Dankert Vedeler was born in Oslo, Norway in 1951. After completing his teacher training at university level, he started as a teacher at a secondary vocational school. He was recruited to the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research (MOER) in the early nineties as an Assistant Director General. Vedeler has been engaged in the EFA movement and has represented Norway at 7 High Level Group meetings and served continuously at the EFA Advisory Board. When the EFA mechanism was restructured in 2012, he was selected as representative of the European/North America group to the EFA Steering Committee (EFA/SC). After serving for two years, he was elected chair of the EFA/SC. The Committee influenced the post-2015 process in New York and being re-organized into a Drafting Group, co-chaired by ADG Qian Tang and Mr. Vedeler, developed the Incheon Declaration for Education 2030 to be adopted at the World Education Forum in Democratic Republic of Korea. In November 2015 the Drafting Group forwarded "The Framework for Action" to be adopted in the presence of more than 80 ministers alongside UNESCO's General Conference. In May 2016 he was elected co-chair of the newly established global SDG Education 2030 Steering Committee. Mr. Vedeler also served as Norway's deputy permanent representative to UNESCO from 2010 – 2013.