The 2017 issue of IBE In Focus is here! With it comes the privilege of sharing my reflections on another demanding yet fulfilling year at the IBE.

This issue covers 2016/2017. 2016 was a year of reflection and lessons of experience from the inaugural issue of IBE In Focus, published in 2015. Thanks to the generous feedback of our readers, the 2017 issue is wiser, richer, and sleeker. The rhythm is set. Each fall our keen readers can expect a new issue of this magazine. I trust you will agree with me that the warm cover of this issue will crown many a desk like warm autumn leaves on mountain tops.

Nearly two years after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, this issue of IBE In Focus illustrates how the IBE ‘walks the talk’ of the Education 2030 Agenda. It highlights programs and initiatives to heighten the IBE’s contribution to the improvement of education quality and learning outcomes, equity and inclusion, and development relevance. On development relevance, this issue underscores how much the Education 2030 Agenda is being pursued within the rapidly changing context of 21st-century development. Moreover, the onset of the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0) is exponentially accelerating the complexity and velocity of change. Sustaining development relevance within IR 4.0 will put the foresight and anticipatory capacity of many education and learning systems to an unprecedented test. There is a real risk that unprepared systems will be left behind. Lack of readiness to take up the opportunities and to face the demands of the IR 4.0 can set back progress towards a more equitable, inclusive and sustainable future in, and through, education. This issue highlights IBE’s initiatives for ensuring that curricula enable learners, young and old, to acquire the future competences required for the IR 4.0. These initiatives should also bolster the foresight and anticipatory capacity required to keep national curricula relevant. A futuristic perspective permeates this issue. It sounds the IBE’s decisive call for several actions: rethink and reposition curriculum in the 21st century; elaborate a global paradigm shift on curriculum; articulate future competences and the future of curriculum; broker cutting-edge research to define the future of learning; advocate for multiculturalism as a way to peaceful, just, and cohesive societies; and more. This is another departure from the 2015 issue, which placed a strong accent on the IBE’s 90-year history, and painted its present only in broad strokes. I am very grateful to esteemed contributors and partners whose resounding voices fill these pages. The 2017 IBE In Focus features guiding wisdom from heads of states, lessons worth learning from ministers of best-practice countries, and illuminating experiences from leading personalities in areas of the IBE’s competence. This issue gives the reader a textured flavor of working with the IBE. Sincere gratitude also goes to distributors of IBE In Focus, who afford this magazine excellent product placement. Specifically: the VIP lounges of the Monaco Yacht Club, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and La Réserve Hotel in Geneva; the first and business class lounges of South African Airways and Swiss Airlines; the Swiss State Protocol Lounge at the Geneva airport; partners of the IBE; and of course the readers and followers of IBE In Focus.