Mainstreaming Equity in Education

Equity is at the heart of Sustainable Development Goal 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, and the Incheon Declaration of the 2015 World Education Forum, which calls inclusion and equity “the cornerstone of a transformative education agenda”. This paper is intended to help establish some of the key issues and challenges that need to be addressed around equity in education and provide a way forward to mainstreaming equity-oriented programming and data analysis. It was commissioned by the International Education Funders Group (IEFG) as a framing document for the IEFG member event in Toronto focused on “Equity in and Through Education” (September 2017). It builds on prior foundational and framing documents developed under the Education Equity Research Initiative, and the many discussions among its members.