By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jul 14 2025 (IPS-Partners)

On the first International Day of Hope, we are all responsible to #KeepHopeAlive for the children impacted by the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. Perhaps the strongest responsibilities lie with those entrusted to lead the world and make the right moral and legal choices. This is especially so today, when we have led the world into an abyss of excruciating pain for nearly a quarter of a billion innocent children now suffering brutal conflicts and violence, forced displacement and punishing climate disasters – without quality education.

Now is the time for genuine empathy and profound maturity among all of us who were privileged to access quality education. We are all connected, and we are all responsible for the young generation. We must serve as role models and pave the way for a better future.

Our investment in their education is an investment in peace, an investment in sustainable development, an investment in economic prosperity, and an investment in the unique potential of the world’s children and youth. Just like we once enjoyed such investment or made such investment in our own children.

Our world is changing fast. Across the globe – in Gaza, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine, Sudan and beyond – children and adolescents have no access to education and are losing hope. To make matters worse, we have a compounding climate crisis directly impacting the education and lifelong trajectories of every girl and boy on Earth.

To keep hope alive, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and our global strategic partners go full force together to make whatever difference we can make in the life of each child we meet, providing them with safe, quality education that brings them hope, builds self-reliance and an ability to survive and thrive with dignity.

As we actively embrace the UN80 Initiative, we all must work together, comply with the UN Charter and stand by the promises made in 1945. By working together, we can and must ensure that every child and adolescent calling for help to reclaim hope is heard. We cannot turn a deaf ear to their desperate cries.

By investing in their potentials and by recognizing their extraordinary resilience, quality education will change their lives and their entire world view. This is the time to #KeepHopeAlive and not turn away as their hopes crumble. They live through darkness. We must kindle their light.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 16 2025 (IPS-Partners)

As we commemorate International Day of the African Child, we honor the courage, resilience and dreams of millions of children and youth across Africa. Their potential is limitless, their right to a quality education is non-negotiable.

There is clear evidence highlighting the value of education in building strong economies and ensuring peace and stability across the continent. Foundational learning has the potential to double the GDP per capita in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, according to the World Bank. Additional analysis indicates that every US$1 invested in tripling pre-primary education enrolment in sub-Saharan Africa can generate up to US$33 in returns.

With just a small investment in education for all of Africa’s children, we could transform a continent, open vast untapped markets, and deliver on the promises outlined in the Pact for the Future and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Yet, too many children are being left behind. About half of the world’s 234 million crisis-impacted school-aged children reside in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Education Cannot Wait (ECW). Learning poverty is further exacerbating cycles of poverty, displacement and crises. Did you know that four out of five African children cannot read or understand a simple text by age 10?

To address these challenges, we must invest in quality education for the youngest and fastest-growing continent in the world. Across Africa, ECW investments have already reached over 7.4 million girls and boys, with a focus on foundational learning, gender equality, teacher training and psychosocial support – a whole-of-child learning approach.

Today – expanding on the African Union’s ‘Year of Education 2024’ efforts to build resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality and relevant learning in Africa – we call on world leaders, donors and the private sector to fund education in emergencies through proven multilateral funds like Education Cannot Wait.

We can and we must keep hope alive for the children of Africa.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 12 2025 (IPS-Partners)

As we mark today’s World Day Against Child Labour, we must confront an urgent global truth: over 160 million children around the world are engaged in child labour – many of them in the most dangerous, degrading and life-limiting conditions imaginable. These are children forced to work in fields, factories and conflict zones – deprived of their right to safety, to dignity and, above all, to an education.

At Education Cannot Wait (ECW), we know that education is the single most powerful tool we have to break this cycle of poverty, exploitation and lost potential. Education offers children worldwide a pathway to a better life: a life where their dreams, not their circumstances, define their future.

In crisis-affected contexts, where children are most at risk, access to quality education is truly a lifeline – shielding girls and boys from violence, forced labour, child marriage, trafficking and other atrocities.

Together, we are doing something about it. Delivered with our strategic donor partners, ECW’s investments have already reached over 11 million children and adolescents in crisis settings. This is an investment in an end to child labour, an end to unfair working conditions, an end to cycles of poverty, displacement, violence and chaos.

