With less than 10 years to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, COVID 19 has tested the resilience of the education systems worldwide. Over a billion learners have been affected by school closures, creating a real risk of a 'lost generation', particularly among girls and young women. The use of new technologies and digital learning opportunities have become foundational in the advancement of the SDGs at all levels while creating changes for inclusive and sustainable progress, promoting equal participation of women and girls to exercise all human rights.

UNESCO and the National Commission for UNESCO in Cameroon, taking part in the UN side event 2021 on Education & Technological Transformation for Human-centered recovery. During the pandemic, Member States made extraordinary efforts to mitigate school closures by introducing digital learning during the pandemic, heavily relying on technological advances. Despite their challenges, these technologies were important tools to sustain learning and engage communities at all education levels.

As the pandemic amplified inequalities in education, the need to leverage the transformational potential of rapid technological change and digital connectivity for the SDGs became evident. Technology can introduce agile ways of delivering education services, but to achieve scale and efficiently use resources, it is critical to engage partners as this can only be achieved when governments, the private sector, civil society and other stakeholders work towards a common goal.

UNESCO mobilized support to ensure the continuity of learning around the world by establishing the Global Education Coalition in March 2020. This multi-sector Coalition brings together over 200 institutional partners from the UN family, civil society, academia, and the private sector working around three central flagships: Connectivity, Teachers and Gender Equality. The Coalition uses a mission approach to achieve large-scale targets and to operationalize actions. It's successes during the Covid-19 pandemic have proven its innovative model on how the public sector can engage with external partners.