Unit 4: Towards new futures – a role for partnership

Figure 1  UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals

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1) No poverty, 2) zero hunger, 3) good health and wellbeing, 4) quality education, 5) gender equality, 6) clean water and sanitation, 7) affordable and clean energy, 8) decent work and economic growth, 9) industry, innovation and infrastructure, 10) reduced inequalities, 11) sustainable cities and communities, 12) responsible consumption and production, 13) climate action, 14) life below water, 15) life on land, 16) peace, justice and strong institutions, 17) partnerships for the goals.

Figure 1  UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals

Welcome to Unit 4 of Sustainable pedagogies.

Meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as set out by UNESCO (Figure 1) and ratified by its member countries, becomes more and more urgent as the world suffers an increase in climate-related events such as wildfires and flooding. These events are directly attributable to human activity affecting the climate.

The idea of partnership is part of SDG 17 which is about revitalising global partnerships for sustainable development. The SDG agenda needs to be universal and call for action by all countries – developed and less well-developed – because actions by and within one country can be seen to affect every country. Therefore, meeting all the SDGs requires partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society, which is why partnership runs through all other goals.

Figure 2 shows partnership running through the three layers of SDGs and the layer each SDG relates to:

• Biosphere (base) – SDGs 6, 13, 14, 15.
• Society (middle) – SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 16.
• Economy (top) – SDGs 8, 9, 10, 12.

Figure 2  SDG 17 ‘Partnership’ running through the layers of goals – biosphere (base), society (middle) and economy (top)

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Three circles with an arrow running through the centre of all three, pointing to SDG 17 'partnerships for the goals'. The bottom circle (base) represents the biospgere, the middle represents society and the top represents the economy.

Figure 2  SDG 17 ‘Partnership’ running through the layers of goals – biosphere (base), society (middle) and economy (top)...

Working with others may seem like an obvious approach to sustainability but it is in considering why and how partnership is so important that the imperative to act that way is understood. Partnership links to other aspects of sustainable pedagogy (transdisciplinarity, compassion, participation) discussed in this course and cuts across many other pedagogies.

In this unit, we will discuss not just how to use partnership as a pedagogy but also how important it can be to exemplify it to learners so that they see and understand its power. This unit outlines what partnership means and why this term is used as opposed to collaboration. It also looks at the tensions that exist in conventional pedagogies and how partnership can address these. The unit ends by giving you a chance to consider what partnership might look like to you.