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South Africa between Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063: The Challenge of Monitoring and Combatting Inequality in Education

Wed, March 8, 9:45 to 11:15am, Sheraton Atlanta, Grand Ballroom B (South Tower)

Proposal

The South African government indicates that it is putting more effort into the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals than it did with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The development and coordination of the SDGs is managed by the Department of international Relations and Cooperation and supported by the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation which sits in the President’s office. This shows the seriousness with which the government takes this exercise. On the other hand, the government department for statistics -Statistics South Africa -coordinates the statistics and indicators set by government across the private and public sectors in the country. It will be responsible for providing the data for national and global monitoring of the SDGs.
The government sees the SDGs as a natural fit with its own National Development Plan, Vision 2030. This plan is taken as a lodestar and an overarching plan for government as it anchors and underpins the commitment to improve the lives of the poor and the most marginalised in society. Also, the National Business Initiative has recently asked for the private sector to become actively involved in the SDG agenda.

In spite of this declared commitment to and enthusiasm with the implementation of the SDGs, there is no indication that the different government departments and even the private sector have actually given any time to the evaluation of the implementation of the SDG goals as yet. Arguably, South Africa has spent more time in developing with other African countries an indicator framework for the continent’s Agenda 2063. But at the same time, through the African Union, South Africa is represented by Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda in the UN inter-agency expert group working on SDG indicators.

Hence South Africa, along with all other African countries, has to provide monitoring data to two external bodies – the UN and the African Union – on very similar issues but with hugely different time-lines.

As for South Africa itself, any progress in the implementation of the SDGs can only be measured through progress in its own National Development Plan (NDP) and can only be provided in those areas that happen to have synergy with the SDGs.

There is however considerable overlap since both the SDGs and the NDP are directly concerned with combatting inequality. And in no sector is this more evident than in the spheres of education and skills development. Free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education is as much a challenge for the SDGs as it is for fixing South Africa’s hugely unequal education system.

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