The Road to the SDGs

PURPOSE X Although more children worldwide are now completing school than ever before, many education systems continue to struggle with inadequate financing, shortages of qualified teachers, poor learning environments, inadequate learning outcomes and outdated curricula. Household poverty, rural disadvantage, low levels of parental education, child undernutrition and a lack of early childhood support further hamper access to learning. X In the past, IsDB investments in the sector were ad hoc and skewed in favour of its middle-income MCs, as well as towards tertiary education and the infrastructure and hardware components of education. This was due to financing instruments and lending criteria, rather than the changing needs of MCs. X Despite major investments, the performance of MCs in education over the period spanning 2000 to 2016 was mixed, with many of them performing poorly in reaching the targets set for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. METHOD X IsDB’s Education Sector Policy provides support for building national human capital to strengthen the long- term global competitiveness of MCs by enhancing systems for education and skills development. It also considers how the education sector in MCs can help in achieving the SDGs. X The policy highlights the guiding principles, strategies, implementation tools, financing modalities and other considerations that IsDB will use to support education in MCs and in Muslim communities elsewhere. The overarching objective of the policy is learning for human development. X Overall, the policy is guided by the Islamic teaching that seeking knowledge is mandatory for everybody, and the injunction that all children be accorded the right to live and thrive to their fullest potential. X The common thread binding IsDB to its MCs is a shared commitment and adherence to Islamic principles for investments and interventions in education. The Education Sector Policy builds on this, to guide support for education premised on the first imperative of learning for human development. It also highlights education priority areas in which IsDB and its development partners will support MCs. X The policy recognises that MCs are at Education Sector Policy I sDB’s Education Sector Policy highlights IsDB’s approach for the sector and guides all its education programmes and investment priorities The policy defines what IsDB stands for in education and clarifies what beneficiaries can expect to receive from IsDB in terms of priority support for education [ 34 ] SDGs