Borhene shares the story of his first involvement in international education through a teacher training program in Tunisia and how the driving force behind his career has been the commitment to ensuring no one is left behind in education.

He explains how UNESCO is advancing the agenda of widening access to education, as outlined in SDG4 through a range of key initiatives. These include normative tools like conventions and recommendations, policy dialogues such as the High-Level Steering Committee that oversees SDG4 implementation, and the collection of data on education trends through resources like the Global Education Monitoring Report, which tracks progress toward SDG4 targets.

Borhene highlights the importance of the Global Recognition Convention as a key instrument for fostering international cooperation, stressing the need for an integrated ecosystem involving all key stakeholders in international education, including universities, quality assurance and qualification recognition bodies, and teachers’ associations. He also emphasized the role of the Convention in supporting lifelong learning by facilitating the recognition of learning achieved in diverse settings, including non-formal and informal contexts… and he shares his memorable involvement in the adoption of the 2015 Incheon Declaration, which for the first time included the lifelong learning agenda, as well as a project in Malawi aimed at providing foundational skills through community learning centers.