This global crisis demands global action. We must increase financing for education in emergencies and protracted crises, strengthen child protection systems, and empower communities to keep children – especially girls and boys living on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises – safe and in school.

ECW calls on world leaders, donors, civil society and the private sector to unite in solidarity and take bold, collective action. Every dollar invested in education is an investment in sustainable economic development, global security and resilient societies. Every dollar invested in education is an investment to end child labour – now and forever.

Let us act with urgency. Let us act with compassion. And let us act with the unwavering belief that every child – regardless of who they are or where they live – has the right to a quality education and the freedom to learn, grow and thrive.

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Education is a humanitarian lifeline for the world’s most vulnerable children. Our investment in their education today is an investment in global security, economic stability and continued growth in the 21st century.

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, May 26 2025 (IPS-Partners)

The challenges facing many parts of the African continent today are vast and immense. From the surge in violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to all-out-war in Sudan, years of progress are being obliterated by bombs, killings and other grave violations of international law.

The single best investment we can make in addressing these multiplying humanitarian crises is an investment in the vast potential and talents of Africa’s younger generations. By investing in their education, we empower them to prevent conflicts, end extreme poverty and ensure economic development, peace and stability. Without investing in education as part of this broader vision, none of these imperatives will be materialized.

The returns on investment are significant. As noted by the World Bank, foundational learning has the potential to double the GDP per capita in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050.

Responding to the education funding gap

Many traditional donor countries have dramatically reduced humanitarian aid in the past year, with recent analysis from UNESCO revealing a concerning drop of 14% in global aid to education. Yet, we all want to see a stable and prosperous Africa – a continent that deserves no less.

Still, Africa is falling even further behind. Estimates from UNESCO indicate that, worldwide, there is a US$100 billion funding gap to reach the goal for universal education as outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with US$70 billion of this gap found in sub-Saharan Africa.

Learning poverty is a concerning global trend. Nowhere is this more pressing than across Africa. Around four out of five African children cannot read or understand a simple text by age 10, according to UNESCO, and many struggle with basic numeracy skills.

Compounding challenges like conflict, climate change and forced displacement are derailing development gains and impeding access to life-saving education in humanitarian crises – an investment that is indispensable to achieve peace and economic prosperity. According to the recent global estimates study by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), about half of the world’s 234 million crisis-impacted school-aged children reside in sub-Saharan Africa.

An entire generation is being left behind. “Although 75 million more African children are enrolled in school today compared to 2015, the number of out-of-school children has increased by 13.2 million to over 100 million during the same period,” according to the 2025 Transforming Learning and Skills Development in Africa report.

You cannot have sustainable economic growth without stability. And you cannot achieve stability without education. Africa is a continent on the move, a continent of forced displacement as a consequence of armed and violent conflicts, as well as climate change.

“In 2020, 21 million Africans were living in another African country. Since 1990, the number of African migrants living outside of the region has more than doubled, with the growth in Europe most pronounced. In 2020, most African-born migrants living outside the region were residing in Europe (11 million), Asia (nearly 5 million) and North America (around 3 million),” according to the World Migration Report.

Our collective failure to respond to this pressing education crisis will have dire global consequences.

The situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Just look at the terrifying situation unravelling in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This region has been plagued by violence for decades, but it’s gotten much, much worse in recent months.

In all, there are an estimated 3.5 million forcibly displaced children in DRC today. Millions risk unimaginable violations of their human rights, including killing, maiming, abduction and forced recruitment into armed groups. There are also unconscionable accounts of sexual violence against girls. In eastern DRC, a child is reported raped every half an hour, according to UNICEF.

How can we tolerate the magnitude and depth of young girls and boys being systematically raped and killed? “More than 79 million girls and women – over 1 in 5 – across sub-Saharan Africa have experienced rape or sexual assault before turning 18,” according to UNICEF. Let’s put that number in perspective. That’s more than the total population of Australia and Spain combined.

