IDEA addresses Intergovernmental Review at the UN HLPF

On Thursday, 12 July, IDEA Director, Frank Geary, addressed the UN High-level Political Forum review of Goal 12, on behalf of the Education and Academic Stakeholder Group. Speaking at the summit in the UN Headquarters in New York, he highlighted that SDG 12.8.1 requires all UN Member States to mainstream Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development.

The statement from the group read:

'Sustainable consumption and production requires transformative change to our societies and economies. To achieve this, we need education for transformative change. We need education that enables all people to participate meaningfully, to critically engage in sustainable development, and to imagine and create new futures.

This is a central part of SDG 12. And strongly links to SDG 4, 16, 17 and all Goals. SDG 12 requires Member States to mainstream Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development.

Not enough is being done to achieve this. It is essential that Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development are mainstreamed across formal, non-formal and informal education. This requires clear national policies, prioritisation of education and participation in SDG National Implementation Plans, financing, and involvement of civil society, learners and educators.

We want to know how Member States will act on this, in particular if and how Member States have integrated Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development into their SDG National Implementation?

We urge Member States to report on education in your VNRs.

Education is the golden thread that runs through all the Sustainable Development Goals.

To achieve the transformative agenda of the Goals, we must prioritise education.'

About the HLPF

The UN High-level Political Forum (HLPF) plays a key role in the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the global level. It takes place annually and features inputs from national governments, intergovernmental bodies, relevant UN agencies, civil society and other stakeholders. The summit includes intergovernmental meetings along with side events for civil society organisations. CSO’s also have the opportunity to input into the intergovernmental meetings and outline what steps they feel governments need to take to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

September 26, 2025
Date: Tuesday, 04 November, from 3.30–4.30pm Location: Online via Zoom IDEA is thrilled to invite members to the online launch of our new “Theory of Impact for Global Citizenship Education” on Tuesday, 04 November, from 3.30–4.30pm, Online via Zoom. During this session, we will present the model, share insights into the process behind its development, and explore how it will be used to strengthen impact across the sector. We will also introduce a new tool in progress, an interactive data visualisation map designed to showcase our collective impact as a network. For many years, IDEA and its members have been grappling with the concept of impact in Development Education/Global Citizenship Education (hereinafter ‘GCE’). As GCE practitioners, tracking impact helps us to identify how, where and with whom our work is creating positive change, as well as investigating areas in which our impact could be stronger. Furthermore, we can also benefit from examining the collective impact of GCE carried out by the wide-ranging work of IDEA members, and from exploring how these impacts contribute to the major social changes to which the GCE community aspires. Driven therefore by the need to understand how projects and programmes are collectively “making a difference” in IDEA we looked at models that could help us visualise and capture GCE “impact networks”. We formulated our vision of impact and then a theory of how we expect this desired impact to be achieved to allow us to map our activities and collect data to corroborate that theory. This Theory of Impact model is how we hope to illustrate this complex GCE impact network. Building on work done by IDEA over many years including building sectoral capacity in using Results Frameworks for GCE, our Quality & Impact working group, engagement with Irish Aid on their Performance Measurement Framework (PMF), and the successful roll-out of a Code of Good Practice for DE/GCE, this Theory of Impact represent the next stage of our effort to ‘develop a consistent approach to measuring impact among the sector’. We are therefore thrilled to invite you to the presentation of our ‘Theory of Impact for GCE’. At this online presentation, we will tell you about the process that led to the creation of this model, how it will be used and what we hope it could bring to the sector. We will also touch on a new tool being developed based on the model, which should allow the creation of an interactive data visualisation map of our collective impact as a network. Join us as we launch into this exciting new phase of our Impact Measurement work. Join us as we begin this exciting new phase of our Impact Measurement work. Register below!
September 26, 2025
Date: 11 November, 10.30am – 4.30pm. Location: IDEA offices, 6 Gardiner Row IDEA launched its new Advocacy Toolkit and GCE Policy Guide resource pack in early March. The advocacy toolkit and policy guide were developed for IDEA members to strengthen their capacity to effectively advocate with policymakers and to actively engage in policy processes on GCE in Ireland and the wider world. IDEA will facilitate a full-day in-person workshop on these resources in the IDEA offices on Tuesday, 11 November ,10.30am – 4.30pm. Places are limited to 20 participants and will be given on a first come, first served basis. Please note that this is a repeat of the workshop that took place in May and is aimed at members who did not have the opportunity to participate in May. A vegetarian lunch will be provided. Register below!
September 26, 2025
Date: 06 November a nd 18 November from 3.30–4.30pm Location: IDEA offices, 6 Gardiner Row, Dublin 1 Due to positive feedback following a workshop during our annual conference, we are thrilled to invite members to a full 2-part interactive workshop about “Racial Justice” on 06 November and 18 November. This event will take place in-person in Dublin. Our facilitators Bronwyn April and Mdahyelya Bassi will guide participants through a critical exploration of the interconnections between racial justice, philanthropy, migration, and decolonisation within global and Irish contexts. The workshop will delve into how historical and ongoing colonial legacies influence contemporary issues of racial equity and social justice in Ireland and beyond. The dates for this event are fast approaching, so if you have any specific accessibility requirements, please email events@ideaonline.ie as soon as possible. Places for this event are limited, and registration is mandatory. Deadline to register is Monday, 04 November. Register below!