The Transforming Education Summit was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York over a three-day period from September 16, 17, 19, and was attended by Okayama University Senior Vice President for Global Engagement Strategy and UNESCO Chairholder YOKOI Atsufumi. The summit is a key initiative of Our Common Agenda launched by UN Secretary-General Antonio GUTERRES in 2021. It took place in a hybrid format during the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (location: United Nations headquarters; New York) and was convened by UN Secretary-General GUTERRES. Many representatives and young people from around the world attended the summit, such as education ministers and deputy ministers, officials from the United Nations, international organizations, governments, universities, businesses, and non-profit organizations.
　
The summit is viewed as the top global political agenda for education to promote the transformation of education by 2030, with the aim to re-energize educational initiatives on both a domestic and global level by mobilizing action, solidarity and solutions to recover learning losses as a result of the pandemic. Senior Vice President YOKOI attended Mobilization Day on the 16th and Solutions Day on the 17th by invitation. As all of the events are youth-led and youth-organized, Mobilization Day is an opportunity to convey the collective recommendations of youth on transforming education to decision makers and policymakers. These recommendations were set forth in the Youth Declaration, and handed to UN Secretary-General GUTERRES by Sofía BERMUDEZ, a representative of the SDG4 Youth Network, which is a global youth network established by UNESCO. Solutions Day provides a platform for initiatives that will contribute to transforming education, with a focus on solutions. The keynote speech was given by a world-leading authority on sustainable development, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, New York, and was followed by sessions for the summit thematic action tracks.

As well as networking with Ms. BERMUDEZ, who handed the Youth Declaration to the UN Secretary-General, Senior Vice President YOKOI met with representatives from various countries in the session co-hosted by the Japanese government, such as HRH Princess Abze Djigma, of the UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development Chair of the Jurors, Professor Sachs of Columbia University, and CEO Monika FROEHLER of the Ban Ki-moon Centre (BKMC), which was founded by the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon, and actively exchanged views about Okayama University’s strategies and efforts for global engagement and strengthening cooperation.
　
As a university contributing to “from the region to the world,” Okayama University will continue to promote sustainability and wellbeing with various stakeholders.