What future for global goals? Exploring potential structures for the post-2030 agenda

2 March 2026, 07:00 GMT

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Speaker: Dr William C Smith, University of Edinburgh

Organiser: Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education (CICE), The IDEC Institute, Hiroshima University

This talk as part of the CICE Listening Series discusses the different objectives of global goals, the theories around governing through goals and governing through numbers, and what approach for global goals may work best in the current political climate. Starting with a brief history of global goals for education, the talk frames the shift in global governance from hard to increasingly soft governance mechanisms. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are explored in detail. Using evidence from voluntary national reviews the talk discusses the benefits and challenges of governing through goals and governing through numbers as soft governance tools. Finally, as we move to the post-SDG era, we review the objectives of global goals, how they may have shifted in the current political climate, and how the next round of global goals – if there is to be one – should be structured to meet these objectives.

Speaker bio: William C. Smith is the Director of Internationalisation and Associate Professor in Education and International Development at the University of Edinburgh as well as a Non-Executive Director at the UK National Commission for UNESCO. In his current project with partners at the University of Zurich and the University of Glasgow, he is exploring key questions for the next round of global goals, and his recently completed background report for UNESCO’s 2026 Global Education Monitoring Report reviewed 25 years of literature on access and completion of secondary education. William has over 50 publications and has previously consulted with the Global Campaign for Education, OECD, American Institutes for Research, UNESCO, the Educational Policy Institute, The International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 and the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity.

Moderator: Manjuma Akhtar Mousumi, Hiroshima University

For queries, please contact Manjuma.