UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Since its inception, the United Nations has highlighted people-centred development. This is echoed in the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to leave no one behind. But how can this be achieved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This question was posed at an event on November 10 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the UN Academic Impact (UNAI<\/a>) that focused on \u2018The Next Generation of Global Citizens\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UNAI, a global partnership between academia and the UN, underscores the model of global citizenship in not only creating an inclusive, unified community, but a community that is committed to achieving the well being of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat started as just an idea has now become a well-established network of more than 1,000 institutions in more than 120 countries. Collectively, their field of study covers every issue on the international agenda,\u201d said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his address delivered by Chef de Cabinet, Susana Malcorra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While discussing the theme of the event, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ELS Educational Services<\/a>, Mark Harris stated: \u201cGlobal citizenship is a way of thinking about oneself as part of a global community\u2026a way of thinking that has been described\u2026as shared intellectual and social responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris and his fellow participants particularly highlighted the critical role of education in fostering global citizenship. Education helps build cross-cultural understanding, create dialogue, and provide essential humanistic values and problem-solving skills to address global challenges, participants noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEducating more people and educating them better is simply the best bet a society can make,\u201d said State University of New York<\/a> Chancellor Nancy Zimpher in her keynote address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This view was shared by Ban at the opening of the Academic Impact Forum on May 21, 2015 during which the Korean Association in Support of UNAI was launched. Ban emphasized the importance of education to encourage youth to become global citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is a very important role for educators to teach [youth] what would be significant to become a global citizen, to become a leader in the future,\u201d Ban remarked<\/a>. \u201cEducated young people are our greatest hope to defeat global threats,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just before the Academic Impact Forum, 160 countries attending the World Education Forum<\/a> in the Republic of Korea adopted the Incheon Declaration<\/a> titled Education 2030: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SDGs, endorsed later in September 2015, included the strong commitments on education reflected in the Incheon Declaration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During UNAI\u2019s Fifth Anniversary event, Principal Assistant to the Director of the Rockefeller Institute<\/a> Robert Bullock also highlighted the role of youth in the SDGs. \u201cThe UN cannot achieve the global goals if only policymakers know about them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There have been significant achievements in education around the world, including increases in primary school enrollment and decreases in the gender gap in schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the international community continues to struggle with the provision of universal education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Approximately 60 million children of primary school age are not in school, more than half of whom are girls. Since the Millennium Dev Education Can Promote Global Citizenship and Help the SDGs Succeed<\/p>\n\n\n\n elopment Goals (MDGs) focused solely on primary education, access to secondary and tertiary education also remains limited, especially for girls and women, hindering the ability to participate in the global community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The inaccessibility of education has only been exacerbated due to conflict and the world\u2019s biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO<\/a>), 34 million children and adolescents in conflict-affected countries are out of school. In Nigeria alone, 10.5 million children are not attending schools. Most of them are from the Northern war-afflicted region of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost half of the world\u2019s forcibly displaced people are also children, making the idea of sitting in a classroom a dream for many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lack of education opportunities for refugee and displaced children is not simply due to the complexity of the situation, but also the result of neglect and underfunding. In 2014, less than 1.7 percent of humanitarian funding went to education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai exposed the issue during the Oslo Summit on Education for Development<\/a> in July 2015, stating: \u201cThirty-nine billion dollars is spent on [the world\u2019s] militaries in only eight days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the world leaders decide to take one week and a day off from war and military work, we can put every child in school,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ban also urged for more attention to education and noted its greater societal role at the Oslo Summit by recalling his personal experience fleeing from the Korean War and receiving textbooks from UNESCO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey taught us more than math and reading. They taught us the meaning of global solidarity,\u201d Ban told world leaders. \u201cWhen we put every child in school, provide them with quality learning, and foster global citizenship, we will transform our future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There has been growing awareness of the importance of education and the creation of global citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n