For the children living in the midst of this chaos and fear, the options are limited. For girls, it’s a future as a child bride, continued poverty and early pregnancies. For boys, it might look like forced recruitment into terrorist organizations and other armed groups, forced labour or migration. For the world, this means growing forced displacement and migration, deeper and more widespread insecurity across the Global South, unstable markets, unstable populations and unstable futures.

The consequences of the war in Sudan

The situation in Sudan is soul-shattering and must end now. Recent estimates indicate that 30 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 16 million children. More than 12 million people have been displaced inside and outside Sudan since April 2023, straining education systems, budgets and capacity in neighbouring countries.

In all, the conflict and continuing challenges – including forced displacement, climate change, poverty and other factors – have left about 16.5 million children out of school in Sudan.

Education is the solution

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and its strategic partners are making a value proposition to increase humanitarian funding for education in Africa and beyond. In doing so, we contribute to joint programming on education, hence the broader goal of peace, stability and economic development.

There is a strong economic argument to be made. Africa is the youngest, fastest growing continent on earth – 6 out of 10 people are under the age of 25.

Within all that youth and energy lies opportunity. According to the World Bank, there is a 10% increase in hourly earnings for every extra year of schooling.

At the same time, taken at a macro-economic level, the opportunity costs are unprecedented. “This generation of students now risks losing a combined total of US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or the equivalent of 17% of today’s global GDP – a sharp rise from the 2021 estimate of a US$17 trillion loss.”

The returns on investment in sub-Saharan Africa may be even more substantial, with some analyses indicating that every US$1 invested in tripling pre-primary education enrolment can generate up to US$33 in returns.

A lasting legacy

Education – as a transformative, immediate, life-saving and long-term investment –breaks cycles of poverty, displacement and conflict. Only then can we achieve peace, stability and economic development.

Deep inside us, we all agree that we can do better as a global community. We all know, instinctively, that the world would be a better place if we reduced global military spending – topping US$2.7 trillion – and instead invested in education, health, governance, infrastructure and livelihoods. We do know that we can be creative and turn vision into practical results. All it takes is investing just 0.02% (US$600 million) of this into education – and similar amounts into other sectors – which, together, provide the transformational power to build stability, spread peace and generate significant economic returns. This is not just logic. This is a legacy worth living.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, May 23 2025 (IPS-Partners)

22 May 2025, New York – In the past two months alone, more than 950 children have reportedly been killed in strikes across the Gaza Strip. That’s 15 children every day who lose their lives in this horrific conflict. Those who survive face the risk of famine, illness, and the collapse of essential services, including education.

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) stands ready with our partners to support the delivery of mental health and psychosocial services as part of our education in emergency response to the children who have suffered so much over the past 19 months. Today, no child is safe in Gaza.

The education system is in ruins. Since the onset of hostilities, more than 95% of schools in Gaza have been partially or completely destroyed and 88% will require significant reconstruction before they can function, according to the Global Education Cluster.

More than 658,000 children are out of school – they are deeply traumatized, have lost their homes and their loved ones, and are living a daily life of extremely painful survival.

As UNICEF recently stated: “The daily suffering and killing of children must end immediately.”

For the well-being of children to be protected, safe access to education must urgently be restored. Even amidst the destruction, Gaza’s families, teachers and local organizations are doing what they can to mitigate the enormous impact on children, including limited learning activities where conditions allow. Through ECW’s support to partners on the ground, we must help these innocent children.

But this is far from being enough to meet the needs of the entire population of school-aged girls and boys. To scale up urgent education support, a ceasefire is crucially needed. We call for:

• An end to hostilities and respect for international humanitarian law by all parties
• Safe, unimpeded humanitarian access
• The immediate release of all hostages
• Protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools

As Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said in his statement to the UN Security Council: “Our response as humanitarians is to make a single ask of the Council: let us work. The UN and our partners are desperate to resume humanitarian aid at scale across Gaza, in line with the fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.”

Where children suffer excruciating pain, nothing can wait. Yet, the children in Gaza are desperately waiting for a response to this single ask.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Apr 24 2025 (IPS-Partners)

There is a global digital divide, threatening to leave entire generations of women and girls behind. Today, we place them at the centre of our shared massive action as we commemorate International Girls in ICT Day. Today, we reaffirm our commitment to harness the transformative power of education and provide these girls with the training, skills and resources they need to be part of the digital revolution that is shaping our planet. Today, we must recommit to financing their education.

