Paving the road to education: a target-by-target analysis of SDG 4 for Asia and the Pacific

The globally adopted development agenda “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” has established ambitious intentions that build on the past Millennium Development Goals but also expand on their achievements. The Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education propels forward the vision of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all through a holistic, aspirational and systematic education agenda. Education monitoring is an integral part in this process. This publication delivers a data-rich snapshot of Sustainable Development Goal 4, its targets and their monitoring indicators while analyzing available data through a lens of inequality. Assessing the progress which countries have made in the recent past as well as where countries currently stand, this publication sets a baseline against which Member States from Asia and the Pacific are able to monitor progress in achieving the Goal 4 over time but at latest by 2030. Finally, after discussing emerging opportunities and remaining challenges in the region, this publication seeks to assist Member States in identifying what steps can be taken to ensure that the region will achieve the new education agenda.