The relationship between educational and scientific regulatory interventions and socio-economic development in military conflict-affected countries: A Sustainable Development Goals perspective

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Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study investigates the structural relationships between educational and scientific regulatory interventions and socio-economic development in countries affected by armed conflict and political instability, using the framework of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). Rather than focusing on regulatory interventions in a narrow administrative sense, SDG 4 is conceptualized as a reflection of national efforts to improve access to and quality of education, including institutional reforms, policy initiatives, and capacity-building measures in post-conflict settings. The analysis covers 16 countries affected by conflict and instability across Eastern Europe, including Ukraine; the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia); the Middle East (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey); and the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), using data from 2011 to 2020. Employing multivariate confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the study reveals statistically significant and conceptually meaningful covariances between the selected SDGs. The strongest relationship is observed between SDG 8 and SDG 9, underscoring the interdependence of economic growth, industrial development, and innovation. Moderate but significant correlations between SDG 4 and both SDG 8 and SDG 9 highlight the foundational role of education in enabling socio-economic recovery and technological advancement. Key indicators such as primary school completion, secondary and tertiary enrollment, employment in industry and services, and high-tech value-added production serve as measurable proxies for these dynamics. The findings emphasize the importance of aligning education policy with broader development strategies to support resilience and sustainable growth in fragile contexts.

Acknowledgments and research funding
This research was funded by the European Union grants “NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia” (No. 09I03-03-V01-00130) and “Immersive Marketing in Education: Model Testing and Consumers’ Behavior” (No. 09I03-03-V04-00522/2024/VA). This research was also prepared as part of project 0124U000545.

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    • Figure 1. Single-factor CFA model for identifying structural explicit relationships within the SDG 4 as a manifestation of educational and scientific regulatory interventions
    • Figure 2. Multivariate CFA model for identifying structural relationships between educational and scientific regulatory interventions and socio-economic development through the lens of the SDGs
    • Table 1. Characteristics of the input parameters of the study
    • Table 2. Results of univariate CFA to identify structural explicit relationships within SDG 4 as a manifestation of educational and scientific regulatory interventions
    • Table 3. Results of single-factor CFA for identifying structural explicit relationships within SDG 8
    • Table 4. Results of the univariate CFA to identify structural explicit relationships within SDG9
    • Table 5. Covariance relationships between educational and scientific regulatory interventions and socio-economic development through the lens of the SDGs
    • Table 6. Results of estimating the variance of the model variables
    • Table 7. Results of multivariate CFA to identify structural latent relationships within SDG4– SDG8–SDG9
    • Table 8. Indices of modification of the multivariate CFA model to identify structural relationships within SDG4– SDG8–SDG9
    • Conceptualization
      Dariusz Krawczyk, Nadiia Artyukhova, Dmytro Svynarenko, Anna Vorontsova, Artem Artyukhov, Robert Rehak, Tetiana Vasylieva
    • Funding acquisition
      Dariusz Krawczyk
    • Resources
      Dariusz Krawczyk
    • Writing – original draft
      Dariusz Krawczyk, Nadiia Artyukhova, Dmytro Svynarenko, Anna Vorontsova, Artem Artyukhov, Robert Rehak, Tetiana Vasylieva
    • Writing – review & editing
      Dariusz Krawczyk, Nadiia Artyukhova, Dmytro Svynarenko, Anna Vorontsova, Artem Artyukhov, Robert Rehak, Tetiana Vasylieva
    • Data curation
      Nadiia Artyukhova
    • Formal Analysis
      Nadiia Artyukhova
    • Investigation
      Nadiia Artyukhova, Anna Vorontsova
    • Methodology
      Nadiia Artyukhova
    • Software
      Nadiia Artyukhova
    • Validation
      Nadiia Artyukhova, Robert Rehak
    • Visualization
      Nadiia Artyukhova, Dmytro Svynarenko
    • Project administration
      Artem Artyukhov
    • Supervision
      Tetiana Vasylieva