The digital divide is nowhere more pronounced than on the frontlines of armed conflict, climate change and forced displacement. “Globally, there are 244 million fewer women than men using the internet, limiting access to education, job opportunities and innovation,” according to UNESCO. In Africa, for instance, “cultural barriers, cost and mobility restrictions prevent many girls from accessing technology and digital learning.”

In fact, in sub-Saharan Africa, for every 100 men that know how to use a spreadsheet, there are only 40 women with the same skills. Some recent analysis from UNICEF indicates that 90% of adolescent girls and young women are offline. That’s 9 out of 10 denied access to the limitless information and opportunities that the internet provides.

Despite these challenges, we know that access to education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) can have a profound impact.

I think of the brave girls and teachers of the Afghan Girls’ Robotics Team. These real-life Rule Breakers – led by Education Cannot Wait’s Global Champion Somaya Faruqi – competed in robotics competitions worldwide. Through their brave acts, they learned to build and program robots, they acquired new skills in engineering and technology, and they served as ambassadors for girls in science and technology everywhere. These are the pioneers that will break through the glass ceiling and pave the way for millions of girls worldwide to access the internet and find careers in technology.

There is a strong economic case to support girls’ access to information and communication technology. According to UNESCO, we could boost global GDP by €600 billion by 2027 if we doubled the share of women in the tech workforce.

To get there, we are going to need to break some rules. That means using our wealth in the North to share with the girls of Afghanistan – and across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America – and empower them to embrace technology for girls of all ages.

We must accelerate funding to ensure children caught in humanitarian emergencies, just like Somaya Faruqi, can triumph again and again, thanks to their access to education and technology. Despite the seemingly impossible odds, they have proven that girls can stand up, learn technology and win the sprint – not just nationally or regionally, but also globally.

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The ruins of a residential building in northern Gaza following an Israeli airstrike. Credit: UNICEF/Mohammed Nateel

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Apr 21 2025 (IPS-Partners)

Creativity and innovation are essential to finding extraordinary solutions to abnormal problems. Now more than ever we must continue finding creative solutions to protect the world’s most vulnerable children from the excruciating pain of war, dispossession and destruction of their last hope: a quality education. The current humanitarian and development funding levels are falling. However, with creativity we can prevent further deterioration and instead turn towards an upward direction.

With bold, innovative action and connected problem-solving in a world of abundance we can better connect the dots between donors, governments, the private sector, UN agencies, civil society and other key partners to unleash our wealth of humanity towards those in unwanted scarcity: the world’s most vulnerable children whose only wealth is their hope for a quality education.

In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published his groundbreaking theory, “On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres.” His new ideas sparked a revolution by placing the Sun – rather than the Earth – at the centre of our solar system.

We need a Copernican Revolution of our own today – one guided by data, evidence, creativity and innovation, and the highest of all values: empathy. We can then deliver on the reforms envisioned in the UN80 Initiative, Pact for the Future and other initiatives designed to reimagine the delivery of humanitarian aid. In short, we must place children at the center of our universe and use education as our single most powerful instrument to tap their vast potential. Only then can their hope turn into reality.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations, is embracing evidence-driven reforms to streamline our operations and ensure every donor dollar creates a positive impact on the lives of children caught on the frontlines of conflict, climate change and forced displacement. With the lowest overhead costs, we are lean, agile and fast-acting, and we place children and adolescents in emergencies and protracted crises at the center of everything we do.

Our work – and our value proposition – is driven by data and evidence to achieve optimal results and impact. Let’s start with the growing needs. When ECW became operational in 2017, it was estimated that approximately 75 million crisis-affected children needed education support. Today, with violent conflicts in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, horrific shocks from climate change-related natural disasters, and a unprecedented rise in human displacement and migration, that number has skyrocketed to nearly a quarter of a billion – 234 million to be precise.

