By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Apr 7 2025 (IPS-Partners)

Education is an essential investment in providing health to those left furthest behind.

On World Health Day, we must connect the dots between education and health in humanitarian crisis settings. A child attending school gets vaccinations and healthcare, a nutritious meal and mental health and psychosocial services. By funding education, we optimize our investments to cover multiple sectors in one investment, such as health.

“The link between education, health and well-being is clear. Education develops the skills, values and attitudes that enable learners to lead healthy and fulfilled lives, make informed decisions and engage in positive relationships with everyone around them,” according to UNESCO.

At the same time, poor health, hunger, war-trauma and diseases negatively impact academic performance, especially in humanitarian emergencies.

According to UNICEF, humanitarian investments in education and health have substantial returns. Every $1 invested in children and their well-being yields a ten-fold societal return.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and our strategic partners deliver speedy and lifesaving quality education on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. In places like Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti and Cameroon, this means healthy school meals, greater nutrition, safe classrooms and access to public health initiatives that are available at the beginning of school.

Right now, we are making impossible decisions on humanitarian funding that put millions of lives at risk. The most effective way of utilizing financial means is to ensure multiple impact or a holistic and cross-sectoral approach.

Education is one of the single best investments we can make, while also ensuring healthy lives for all. Not the least for the 234 million children and adolescents who today endure unspeakable crises with no other hope than to attend school, survive and thrive. This is what it is all about: the humanitarian imperative is about saving their lives.

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