UNESCO Completes Final Regional Youth Consultations on Education Beyond 2030

UNESCO and the SDG 4 Youth and Student Network completed the final listed regional sessions of an international youth consultation process on August 7, 2026, collecting priorities intended to shape education policy beyond 2030.

The closing sessions covered the Arab region and Latin America and the Caribbean. They followed an Asia-Pacific consultation on August 4 and a series of regional meetings held between July 31 and August 7. Together, the schedule covered five regional tracks: Africa, Europe and North America, Asia and the Pacific, the Arab region, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The process is designed to inform a post-2030 Youth Education and Learning Agenda. UNESCO says that agenda is planned for presentation to world leaders at the 2027 Global Education Meeting. It has not been adopted, and the consultation process is intended to provide input rather than announce a completed global framework.

What young people were asked

Participants were asked to consider the world they want, the changes they want to see in education and learning, and the actions they are willing to take. The questions place young people not only as recipients of education policy but also as contributors to the priorities that may guide international cooperation after the current Sustainable Development Goals period.

The consultation model includes a global survey, youth-led debates, and regional and global consultation meetings. UNESCO announced the process on July 3, 2026, followed by an update dated July 16. The regional timetable then moved through the listed sessions before reaching its final scheduled meetings on August 7.

Why the process matters

Education policy after 2030 will be shaped through international discussions about what governments and institutions should prioritize next. By gathering views across five regions, UNESCO is positioning youth participation as an input to that wider agenda-setting process.

The consultations are being coordinated through UNESCO’s global education cooperation structure, which identifies the SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee as the apex body for cooperation on Sustainable Development Goal 4. SDG 4 concerns education, and the youth process links that existing international framework to planning for the period beyond 2030.

The Government of Japan is funding the consultation process. UNESCO’s announcement did not state how many young people took part in each regional session, and it did not include a final consultation report or detailed recommendations. Those details will matter in assessing how broad the participation was and what priorities emerge from it.

What happens next

The next identified milestone is the planned presentation of the Youth Education and Learning Agenda at the 2027 Global Education Meeting. That meeting will provide the setting for world leaders to receive the agenda after the consultation phase.

The August 7 sessions therefore mark the end of the final listed regional consultations, not the end of the broader policy process. The survey, youth-led discussions, regional meetings and global consultations are intended to feed into an agenda that remains under development. Whether particular recommendations are incorporated, and in what form, will depend on the work that follows before the 2027 meeting.