The Sustainable Development Goals

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) are a new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agendas and political policies over the next 15 years. The millennium development goals has expired in 2015, therefore the sustainable development goals have been implemented for the next fifteen years. These new goals have been designed to build on the MDGs and complete what they have not achieved. The following essay consists of...

The eight millennium development goals aimed to, eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases,

There should be plans at national level to ensure that the 2030 Agenda frameworks turn into tangible results for people. In order to achieve concrete returns, the 2030 Agenda needs new, innovative and transformative means of implementation, including institutions that can work in an integrated, transparent manner, access to information, and monitoring and reporting for accountability. The MDGs were not accompanied by a sufficiently robust system of people-centered accountability, with the UN secretary-general identifying this as one of the key reasons for shortfalls.

The 2030 Agenda provides governments with an opportunity to address this accountability deficit to build on and go beyond the progress made in the last 15 years. It is an opportunity to build a world in which all children, no matter where they are born, who their parents are, what ethnic group they belong to and whether or not they have a disability are able to survive, develop, and realize their rights and be empowered as agents of change to reach their full potential in

Despite higher education targets being included within Sustainable Development Goals 4.3, 4.9 and 17, these goals do not address the critical need for improved quality. Rather, they centre on incremental development, enrolment rates, unsustainable practices and international dependency. African higher education does not have time to linger on ineffective policies. UNESCO warns that by 2025, 258 million Africans will reach higher education enrolment age. If this explosive student-age population growth could be channelled into higher education, national development across Africa would greatly benefit. However, if Africa and the international community continue an incremental development approach, prioritising basic education before higher education development, the region’s innate talent pool will remain untapped. Within the policy cycle of the 2015- 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, only target 4.C offers hope for the mutual development of basic and higher education. Aid agencies and national governments should seize the opportunities within SDG 4.C to build the capacity of Africa’s higher education