Donor seat on education SDG committee vacant amid funding crisis

A key donor seat on the global education body overseeing progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 4 remains vacant as aid budgets shrink and education financing gaps widen. The high-level steering committee, or HLSC, for SDG 4, the United Nations’ global education goal, began its 2026–2027 term without a representative for donor countries after the United Kingdom’s two terms ended in December. Advocates note that another donor country would typically step forward to take up the rotating seat, but three months on, a successor has yet to be named. SDG 4 calls for inclusive and equitable quality education for all by 2030. The HLSC brings together governments, multilateral agencies, civil society organizations, and private sector partners to coordinate global efforts toward that goal, with UNESCO providing technical and administrative support as the committee’s secretariat. Education advocates said the vacancy is concerning, given the scale of global education financing needs and the impact aid cuts are having on the sector. Education aid is expected to decline to record lows this year, with UNICEF predicting cuts could force 6 million more children out of school. Official Development Assistance, or ODA, for education is projected to fall by $3.2 billion — a 24% drop from 2023 levels — according to the agency. “Cuts to development and humanitarian assistance have already had a disproportionate impact on education. At the same time, needs are growing, especially in humanitarian crises,” David Edwards, general secretary of Education International, told Devex. Advocates urged donor governments to fill the vacancy and coordinate more closely on education financing strategies for low-income countries furthest behind on learning targets. “At a time when donors should be working together to agree on how they can reverse the devastating cuts to education and work out how they can support the achievement of SDG 4, they appear to be missing in action,” he added. UNESCO said donor countries remain engaged in the committee despite the vacant seat. “The donor community remains fully committed to achieving SDG4. While the ‘donor seat’ is unfilled for the time-being, Finland, Italy, Korea (Rep of), and Slovakia — all OECD-DAC [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee] members and donor countries — are part of the High-Level Steering Committee,” a UNESCO spokesperson told Devex. But advocates said those seats do not replace the role of a dedicated donor representative whose task is coordinating collective action from high-income countries to support those countries furthest behind. Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly, executive director of the International Parliamentary Network for Education — who helped set up the newly constituted HLSC in 2021 — told Devex that the dedicated donor seat is crucial. “The new HLSC structure, with a dedicated donor seat, was designed to bring a coordinated donor voice to discussions on how OECD DAC members could work together to improve the effectiveness of external assistance in support of SDG 4,” he said. “Donors have a central part to play in improving development and humanitarian assistance, but also in agreeing on international reforms to tax, debt, and public spending rules, which can help unlock billions for education. “The donor community as a whole should be driving that agenda via their seat on the HLSC,” he said.