Policy Brief: How do structural vulnerabilities impede progress towards achieving SDG 4 (Quality Education) in SIDS?

Access to quality education and lifelong learning (Goal 4) is crucial to reach the ambition of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Education is an important enabler for many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ranging from no poverty and gender equality to decent work, climate action and peace, among others.

This short policy brief sheds light on the relationship between structural vulnerabilities faced by countries (particularly SIDS) and their ability to achieve SDG 4 (Quality Education). It builds on the pilot Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the UN Resident Coordinators in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and the SDG Index and dashboards published each year by the SDSN since 2016. Overall, a higher degree of structural vulnerability (e.g. in the case of SIDS, being small, remote, and as islands, being particularly exposed to natural hazards) tends to be associated with poorer performance on education at the country level. Highly vulnerable countries such as SIDS also tend to have lower capacity to invest in education due to fiscal constraints and other reasons. A high degree of structural vulnerability measured by the pilot MVI is found to be associated with high levels of population displacements, food insecurity, and brain drain, which negatively impact the capacity of countries to achieve SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 8 (Decent Work). Digital infrastructure and technologies could, in principle, help strengthen education systems and resilience in SIDS, yet the paper underlines how vulnerable countries tend to face persisting challenges in implementing the digital transformation with consequent negative impacts on educational attainments and quality. The scope of this policy brief is to provide evidence on the existence of a significant relationship (statistical association) between structural vulnerability and education outcomes, in particular in SIDS. It does not aim to study causality between structural vulnerability and education outcomes, but it provides a strong basis for further research to investigate this causal link.