Today, 75 million children and youth (aged 3 – 18) in crisis-affected countries are in need of education support. A new report by UNHCR and UNESCO highlights that only 50% of refugee children are in primary school and only 25% of adolescents are in secondary school; far below the global average. For internally displaced children and youth, the figure is just as staggering, and sometimes even worse. Action is urgently needed.
Education is poorly prioritised by humanitarian actors and donors alike. Less than 2% of humanitarian funding goes to education. We have an annual $8.5 billion funding gap for education in emergencies every year. Only a handful donors fund education from the early start of an emergency.
A new fund for education
Finally, things may change. Today, at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, a new fund for education in emergencies will be launched. Spearheaded by the UN Special Envoy for Education, Gordon Brown, and a key outcome of the Oslo Summit for Education and Development , the new Education Cannot Wait Fund aims to tackle the financing gap in education. The fund aims to raise $3.85 billion by 2020, and cover the education needs of all crisis affected children by 2030.
The new education fund will be signalled as one of the major outcomes of summit. World leaders and donors must step up their support to education and provide the funding that is so desperately needed to get every child into school. World leaders have said "Education Cannot Wait"; this fund could be a turning point for children and youth in the midst of crisis.
To be truly successful the fund must:
- Mobilise new funding: The fund must mobilise additional funding , and make sure that education funding is not moved from one pool to the new fund. A monitoring mechanism must be put in place to track if new funding is sourced and to uncover unintended negative consequences.
- Get children into school quickly: The fund must rapidly demonstrate measurable results at field level, for children and young people. It must be the guarantee that education is provided alongside other sectors from the outset of an emergency.
- Be prepared for crisis: Lack of emergency preparedness is a major obstacle to rapidly providing education once the crisis hits. The fund must contribute to strengthened emergency response preparedness and disaster risk reduction capacity, especially in countries with recurrent crisis or countries vulnerable to crisis.
- Engage with the experts: A thorough understanding of the needs on ground will be essential when the fund defines its modus operandi. The fund must strengthen its engagement with the experts in the sector, especially field-based civil society organisations and ministries of education. The Education Cluster and the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) are two essential partners.
- Provide real opportunities: Increased funding alone will not solve the education crisis. The fund must address the root causes for why children are not in school, and advocate for key policy barriers to be removed. It must fund and ensure a range of flexible formal and non-formal education opportunities are provided to meet learning needs of all, in line with the INEE Minimum Standards.
A mantra for humanitarian actors and a key focus of World Humanitarian Summit is "leaving no one behind". The Education Cannot Wait fund is our chance to ensure that no child is left behind in education. There are 75 million reasons for why the Education Cannot Wait fund must be successful; 75 million children are counting on the leadership of world leaders meeting in Istanbul today. We must not disappoint them.
Silje Sjøvaag Skeie works as education advisor for NRC. NRC is a pioneer within education in emergencies and provides education for displaced children and youth in some of the world's most conflict-affected countries.
