Key Stakeholders Commit to Improving Education in Emergencies

In today’s education crisis, 127 million school-age children are currently out of school and living in states of emergency, a situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic school closures and other prevailing effects around the world. Questions of access to quality education and the wellness of learners and teachers are at the forefront of conversations surrounding education, locally and globally. While many organizations are working diligently to address the various challenges children face today, often one of the primary impediments is a lack of collective action.

In honor of the International Day of Education (January 24th), UNESCO and partners launched the Geneva Global Education in Emergencies (EIE) Hub, fulfilling a promise made at the 2019 Global Refugee forum held in Geneva, Switzerland. The project, a pledge for collaboration among high-level stakeholders, seeks to facilitate collaborative political, technical, and economic efforts to provide education in emergencies. The Geneva Global EIE Hub aims to coordinate the currently fragmented efforts for education in emergencies through data research and collective action to support the resiliency, safety, and quality of education systems.

The Hub is an opportunity to build holistic approaches to providing education in emergencies by reconciling the educational needs of vulnerable children with the Sustainable Development Goal 4, which targets quality education for all by 2030. Co-signatories of the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies pledged to protect all children’s rights, including crisis-affected and displaced children, to inclusive, safe, quality education by engaging with an array of education and development actors and scholars.

Co-signatories of this pledge include Education Cannot Wait, the Global Education Cluster, the Graduate Institute of International Development Studies, the Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Switzerland, the University of Geneva, UNESCO, UNHCR, and UNICEF. The co-signatories represent stakeholders in education across multiple sectors to jump start the holistic approach to providing education in emergencies. According to a UNESCO article detailing the launch of the Hub, “working in silos is no longer an option.”[1]

Watch the Launch of the EIE Hub

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Note:
[1] “UNESCO and Partners Launch of the Geneva Global Education in Emergencies Hub,” January 28, 2021. https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-and-partners-launch-geneva-global-education-emergencies-hub