Education Cannot Wait: A Lifeline for Children in Crisis

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is a global fund dedicated to transforming the delivery of education in emergencies and protracted crises. Recognizing that education is often overlooked in the immediate aftermath of conflict or disaster, ECW plays a pivotal role in ensuring that crisis-affected children and youth have access to quality learning opportunities. By fostering collaboration between public and private partners, ECW leverages additional finance and catalyzes innovative approaches to funding and program implementation.

Addressing the Education Crisis in Haiti

Haiti is facing a dire situation marked by escalating violence, insecurity, and widespread displacement. These challenges have severely impacted the education sector, leaving countless children vulnerable. In response to this crisis, Education Cannot Wait has stepped up its efforts to provide critical support to Haitian children and adolescents.

During a high-level UN mission to Haiti, Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif announced a fast-acting US$2.5 million First Emergency Response grant. This grant aims to provide life-saving access to quality education for girls and boys impacted by the rise in violence, insecurity and forced displacement that has pushed millions of children into harm’s way. This funding brings the total ECW investment in Haiti to over US$15.8 million.

The 12-month grant will be delivered by UNICEF in collaboration with the World Food Programme and other local and international partners. The innovative programme will reach close to 75,000 children and adolescents in the hard-hit Ouest and Artibonite Departments.

“World leaders must not turn their backs on the girls and boys of Haiti. These children, teachers and families have seen their human rights and human dignity ripped from their hands by brutal acts of violence, disorder and chaos. With the power of education, we can protect these girls and boys from the grave risks of sexual violence, forced recruitment in armed groups and other human rights violations. With the power of education, we can lift up an entire nation from a never-ending cycle of hunger, poverty, economic uncertainty and violence,” said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations.

The investment includes innovative cash-transfers, back-to-school incentives, school feeding programmes, early childhood education, disability inclusion, transformative gender approaches, mental health and psychosocial support, environmental sensitization activities, and other holistic education offerings designed to ensure girls and boys have access to safe and protective quality learning environments.

“The education crisis unfolding in Haiti is seriously close to becoming an education tragedy. While enrolment rates were already low before the latest escalation of violence, school closures and mass displacement are robbing thousands more children of their opportunity to learn,” said UNICEF Representative in Haiti, Bruno Maes. “Hence, UNICEF is grateful to Education Cannot Wait for the continued support and commitment to ensure every child in Haiti has access to quality and safe learning.”

Haiti is witnessing unprecedented levels of lawlessness and brutality at the hands of coalitions of armed groups. The compounding impacts of climate change, recurring cyclones and the most recent earthquake are making matters even worse. In all, nearly half of Haiti’s population - some 5.5 million people - are in need of humanitarian aid, and 5 million people are facing acute food insecurity. Nearly 580,000 people are displaced nationwide, a 60% increase since the end of February.

Armed groups are targeting schools and hospitals, with concerning reports of ruthless forms of sexual violence, including gang rape. The UN estimates that 30% to 50% of armed group members could be children.

The Education Cluster estimates that 1.2 million school-aged children are in urgent need of quality education. Schools are being closed or used as displacement centers across the country. An estimated 919 schools are closed in the Ouest (home to the capital Port-au-Prince) and Artibonite Departments alone - meaning that 10% of all schools are closed in these areas.

Despite these urgent needs, according to OCHA, the US$30 million requirement for the education response as part of the country’s humanitarian response plan is only 27% funded.

A Focus on Disability Inclusion

ECW designs and supports education in emergencies and protracted crises programmes that meet the requirements of children and adolescents with disabilities. ECW recognises that education in emergencies and protracted crises must ensure the full and equitable inclusion of all, including children and adolescence with diverse disabilities. In 2022, inspired by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Disability and Inclusion Strategy, ECW produced its first Policy and Accountability Framework pertaining to Disability Inclusion, which is currently being implemented in parallel to ECW's Strategic Plan (2023-2026).

This policy aims to ensure that children and adolescents reached by ECW, including those with disabilities, are able to access inclusive, equitable quality education in safe and protected environments. ECW estimates that over 20% of out-of-school crisis-affected children (over 17 million out of 85 million) are thought to be persons with disabilities. Among these, approximately 12.5 million (75%) live in high-intensity crisis areas, defined as those with an INFORM Severity Index of 4 or higher. Girls with disabilities experience even more severe exclusion, often underrepresented in data and research. Among non-forcibly displaced out-of-school children, 16.8 million have disabilities. Access of children with disabilities to education decreases by the increase of educational stage. For example, access to secondary education is particularly limited, with 41% of crisis-affected children of secondary school age (including those with disabilities) unable to access education.

ECW operates in low- and middle-income countries, where it is estimated that 80% of girls and boys with disabilities live. ECW’s work to enhance access to education and learning of children and adolescents with disabilities takes place at both the global and country level. At the country level, ECW leverages a two-pronged approach. In each programme, ECW seeks to target girls and boys with disabilities through interventions meeting their specific requirements. The Disability Inclusive Education Forum “Reaching the Most Marginalised” was held on 4 December 2020 and hosted by the Government of Norway, Education Cannot Wait, the Global Campaign for Education, Special Olympics, International Disability Alliance (IDA), International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) and Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies.

