Global Alliance update

Please note, this page was lasted updated in 2018.


December 2018
Global Alliance Meeting - 28th January 2019
Preparing for the UN HLPF 2019 Higher Education and SDG 4 planning webinar between Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) and the Global Alliance. 3pm (GMT) January 28th 2019. To request access for this webinar email us. 
 

July 2018
The Global Alliance presents to the UN High Level Political Forum
The Global Alliance will be presenting findings from the SDG Accord mandatory reporting at the UN High Level Political Forum to be held 11 July 2018, at the United Nations in New York.

Networks who endorsed the Accord and recently completed a survey on SDG progress, and this, alongside the reporting from institutional leaders who have already signed the Accord will be presented to the mix of government officials, representatives of UN system entities, NGOs, civil society, business sector and students who are accredited to attend the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
After this workshop, later that afternoon there will be a  Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) Global event.

This will be followed by a private meeting between the UN HESI Partners and representatives of the Global Alliance on 10 July.  This is a key opportunity to advance the role of our sector and our partnership approach with the UN to inspire and deliver sustainable universities, colleges and graduates. 

We will update the sector on these discussions.

September 2017
The Global Alliance Launches the Sustainable Development Goal Accord
Launched in September 2017, the SDG Accord is the Global Alliance's Collective Response to the Sustainable Development Goals and is to ensure the SDGs are embedded throughout across post-16 education. 

Its purpose of the SDG Accord is twofold: 
- First it is to inspire, celebrate and advance the critical role that education has in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the value it brings to governments, business and wider society. 
- Secondly, the Accord is a commitment learning institutions are making to one another to do more to deliver the goals, to annually report on each signatory's progress, and to do so in ways which share the learning with each other both nationally and internationally. An objective is that sector SDG reporting metrics will be presented at the annual UN High Level Political Forum.

Who should sign the Accord?
 
The Accord can be signed on four levels.

• Leaders of institutions sign to make a corporate commitment - this must be the highest authority such as Vice Chancellor, Principal, President etc.

• Leaders of related university and college support organisations sign to make a corporate commitment to supporting the sector.

• Leaders of student associations ie Students' Unions or Student Guilds - this must be the president.

• Individual students, researchers, academics and operational staff can sign to make a personal and professional commitment to playing their part in advancing sector performance

Openly and annually accounting for progress and sharing our experience and learning from implementing the SDGs is a key requirement of the Accord. The Accord is not prescriptive on what form this takes only that it is made available to your local or national networks. Possible formats include reports, videos, policy documents, case studies and blogs etc. 

Endorsing Partner networks commit to making these resources available to each other’s networks internationally. 

A sector overview of progress will be presented annually at the UN High Level Political Forum.

Click here to visit the SDG Accord website.

December 2015
COP 21
In December 2015 at the Paris COP21 the collective voice of the world’s universities, colleges and students was heard during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. At a number of events, COP21 President, Laurent Fabius, was handed an Open Letter on behalf of a Global Alliance of networks and associations representing more than 10,000 universities and colleges worldwide.