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Latin America and the Caribbean voice at the Education Transformation Summit

Several milestones have paved the regional route to the Education Transformation Summit (TES), convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in New York between the 16th and the 19th of September. In this space, Latin America and the Caribbean will contribute to the global analysis of the current situation and look at ways to rebuild education systems after the pandemic, recover learning and adjust teaching processes for today and the future, and strengthen the world’s efforts to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensuring quality education for all by 2030.

15 September 2022

Last update:20 July 2023

The region has participated actively in this process. As part of these milestones, 20 countries of the region took part in the . This meeting took place on the 26th and 27th of May 2022, in Buenos Aires, and was organised by the Ministry of Education of Argentina and the Regional Bureau of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago). In their , the ministers of education stated the need for urgent action to recover and transform their education systems. These regional conclusions were presented at the (Paris, 28th – 30th of June).

Furthermore, days before the summit, on the 8th of September 2022, OREALC/UNESCO Santiago launched the . This innovative study identifies challenges and provides good practices, that can guide decision-making and can serve as a key regional input.

Likewise, another important milestone was the national consultation process in which 29 of the 33 countries of the region defined their position for the summit. Previously, 18 of the 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean had participated in the Transforming Education Pre-Summit. In addition, Argentina and Colombia, as regional representatives to the SDG 4 – Education 2030 High Level Steering Committee (HLSC), conveyed the countries' feedback on the document that will be presented at the summit: "An Urgent Call for Action by the SDG 4-Education 2030 High Level Steering Committee on the occasion of the Transforming Education Summit".

Some countries of the region have also excelled individually at various preparatory steps for this global event. For example, Colombia has been co-leading the Thematic Action Track 2 of the summit: "Learning and skills for life, work and sustainable development". The importance of this thematic action track relates to the country´s pursuit of mobilizing new commitments, highlighting successful policy interventions and building on existing initiatives and partnerships, including those that emerged in response to the pandemic.

Several countries of the region will be participating in simultaneous events and ministerial panels at the summit. For example, for the day dedicated to youth mobilization (16 September), Brazil, Chile and Ecuador confirmed their presence.

On Solutions Day (17 September), El Salvador will engage in the event "Advancing multi-stakeholder’s partnerships to drive education transformation" and Chile will take part in the session "Greening Education Partnership: Getting Every Learner Climate-ready", and Ecuador on the space "Education and learning in times of emergencies and protracted crises". Also on the same day, the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) of UNESCO, in Buenos Aires, will participate in the session "Accelerating Learning in Latin America and the Caribbean" as a preamble to the sixth edition of the Regional Education Policy Forum, one of the first post-summit events to take place in the region. Co-organized by the IIEP and OREALC/UNESCO Santiago, this event will take place in October 2022 to address the challenge of "How to face the learning crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean".

On September 18th, Belize will attend a panel concerning solutions for sustainable development and Belize´s Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Technology will be one of the participants of the ministerial panel "Transforming education for Prosperity, People and the Planet".

During the Leaders Day (19 September), the head of states of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso; the President of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves Robles; the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, and the President of Paraguay, Mario Abdo, were invited, among others, to talk about the "Greening Education Partnership: Getting Every Learner Climate-ready”. Chile will be one of the speaker in "Learning to live together" session.

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