 “Quality Education” is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It was adopted by world leaders in September 2015 during the UN Summit on Sustainable Development. SDG4 consists of 10 targets; multiple government agencies, partners, and stakeholders are working together to achieve these.

“The whole 2030 Goals involves everyone’s contribution…there are many agencies working towards these goals.” Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan, DepEd Assistant Secretary, said in his remarks. As many are involved, he stressed the need to consolidate the data gathered from the government agencies and partner organizations. “The challenge of coordination and consolidation of data is very critical,” he added.

Around 40 representatives from the various government agencies and partner local and international organizations involved in education participated in the said forum to share updates, perspectives, approaches, and plans related to SDG4 progress. Participants also highlighted the tools and data they can contribute in order to measure the indicators of the goal better. Gaps in terms of monitoring the indicators were also pointed out and suggested activities to address these gaps were identified.

This roundtable forum is part of the series of pre-summit conversations organized by DepEd along with partner agencies and organizations. Discussions and agreements from this forum were presented on the 2017 Philippine Educational Summit held 5 December 2017.