Exhibition on International Cooperation in Education in Geneva
July 2025
La Rotonde du Mont Blanc, Geneva, Switzerland
Harnessing Education for the SDGs: Mapping International Geneva’s Impact
SDG 4: Quality Education is a fundamental human right and a transformative lever for achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. From eradicating poverty to advancing gender equality, from promoting climate literacy to supporting peaceful societies, education is the connective tissue of sustainable development. Cooperation is critical—internationally and in Geneva—to harnessing the potential of education to achieve the SDGs.
To bring this message to life, NORRAG is curating a public exhibition at the Rotonde du Mont-Blanc in July 2025, designed to make these global efforts available to the public. A dedicated website will make these ideas available to a broader public beyond Geneva, and beyond July 2025 until 2030.
Each panel in the exhibition draws links between education and another SDG—climate action, gender equality, poverty reduction, or peacebuilding—and spotlights the Geneva-based actors advancing this work.
The exhibition also highlights how NORRAG’s research has benefited from meaningful collaboration with Geneva’s multilateral actors—turning academic insights into accessible, action-oriented knowledge products for the public. This commitment to accessible, multilingual, and visually engaging formats reflects a broader push across international cooperation and policy to bring research into policy circles and public consciousness.
As NORRAG’s project shows:
- Education can promote climate literacy, and 91% of young people want more action-oriented climate change education. However, only about half of teachers worldwide reported receiving formal training on climate change and sustainable lifestyles.
- 75% of young people are concerned about the current state of the ocean, and education can help them understand how to promote sustainable ecosystems.
- Education has the potential to be a key driver of poverty alleviation and inclusion, but discrimination (driven by ability, ethnicity, gender, sex and socio-economic status) results in certain children and youth being excluded from education and training just because of who they are.
- The average rate of young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET) in low-income countries was almost 29%, compared to just over 10% in high-income countries.
- 388 million children in 161 countries receive school meals, mostly funded by national budgets, resulting in better health and learning outcomes.
- Education is emblematic of humanitarian-development-peace nexus approaches. 234 million children’s education is affected by conflict and crises in 2025, many of which have lasted many years or even decades.
As crises grow more complex, and the 2030 Agenda deadline draws closer, partnerships between research institutions, UN agencies and other actors are essential. For this exhibition, NORRAG partnered with the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy, the Beyond Lab, CITES, Education Cannot Wait, Enfants du Monde, the Fab, the Gender Center, the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies, the Geneva Graduate Institute, the Geneva Water Hub, GIGA (UNICEF/ITU), the Global Health Center, the Global Health Platform, the Global Partnership for Education, the Global WASH Cluster, the Hoffmann Centre for Global Sustainability, ILO, INEE, RECI, SCORAI EU, the Tech Hub, the Thinking Ahead on Societal Change Platform, UNDP, UNESCO-IBE, UNFPA, University of Geneva (Faculty of Science, Geneva School of Economics and Management, Geneva School of Social Sciences, SDG Solution Space), UNRISD, Ville de Genève, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), WFP, and WHO.
Together, we are showing how research and policy ecosystems can innovate to make global knowledge accessible, relevant, and transformative—for learners of all ages, in every region.
Join us in July 2025 to witness these connections in action. Because education doesn’t just change minds—it changes the world.