Data also tell us that a lack of quality education – especially across the Global South – is costing us trillions of dollars in lost opportunities every year. “Limited educational opportunities and barriers for girls cost the world economy between US$15 trillion and US$30 trillion. In nine countries, the cost of out-of-school children was estimated to be greater than the value of an entire year of GDP growth,” according to the World Bank.

Additionally, investing US$1 in early childhood education can generate returns as high as US$17 for the most disadvantaged children worldwide. Imagine the impact every dollar could have in creating a million more opportunities for the world’s most vulnerable children.

Given the current funding environment, we must embrace our creative problem-solving and solutions orientation. Besides revisiting budgets and finding human-centred solutions to those left furthest behind, another creative approach toward resource mobilization comes from impact investments. Through partnerships with visionary businesses like Swiss Cantonal Banks and Tribe Impact Capital LLP, Education Cannot Wait is able to connect private capital with public goods as a driving force toward long-term economic growth, resilience and security. With the ability to crowd-in resources and expertise, pool funds and broker partnerships, ECW is igniting global reform to deliver on a development sector, such as education, in humanitarian crises with coordination, speed and impact.

Together with our strategic donor partners, ECW is reimagining the way we deliver life-saving education supports on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. One thing is certain, by following Copernicus’ evidence-based vision – and placing children at the center of our collective efforts – we can make the seemingly impossible possible – provided that we all do our part keeping our eyes on what really matters: those left furthest behind and every child’s right to a quality education – especially when this is their very last hope. By transforming their lives through a quality education, we empower them to arise from their suffering and become creative and innovative contributors to their society and, indeed, all of humanity.

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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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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Mar 13 2025 (IPS-Partners)

Millions of children worldwide are going hungry, and we all know that hungry children cannot learn. On International School Meals Day, we are calling on donors to significantly scale-up funding for school feeding to ensure every child can go to school, every child can access at least one nutritious meal a day, and every child can concentrate, develop and achieve.

Our investment in school meals saves lives through education in emergencies. It also offers significant economic returns that pave the way for strong economies and increased global security. In fact, according to the World Food Programme (WFP) State of School Feeding Worldwide Report, every dollar invested in school meals has a $9 return. These returns cut across numerous sectors, including agriculture, education, health and nutrition, and social protection.

The benefits for learners are significant. According to WFP: “Every day, over 100 million children in low- and lower-middle-income countries are going hungry. Millions go to school on an empty stomach – hunger affects their concentration and ability to learn. There are also millions – particularly girls – who simply do not go to school because their families need them to help in the fields or perform domestic duties. In conflict-affected countries, children are twice as likely to be out of school than their peers in stable countries – 2.5 times more likely, in the case of girls.”

Investing in healthy school meals – especially in crisis contexts – is an investment in local economies and an investment in local human capital. It’s an investment in the future engineers, teachers and technicians that will drive positive change to end repeated cycles of hunger, displacement and poverty.

Working together with partners, ECW provides significant investments each year in school feeding. The most recent analysis indicates that ECW investments for quality school feeding interventions active in 2023 reached over 300,000 children across nine countries.

In Ethiopia, ECW investments reached around 100,000 children through school feeding programmes. Recognizing that poverty was a crucial factor keeping children out of school, the programme involved families and community members to manage the programme and provide in-kind contributions like building kitchen houses or providing firewood to cook the hot meals.

In Cameroon and Haiti, ECW funding delivered by WFP is focused on local procurement from smallholder farmers. This not only ensures nutritious meals for young learners, but also strengthens the local food system and local economy.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, over 39,000 students in 69 schools have received nutritious meals through an ECW-funded programme delivered by UNICEF.

The needs are skyrocketing. With ongoing conflicts in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan creating ripple effects across Africa – and indeed across the globe – we must ensure that school meals in education investments remain at the top of the international humanitarian funding agenda.

ECW connects across various sectors to accelerate the collective impact of humanitarian funding. Together, we can keep hope alive for the 234 million crisis-impacted children that urgently need our support.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Feb 20 2025 (IPS-Partners)

The central theme of this year’s World Day of Social Justice is to “strengthen a just transition for a sustainable future.” Education is the very foundation for achieving social justice. Without an education we cannot end extreme poverty and advance economic growth. Without an education we cannot empower young girls to become teachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers, let alone financially self-reliant. Without an education we cannot achieve good governance, the rule of law and peaceful co-existence.

