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Through NORCAP, Annelies has been part of an international crisis team for education, the Education Cluster Rapid Response Team (RRT). This is a group of education in emergencies experts who are deployed to support education coordination in humanitarian situations. The team is put together by UNICEF and Save the Children, and for four years, Annelies has been ready to travel to the field on short notice to ensure that rapid access to education is made a priority.
During her last year with the RRT, Annelies provided extended support to as many as 32 countries through deployments and remote support. At the global level, she has contributed extensively to the development of key tools and trainings. She has also managed RRT deployments and individually followed up with country clusters and working groups in need of support.
''One of the best things about being part of the RRT has been the ability to move between the national and the global level, as I worked for shorter periods at each level. This has enabled me to ensure that the support offered and developed at the global level was suited to fit the actual needs on the ground,'' she says.
After outstanding support to NORCAP and the RRT, Annelies has now joined the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) as Global Education Advisor. Earlier this summer, Annelies returned from her latest mission, working as an education expert in Iraq. She helped ensure that the education sector is prepared and coordinated to respond to the large displacement expected for when Iraqi government forces try to re-take Mosul from armed opposition groups.
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6 years of service
Annelies has travelled to a number of chaotic disaster areas, and worked in several large, acute crises in recent years. In 2014-15 she was in Liberia responding to the Ebola crisis. Before that she was in Syria, South Sudan and her first NORCAP mission was to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
She has also lived three years in Nepal in connection with her doctoral thesis, and was part of the response following the devastating earthquake in April 2015.
When asked what advice she would give to new NORCAP deployees, Annelies wastes no time:
''Be positive! The people who are affected by crisis depend on you to cooperate and coordinate effectively to be able to meet their needs. Good collaboration and coordination are vital to ensure an effective response on the ground.''
''Also, remember to trust yourself and your experiences. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel to create good solutions. To adapt experience from elsewhere to the local context can often be of great value,'' Annelies says.
"All crises are different, but I think my overall experience is useful, as certain issues are the same. For instance, the experience I got from the Haiti earthquake, provided me with important lessons to use following the damaging earthquake in Nepal in 2015'', she adds.
Getting children back to school
Last year, Annelies was deployed to Ebola affected Liberia, to coordinate the preparations for schools to re-open safely.
"One of the things we do through the rapid response team, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education in the affected country, is to collect data and get an overview of the extent of the damage to the educational system, the number of children affected and their needs in the crisis area. Then we must quickly create a strategy to give as many children as possible access to schooling, often in trying circumstances", Annelies explains.
Although the government in Liberia was hesitant in the beginning, not quite sure what coordination of the response actually entailed, they quickly realised the added value of the work done by Annelies and her team, and repeatedly said they learned a lot from the collaboration.
"In a conflict or other emergency situation, it is very important to get children into school to protect them physically and psychologically. The school is an incredibly important arena to help children deal with the consequences of a crisis and to give parents time to take care of other needs during or after a crisis", Annelies says.
"Schools in Liberia reopened just after I returned home, so one day I would like to go back to actually see children in school. The work done by the rapid response team in Liberia during the Ebola crisis, is one of the things I am most proud to have achieved, and it all came about due to a coordinated response and people working together'', she says.
A big inspiration
Annelies’ outstanding service to NORCAP has not gone unnoticed. NORCAP Director Benedicte Giæver says Annelies is a big inspiration to the NORCAP employees and to many of her colleagues in the field.
‘’Annelies is extremely professional, always positive and willing to adapt to make the best of the situation and context. Her work has provided children with a chance to build their futures in an otherwise chaotic time of their lives. We are very proud to have her as a NORCAP expert’’, Giæver says.
Annelies is clear that in addition to the close follow up from the NORCAP Head Office, the support from the larger NORCAP community has been of great value.
‘’To be able to connect and share experiences, challenges, successes and lessons learned with other NORCAP members has been great. To me, NORCAP is more than a roster, it’s a community, and I hope to remain in this community for a long time. NORCAP is far from a closed chapter.’’