Amid Great Challenges, Hope Reigns As More Children Reached with Education Support

By Naureen Hossain and Joyce Chimbi
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 2024 – Amid unprecedented global challenges and a growing list of countries in crisis, there is an existential threat to decades of development gains—with the global community marked by intensified armed conflict, forced displacements, and the debilitating effects of climate crises.

One in five children worldwide lives in or flees from conflict. The number of crisis-affected children in need of quality education has increased from 75 million in 2016 to 224 million today.

The global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the UN, Education Cannot Wait, has released their results report for 2023, portraying a vision of determination, hope, courage, and success amid all challenges.

Yasmine Sherif, ECW’s Executive Director, launches the organization’s 2023 annual report: Results Against All Odds. Credit: Estefanía Jiménez/UN

“The report is entitled ‘Results against all odds,’ and you can imagine all odds because we are seeing more armed conflict, a growth of climate-induced disasters and the biggest forced displacement since World War II,” says Yasmine Sherif, ECW’s Executive Director.

To give all children everywhere a lifeline, the report emphasizes the importance of joint programming and funding, noting a USD 600 million gap towards the global fund’s USD 1.5 billion funding target to support quality education for a total of 20 million children by 2026.

“When you fund education… You invest in these children; you make their dreams a reality. By supporting Education Cannot Wait, donors are also investing in the United Nations, as we help realize the Secretary General’s reform on joint programming and coordination, and quality results,” Sherif reminded funders. “It’s a proven model. Whether from the public or private sectors, you can join Education Cannot Wait and be part of reducing the learning crisis and making a difference in the lives of 224 million children.”

And the need is enormous.

Education Cannot Wait’s #AfghanGirlsVoices global campaign highlights real-life testimonies of hope, courage and resilience by Afghan girls denied their right to education. Credit: ECW

Key challenges include gender disparities, which ECW and partners are tackling, with girls representing 51 percent of all children reached by the fund’s overall investments. Within the Fund’s emergency responses portfolio, the proportion of children reached in response to a climate-induced emergency nearly doubled, from 14 percent in 2022 to 27 percent in 2023. The report also highlights the education crisis in Afghanistan, the only country in the world to ban girls’ education, denying  1.5 million girls their most basic right to education. The report also stresses funding shortfalls and advocates for increased investment to achieve the UN’s sustainable development goal on education by 2030, as a foundation to all other goals.

The report shows that school enrollment or attendance improved in 95 percent of ECW-supported programmes; of these, 72 percent showed gender-equitable progress, whereby enrollment or attendance improved for both boys and girls and there was improvement towards gender parity.

Notably, programmes in Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia reported significant increases in children’s participation in formal education despite challenges such as conflict, displacement and climate shocks. Some 86 percent of programmes reporting had transition rates from non-formal to formal education above 60 percent. Slightly over half of programmes achieved retention or completion rates above 75 percent, demonstrating how volatile crisis situations exacerbate global challenges in primary and secondary school completion.

The already enormous needs are growing. Sherif says that in less than a year of renewed conflict in Gaza, “according to the UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, the entire school system has been decimated.” She also pointed to the intensifying conflicts in the Sahel, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Haiti, and the Middle East. “We have the largest displacement crisis in the world in Sudan today, with 4.6 million children displaced, the majority inside Sudan, and over a million as refugees in neighboring countries.”

“I was in Ukraine last week, where the education of 4 million children has been disrupted, especially in the areas close to the front lines. “She also stressed the crisis in Afghanistan. “We are now marking the third anniversary of the ban on girls’ education beyond grade six; an estimated 1.5 million girls cannot attend school due to their gender, this is unacceptable,” she observed.

ECW supports holistic, quality education to ensure no child is left behind. There is a particular focus on closing the gender gap in education, reaching children with disabilities, refugee children, and vulnerable children from host communities, stressing that these children show great determination and resilience in the face of adversity.

Despite multiple, complex, and snowballing challenges, the report shows that ECW and its partners increased education participation, learning, and well-being for children in crisis contexts.

This progress, along with the growing number of children reached, highlights the consistent work of ECW and its partners in meeting the educational needs of crisis-affected children.

However, the report underlines how persistent underfunding is preventing ECW from scaling up its portfolio allocations to reach more boys and girls, with an additional $600 million urgently needed in donor contributions for ECW and partners to meet the Fund’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan’s target of reaching a total of 20 million girls and boys by 2026.

“Speed is important when you operate in crisis. At the same time, it is important to have depth, quality, inclusiveness and sustainability  too.” Sherif called on funders to join ECW and its global partners in providing a package that enables crisis-affected children to learn, heal from their traumas and thrive.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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