Abstract
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) aims to enhance peace, security, and sustainable development by fostering international collaboration. Based on this aim, it stands to reason that the organization ought to contribute to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this research, we examined how an important program of UNESCO, the UNESCO Chairs, contributes to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Specifically, we studied the activities of 34 UNESCO Chairs from seven countries of the Northern Hemisphere (Germany, Iceland, Portugal, Slovenia, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) to assess the contribution of the chairs toward the UN SDGs. The data for this study are based on in-depth narrative interviews, and we used Hermeneutic Content Analysis, a mixed methods framework, for analysis. Our results show that, unsurprisingly, all chairs contribute to UN SDG 4 (Quality Education) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) based on their extensive research and teaching activities. Interestingly, their academic focal areas contribute to specific UN SDG clusters. Using Multidimensional Scaling, we analyzed the UN SDG clusters across different focal areas to reveal the implicit models of sustainability among the chairs. Our findings have implications on the limits of how UNESCO Chairs conceptualize sustainability and show how this has positive and negative consequences on their contribution toward achieving the UN SDGs.
Highlights
Taking stock of the accomplishments of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 to 2015, the results are mostly positive and heartening
We find that the goals are highly interrelated, which further supports our previous findings—that chairs refer to multiple sets of UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and their interrelations when speaking about their work
The purpose of this paper was to examine how the research and teaching activities of UNESCO Chairs contribute to the UN SDGs
Summary
Taking stock of the accomplishments of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 to 2015, the results are mostly positive and heartening. As part of the post-2015 development agenda, the international community developed a new set of goals, the UN SDGs, which are embedded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The new goals, despite their similarity in some aspects, go well beyond the MDGs in that their formulation and focus are more encompassing, explicitly requiring active participation from wealthy and poor nations alike. The overall focus shifted from ameliorating the situation in poor and underdeveloped regions and societies toward improving the sustainability of global economic and social development, while concurrently protecting the environment everywhere. UNESCO aims to enhance peace, security, and sustainable development by fostering international collaboration. By studying the activities of these 34 chairs from seven countries, we aim to systematize how their work connects to the UN SDGs and the 2030 Agenda
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