Diana Cristancho Diaz, an SDG4Youth Network member, moderated two sessions at the Global Education Coalition annual member meeting in Paris.
It was the alarming levels of poverty in Colombia that informed the education of Diana Cristancho Diaz: “The inequality and the absence of socioeconomic inclusion of people around me was alarming. So, I chose to study law and subsequently pursue specialized training in international human rights.” Since then, her passion has been to promote socio-economic inclusion of young people and to address education in emergencies.
On March 28, 2023, Diana participated in the annual member meeting of the Global Education Coalition held at UNESCO’s headquarters. The coalition was established during the pandemic to provide access to educational resources for over 800,000 learners. The meeting brought together institutional partners from the UN, civil society, academia, and the private sector working around three central flagships: connectivity, teachers, and gender equality.
Diana served as the moderator of the ‘Global Skills Academy (GSA) and Gender Flagship’ session, aiming to leverage the power of gender-transformative efforts to significantly scale up learners' digital and transversal skills, employability, and resilience. According to Diana, "Panellists highlighted that the Global Education Coalition was born out of a crisis of many kinds - educational, environmental, energy and economic. We need to ensure strategic directions and new initiatives for the future, the Coalition helps to respond to educational challenges and crises, mobilizing the resources, expertise, and experience of its members.” She also adds: “We agreed that digital transformation in education is complex and requires a comprehensive framework, such as connectivity and infrastructure, capacity, sustainability, coordination, and leadership. It is necessary to develop long-term, synergistic partnerships to ensure learning never stops.”
Seventy people attended this event. One of the objectives was to “share progress towards the commitments of the Transforming Education Summit, and plans for accelerating efforts towards SDG4 and Agenda 2030.” Diana confirms: “In line with the Summit and in particular the Youth Declaration, the session I moderated infused a strong youth perspective to the discussions in order to strengthen youth ownership.”