Highlighting SDG 4: Quality Education

Oct 30

Written By Texas UN Young Professionals .

One of our three core Sustainable Development Goals is SDG 4: Quality Education. The UN defines this goal as ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. As UT Students, we understand the value of education from primary to the graduate level. Education is liberating by nature and opens doors, giving potential to a wide array of opportunities. Upholding such a principle for us is more than just for the sake of sustainability; it's about upholding the belief that education and access to education are a right, not a privilege. To highlight this SDG, we want to focus on a specific issue that has been most important to us; more than 773 million people worldwide cannot read; two-thirds of these individuals are women and girls.

The UN and UNESCO have worked to close this gap through programs like the Global Education Monitoring Report and Education for All, which help countries strengthen literacy programs and ensure girls have access to quality education. Since 2000, these efforts have helped raise global youth literacy rates from 87% to over 91%, proving that international cooperation works. The UN’s role is essential because it unites governments, NGOs, and communities around shared goals and provides funding and expertise where it’s most needed. Literacy is the foundation of independence, economic opportunity, and gender equality, making it vital that everyday people work to support the efforts of SDG 4. Even small actions, such as supporting organizations that provide books, funding girls’ education programs, or raising awareness of literacy rights, can help ensure that every person has the chance to learn and thrive.

A part of our mission as young professionals is to maintain our broad goals for our SDGs. Within this 2-year plan, our director of Quality Education outlines the following objectives.

Double average daily attendance at a global partner school through transportation advocacy, meal programs, or parent outreach.
Raise literacy rates by 5% in the surrounding community by building a mini-library/learning center and donating books.
Publish a national policy report on inequitable school funding and advocate for reforms.

In our efforts to uphold this SDG, we have partnered with Room to Read, an NGO dedicated to developing children’s literacy and life skills in a dignified and gender-equal way. Through our collaboration with Room to Read, we aim to raise $1,000 to support their efforts. This quantity would be enough to cover one year’s worth of coaching for an educator on effective instruction methods for student success, or to support four girls through a year of secondary school, including mentoring, life skills classes, family engagement, and funds for tuition, uniforms, books, or safe transport to school.

With 2030 quickly approaching —the deadline for achieving the 17 SDGs—your and our efforts are crucial to ensuring a better, more sustainable future.

Donate to our fundraiser

https://fundraise.roomtoread.org/fundraiseusd/texas-unyp

Sources Cited:

https://www.unesco.org/en/literacy

Literacy | UNESCO, www.unesco.org/en/literacy. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.

https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/literacy-adult-learning

“Monitoring SDG 4: Literacy and Adult Learning.” UNESCO.Org, www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/literacy-adult-learning. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.

Abby Vandiver

Edited by Mya Duncan