Higher Education Partnerships to Accelerate Action for the SDGs

The IAU Global Cluster on HESD promotes the role and potential that HEIs globally have in order to achieve the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. The Cluster encourages collaboration and takes a holistic approach to the SDGs, focusing specifically on the whole-institution approach.

The IAU Global Cluster on HESD brings HEIs from all continents together and encourages them to develop joint initiatives and synergies.

The Cluster works on all dimensions of the SDGs, combining environmental, social, cultural, and economic dimensions of sustainability, with partnerships as the key enabler for joint action.

Peer-to-peer learning sparks new ideas and creativity among the Members of the Cluster and will encourage other universities to step up their game towards achieving a more sustainable future. The Cluster helps generate joint and collaborative projects and other initiatives.

The Cluster is composed of 16 lead Institutions, each championing and working on one specific SDG while at the same time linking it to other relevant SDGs, with additional Institutions invited on board as ‘Satellites’ around each SDG. Currently, around 70 universities (leads and subclusters) are engaged in the Cluster. Work on SDG 17: Partnerships, is led by the IAU and includes working with other organisations in the higher education and sustainable development sphere. The Cluster is supported, monitored and steered by the IAU Working Group on HESD with the Initiatives developed by the Cluster being available to all IAU Members.

Find the latest report on the activities of the IAU HESD Cluster from 2022-23 here.