This article provides an account of two major global education policy initiatives since the 1990s- Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Using the Indian system of education as an illustrative case study, it discusses the challenges of their implementation in the local contexts and their evolution into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in recent years. In doing so, this article describes the context within which these global policies emerged, the actors involved in drafting the guidelines of these global policy initiatives and their role in policy advocacy at the national level. Since global policy initiatives get translated and enacted in national contexts with distinct local histories, the interpretation of these global policies take place in line with the existing local policy priorities and historical and political traditions.