Joint Statement of Global University Leaders on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

On the occasion of the Virtual Forum on the Role of Universities in the 2030 Agenda held March 24, 2021, no less than 58 university leaders from across different continents reaffirmed their commitment to the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). IAU supported the Forum and promoted it amongst members. 

Pam Fredman, IAU president, stressed the importance of partnerships for the SDGs during her intervention at the opening ceremony of the forum. She underlined the role of global networks and cooperation which are the basis for sustainable development and the future of higher education. Following the opening were 3 consecutive discussion sessions with universities from all over the world sharing their experience. In the first session, Hilligje van't Land, IAU Secretary General, moderated the discussion on "Educating for a sustainable future", in which examples from practice at universities were showing how students, staff. leadership commit to change on campus, in curricula and at the whole institution. 

Five commitments of the statement, which is signed by many IAU Members (full list of signatories here ): 

• Embedding sustainability across our activities, operations, monitoring and evaluation. Through unwavering examples, we will foster and promote sustainable development on and off campus. 
• Enhancing competencies in SDGs by empowering our students, faculty and staff with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to understand and address the SDGs. 
• Supporting a wider spectrum of research work needed to address global challenges, including blue-sky discovery and transdisciplinary research, and to better inform policy-making. 
• Fostering innovative solutions for sustainable development by engaging multiple stakeholders, including government, civil society and the private sector. 
• Leveraging technology and upholding open science where appropriate to facilitate sustainable partnerships and context-specific, problem-solving collaborations across borders. 

More Information

Read the full statement here. This statement was formalised in May 2021.