Education International Research
2. Financing and Coordination Shockingly, SDG 4 does not include any targets for education financing. However, the FFA does include strategies for governance, effective coordination, monitoring and financing. It asserts that all implementation mechanisms should support country-led action, and in order to be effective they must be inclusive, participatory and transparent. Yet progress on SDG 4 has been hindered by low national education budgets, aid budgets that neglect the education sector, insufficient international, cross-country and cross-sectoral coordination, and lack of steps taken to put in place the apparatuses necessary for action.
Financing This section is not meant to provide a comprehensive review of financing for SDG 4. It highlights recent trends in education financing, many of which have been cause for great concern for educators and their unions.
Domestic funding for education must be prioritised and increased It will be impossible to achieve SDG 4 by 2030 without the necessary funds. To achieve SDG 4, global spending on education must rise annually from $1.2 trillion per year to $3 trillion by 2030. Sustainable development requires predictable, sustainable and sufficient education financing. Countries must not be dependent on donor aid but rather able to harness their own resources and prioritise education. For this to happen, governments must allocate at least 6% of their gross domestic product and/or at least 20% of total public expenditure to education. According to the Education Commission, in order to close the funding gap, 97% of funds must come from domestic budgets. This means that countries must not only increase the proportion of their budget spent on education, but they must also focus on expanding the tax base, putting an end to tax avoidance and closing tax havens to increase the public budget. On average, low-income countries currently spend 16% of their budgets on education,8 more than most high-income countries, but still not enough to fund the implementation of SDG 4. Education is still not a high enough priority for many governments — in both developed and developing countries. As many as 43 countries are spending less than 15% of their public budgets on education.9 The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) estimates that in 2017, Liberia spent only 7.06% of its total government expenditure on education, and Qatar only 8.8%.10 GRO.EI-IE
Over 80% of the unions that responded to our survey stated that inadequate funding and resources posed a major obstacle to achieving SDG 4. Inadequate funding was viewed as the most significant obstacle to achieving SDG 4 across all levels of education (ECE, primary, secondary, TVET and higher education), and this view was reported by low- and high-income countries alike, as ongoing austerity policies have led to widespread cuts to education budgets in the Global North.
International public funding for education is stagnating
0302 NOITA CUDE
The SDGs form part of a global agenda and therefore every country is responsible not just for achieving the goals domestically but also for supporting global implementation of the goals. In particular, the 2030 Agenda emphasises the importance of supporting sustainable development in low-income countries, conflict-affected or fragile countries, and small island States.11 Though governments of high8 UNESCO. Aid to education falls slightly in 2017, shifts away from primary education. Retrieved from: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2019/05/14/ aid-to-education-falls-slightly-in-2017-shifts-away-from-primary-education/ 9 UNESCO. 2019. Migration, Displacement and Education. Building Bridges not Walls. Global Education Monitoring Report. p. 23. Retrieved from: https:// en.unesco.org/gem-report/report/2019/migration 10 See: http://data.uis.unesco.org/Index.aspx?queryid=183 11 Education 2030. 2015. Incheon Declaration and Framework of Action for the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4. p. 66. Retrieved from: https:// unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000245656
9