The role of education in enabling the sustainable development agenda

While it is widely understood that there is a positive relationship between education and other dimensions of development, and populations around the world show a clear desire for more and better education, education remains an under-financed and under-prioritised sector within development. When education does make it onto the agenda, investment is usually diverted towards increasing access to formal schooling, without focusing on the intrinsic value of education as a tool for development within the international development community more broadly.

The authors explore these tensions through a review of literature from a range of disciplines, providing a clearer picture of the relationship between education and other development sectors. The book challenges silo-thinking in the SDGs by exploring how achieving the SDG education targets can be expected to support or hinder progress towards other targets, and vice-versa. Drawing on examples from both low and high income countries, the book demonstrates how ‘good’ education functions as an ‘enabling right’, impacting positively on many other areas.

The book’s scope ranges across education and development studies, economics, geography, sociology and environmental studies, and will be of interest to any researchers and students with an interest in education and the SDGs.

The books is edited by IIASA researchersStephanie Bengtsson, Bilal Barakat and Raya Muttarak with contributions by Endale Birhanu Kebede, and includes a foreword by World Population Program Director Wolfgang Lutz.

The book will be launched during at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Annual Conference from 3-4.30pm (Mexico time) on Monday 26 March 2018.  

Publication details:

Bengtsson S, Barakat B, & Muttarak R (2018). The Role of Education in Enabling the Sustainable Development Agenda. Routledge. ISBN 9781138307957

Last edited: 16 March 2018