The Urgency of Education in Emergencies

When conflict or crisis erupts, the educational needs of children and youth are often the last consideration - an afterthought following food, water, shelter and protection. Today, 75 million school-aged children and youth are in desperate need of educational support. Education Cannot Wait is a new global fund to transform the delivery of education in emergencies. It will play a groundbreaking role in ushering in a more collaborative approach to ensure every crisis-affected child and young person is in school and learning. By bringing together public and private partners, Education Cannot Wait will leverage additional finance and catalyse new approaches to funding and innovation to deliver education in emergencies and protracted crises.

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ECW's Response in Nigeria

A decade of armed conflict in north-eastern Nigeria due to the Boko Haram insurgency has displaced millions of people, disrupted livelihoods and left children and adolescents in harm's way. Educational institutions are regularly attacked, including the killing and abductions of learners and teachers, along with other factors such as widespread poverty, many students are out of school. Education Cannot Wait (ECW) partners ensure learning spaces are safe and protective; deliver professional development and well-being for teachers; offer vocational training; provide teaching and learning materials; construct gender- and disability-sensitive water, sanitation and hygiene facilities; and deliver child safeguarding programming.

ECW's interventions in Nigeria focus on:

Increasing learning opportunities and life skills. Grantees provide teaching and learning materials, including school kits, teaching guides and textbooks, to students and schools to support vocational education and training for adolescents, including girls and children with disabilities. To monitor holistic learning outcomes, grantees work with the appropriate representatives to create a national-level monitoring and assessment toolkit on literacy, numeracy and mental health.
Increasing protection and safety. New water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities and campaigns promote hygiene, child protection and child safeguarding at the community level. School leadership, personnel, teachers and school-based management committees receive training on inclusive education. Additionally, gender-informed codes of conduct are developed for school staff and volunteers.
Reintegrating children who left school due to conflict. Classrooms are constructed and rehabilitated to accommodate greater numbers of children returning to school. Grantees engage with communities, education authorities, government officials and relevant NGOs to improve and sustain conflict-affected children’s enrolment in formal education. Funding supports children transitioning from alternative learning programmes to formal schooling. Community training interventions seek to change behaviours and attitudes that prevent girls from accessing education and that may result in recruitment by armed groups. Outreach to parents and guardians provides information on positive child discipline, the prevention of sexual violence, and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) referral pathways.
Supporting teachers. Teachers, especially women, are supported through educator stipends to reduce absenteeism and incentivize teaching in conflict-affected contexts. Teacher training covers inclusion and gender equality. A mentorship programme also supports MHPSS needs.

Rapid Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

ECW responded rapidly and decisively to the global crisis, initiating a plan just two weeks after the first COVID-19 case appeared in an ECW-supported country. Within just 21 days, ECW allocated $23 million from its First Emergency Response (FER) reserve and an additional $22.4 million was approved in July 2020. Some 75% of COVID-19 FERs were distributed within eight weeks, making this ECW’s most rapid disbursement of funds to date.

ECW’s rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic allowed the greatest possible number of students to be reached with interventions before education loss irreversibly changed their futures. The United Nations estimates that since March 2020, over 1.5 billion children have experienced a prolonged interruption in education during the pandemic caused by school closures.

ECW’s rapid COVID-19 response contributes to ensuring that some of the world’s most vulnerable girls, boys and adolescents are able to continue their education following school closures via alternative forms of (distance) learning. It is expected that increased funding will be necessary in the coming years to address the repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis on the most vulnerable children and youth.

Addressing Challenges in Mali and the Sahel Region

In Mali, and in the surrounding Sahel region, ongoing conflict and insecurity have disrupted the lives of millions of people. The violence, along with the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, has left half of the out-of-school children exposed to recruitment by armed forces, child marriage, forced labour and other forms of exploitation and abuse. Education Cannot Wait (ECW) supports partners to strengthen the education sector through educator training, community engagement, safe learning spaces and support for displaced children.

ECW's strategies in Mali include:

Engaging the community. A national back-to-school campaign engages community members in targeted regions to increase enrolment through student ambassadors. Community mobilization activities and assemblies focusing on gender mainstreaming and girls’ inclusion in education are held for village chiefs, counsellors, and women and youth. This facilitates registration and enrolment in accelerated learning centres. Communal committees are established to monitor the community as well as the participation in school of children with disabilities and displaced children.
Increasing access to learning spaces. Access to education provided through the rehabilitation or construction of classrooms and temporary learning spaces, to prevent students from dropping-out and facilitate the reintegration of out-of-school students.
Providing remedial courses and improving learning outcomes. ECW helps thousands of internally displaced students to prepare for their end of the year examinations through remedial courses. The vast majority pass and continue with secondary schooling, where they are supported with transportation, meals and health kits.
Training educators. Training provided for educators, school management committees and parent associations on safe schools and child protection.

Promoting Peacebuilding and Social Cohesion

ECW recognizes that education can play a vital role in advancing peacebuilding, fostering social cohesion, and reinforcing resilience in crisis-affected settings. The organization supports programs and partners that integrate these principles into their work.

Empowering Girls through Education

ECW is committed to empowering girls through education, recognizing that girls are often disproportionately affected by conflict and crisis. The organization supports initiatives that challenge harmful gender norms and promote girls' education. For example, Girls’ Education Movement Clubs empower girls and engage boys as allies to challenge harmful gender norms and promote girls’ education.

Strengthening Local Systems

ECW recognizes the importance of strengthening local and institutional systems to ensure the sustainability of education programs. The organization supports initiatives that empower local women’s organizations (LWOs) and build their capacity to deliver quality education.

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