UNA Harrogate: SDG 4: education in Zambia

I'm still inspired from last night's UNA Harrogate meeting where Jane Keogh brought her 'SDG challenge' for sharing and progressing as we always do in Harrogate - using action learning set techniques.

Just back from her trip to Zambia, Jane shared some of the challenges she encountered associated with education. Children suffer from lack of facilities, oversized classes and many don't progress beyond primary school.

Whilst education in Zambia (and elsewhere in Africa) is principally associated with the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), it links also to many others:

• Goal 1: elimination of poverty
• Goal 2: elimination of hunger
• Goal 3: health
• Goal 5: equality for girls
• Goal 6: water
• Goal 7: energy
• Goal 15: life on land

And these are just the ones that were discussed

Jane is inspired to forge links between schools in Zambia and in Europe with a view to provide support both for children and teachers. She is also keen to get the business world involved and last night's meeting explored the opportunities for organisations to develop their leaders through immersion in challenges such as this.

As always, our UNA Harrogate meetings culminate in commitments to next steps and Jane committed to working on her strategic plan for this project and making initial contact with schools and businesses.

Our next meeting in Harrogate will be in September when we invite the CEO of Leeds City Council into the "hot seat" of our action learning set to share the challenge of sustainable cities and make commitments to the group for next steps. Watch the UNA-UK events page for further details soon.

UNA Harrogate always welcomes attendance from UNA members from other groups and non-UNA members too.

If you'd like to support Jane in her project, contact UNA Harrogate to be put in touch.