El Sistema: Music for Sustainability Goals and Education

This study examines how El Sistema, a global social music education program active in over 60 countries, contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The program is analyzed using Sheerens’ CIPO (Context–Input–Process–Output) framework, which enables comprehensive evaluation of education from design and implementation to outcomes beyond simple result-focused assessment. The framework also accounts for political, social, and economic contexts, making it effective for understanding country-specific cases. Using this approach, this study analyzed how El Sistema has been localized across five representative case countries—Scotland, the United States, Sweden, Republic of Korea, and Japan. Data were collected through a narrative review integrating academic studies and credible non-academic sources, including government and organizational reports, program brochures, official websites, news articles, and multimedia materials. Findings indicate alignment with SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 16, and 17. Country-specific strategies include community engagement in Scotland (SDG 17), partnerships in the United States (SDG 17), immigrant integration in Sweden (SDGs 11, 16), inclusive music education and cultural revitalization in the Republic of Korea (SDGs 11, 16, 17), and quality and healing education for disaster-affected and disabled children in Japan (SDG 11). These results suggest that El Sistema can serve as a sustainable model of social music education when supported by localized strategies, stable resources, multi-level governance, systematic evaluation, and proactive engagement with environmental initiatives.