A new child needs to be enrolled in school every 2 seconds to meet 2030 target, UNESCO (GS Paper 2, Education)
Why in news?
- Slow progress on achieving the target of education for all set by the United Nations (UN), coupled with socio-economic pressures in many parts of the world, has widened the global educational gap in the last two years, according to UNESCO.
- There are now 250 million children not enrolled in school, up by six million since 2021 as per its new report.
- This increase is partly due to the mass exclusion of girls and young women from education in Afghanistan but also of slow progress across the world.
SDG Goal:
- Ensuring quality education for all is the fourth of the UN-mandated Sustainable Development Goals.
- A new child has to join school every two seconds from now to achieve the 2030 targets of this goal.
- This progress has to be supported by “58 million additional children, adolescents, and youth in school, and at least 1.7 million more primary school teachers trained to provide quality education”, to attain SDG 4.
Progress on commitments:
- The UN organisation also analysed the progress on commitments made by 141 countries to upgrade their education systems to help meet SDG 4, a year ago at the UN Education Transformation Summit. They found that:
- Four out of five countries have set a goal to advance teacher training and professional development.
- Seven out of 10 have committed to increasing or improving their investment in education.
- One out of four committed to increase financial support and school meal provision.
Education completion rate:
- The education completion rate is measured to calculate progress on global indicator 4.1.2 of SGD 4.
- An analysis of this parameter across countries revealed that completion rate for primary education increased to around 87 per cent in 2021 from 85 per cent in 2015.
- For secondary education, the rate grew by five percentage points, going from 53 per cent to 58 per cent during the study period.
- Sub-Saharan Africa remained well below the global average by more than 20 percentage points in primary education (64 per cent) and in upper secondary education (27 per cent).
- The COVID-19 pandemic, which caused to major economic disruptions and break in education globally, led to a 10 per cent drop in adult participation in formal and non-formal education in 57 mainly high-income countries.
- In the 31 low- and lower-middle-income countries that measure learning progress at the end of primary school, Vietnam is the only country where a majority of the children achieved minimum proficiency in both reading and mathematics.
Way Forward:
- UNESCO called for urgent action for achieving SDG 4 to protect the future of millions of children across the world.
Global bodies launch campaign to protect forests
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), a partnership of 16 global organisations chaired by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has launched the Joint Call to Action for Forests towards 2030.
- They aim to highlight the need for increased action and political commitment to implement forest solutions in pursuit of the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Focal areas:
The Call to Action for Forests Towards 2030 has four focal areas:
- Implementation and action;
- data, science and innovation;
- finance for forests; and
- communication and awareness-raising.
Concerns:
- The 2023 SDG Summit marks the halfway point in efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda and SDGs, along with other internationally agreed-upon goals related to forests, such as the Global Forest Goals outlined in the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030.
- The world has lost 420 million hectares of forest through deforestation since 1990, and deforestation continues, although the rate slowed from 12 million hectares per year during 2010-2015 to 10 million hectares per year during 2015-2020, according to FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment.
- Progress towards reaching global goals on protecting forests is not advancing fast enough, as forests are still disappearing, climate-change impacts and biodiversity loss are increasing and malnutrition and hunger are rising, all undermined by social and economic instability.
Way Forward:
- Under ‘Collaborative Partnership on Forests’, challenges and opportunities have been identified in protecting, restoring and sustainably managing forests, and action and ambition are needed.
- The CPF members committed to “reinforcing action to strengthen efforts at all levels to fully unlock the contributions of forests to sustainable development and achieve our joint vision for forests towards 2030”.
France and Germany back EU enlargement proposal
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- France and Germany, the two largest economies in the European Union, pushed new proposals for the enlargement of the 27-member bloc recently.
- The policy paper, put together by a group of 12 experts commissioned by the Europe Ministers of France and Germany was presented along the fringes of a European ministerial meeting.
Details:
- The paper, is in response to growing calls for expanding the EU, partly in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- It also looks at strengthening the rule of law and increasing the EU’s capacity to act, proposing four different tiers of participation in the union.
- While Ukraine, the Western Balkans and Moldova are frontrunners for membership, a total of 10 countries are in the process of integrating EU law into their own laws, according to an EU website.
Amendments to treaty:
- The report also looks at how the EU can function more effectively with 30 plus members.
- Its proposals include capping the number of EU legislators, changing the voting mechanism by expanding majority voting (as opposed to unanimity) and enhancing the bloc’s budget.
- In the absence of unanimous support to change the EU Treaty (which is needed for enlargement), the paper suggests a supplementary treaty among a willing subset of members, which would permit for differentiation across the EU.
Differentiation:
- Differentiation could lead to four different tiers, as per the document.
- The first would be an inner circle with membership of the Eurozone and Schengen Area, then the EU itself, then Associate Members (participating in the single market and adhering to common principles) and a finally, the European Political Community, a group cooperating with the EU but not bound by its law.
Way Forward:
- The proposals are expected to be discussed formally at a meeting of EU heads of state in Spain in October 2023.