Social justice in all its forms requires education, be it formal education through grade 12, onto tertiary education, or vocational skills training. There is simply no other way. Education is the path to social justice. As a global community, we are all interconnected and it is thus in our interest to ensure that children worldwide benefit from an education. However, nearly a quarter of a billion children living on the frontlines of the world’s most devastating humanitarian crises do not access a quality education. This will not bode well for them, nor for us.

This global education crisis will have vast impacts on our global society, and our quest for social justice. I think of the brave women of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, including our own ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi, who broke gender norms on their quest to learn more about science, technology, engineering and math. Coming out next month, their story will be told in the inspiring movie Rule Breakers. But, much more needs to be done. Social justice does not exist for the women and girls of Afghanistan today, nor in many other parts of the world torn apart by brutal conflicts, forced displacement, climate change or oppressive societal norms.

Since ECW was founded just a few years ago, this global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, together with all our strategic donor partners and implementing partners, have reached a total of 11.4 million children with quality education. With increased funding support, we can provide millions more with access to quality education, and contribute to social justice.

The provision of a quality education fit for the 21st Century is the single best investment we can make to empower children and youth, create stronger economies, and ensure a peaceful co-existence in the world. There is no other promise, and no other pathway that can substitute education as the safest road to social justice.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Feb 11 2025 (IPS-Partners)

A global alert is not an option. It requires global action. Over the past three years, the number of crisis-impacted school-aged children in need of urgent quality education support has grown by an alarming 35 million, according to Education Cannot Wait’s new Global Estimates Report.

The recently published report offers a stark and brutal alert for the future of 234 million girls and boys enduring the frontlines of the world’s most dire humanitarian crises. Their access to a quality education is non-existent. We cannot stand by and let the consequences avalanche into a total collapse. They desperately need our urgent collective global action, now.

The complex and horrific disruption of education in Gaza, the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Ukraine and beyond are utterly dangerous and harmful to them and all of us. Without action, we are pushing even more children into harm’s way. Without a quality education, we risk repeating cycles of displacement, instability, insecurity, uncertainty, chaos and mayhem. We risk leaving an entire generation behind. This will have severe impact on their lives, as well as all our lives.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and all our partners – be it strategic donors, the private sector, ministries of education, UN agencies, civil society and local communities – have proven again and again that it is indeed possible to make a difference and a bold impact. It is indeed possible to extinguish the fire, reduce the speed of the avalanche and turn challenges into opportunities. In just a few years, we jointly and collectively delivered a continued quality education to over 11 million children and adolescents in the harshest circumstances on earth.

With more funding, we could double that number in just over a year. With even more funding, we can and will eventually become a collective force of nature that makes sure that every child and young person in crises reaches their potential. When they reach their potential through a quality education, they will be the force of nature for their societies and the world at large, be it in science, in business, as highly-qualified teachers, or any other profession that every society needs to thrive and make an impact.

The needs have never been greater. At the same time, the evidenced-based model for success has never been stronger. This is not the time to fear to fail, nor for closing our eyes to the reality, or the power of education to resolve it.

This is an investment in the human potential at its best. It is an investment in stronger economies and greater stability across the globe. No one loses. All are winners.

According to the United Nations, there is a US$100 billion annual financing gap to achieve the education targets in low- and lower-middle income countries. ECW is calling for a tiny part of that figure to make a major impact. That is US$600 million to deliver on the goals outlined in our four-year strategic plan: to reach 20 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents.

The need for collaboration has never been more important. In January, ECW and our close strategic partner the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) issued a Complementarity Note that underscores the value-addition of our individual organizations and charts a path toward increased results, impact, coordination and collaboration. We ensure that there is no duplication, nor double funding. Rather, we provide a holistic approach based on each other’s comparative advantage. The same applies for the third funding mechanism of IFFEd, the International Finance Facility for Education. With the resources required, these three funds work with all our partners to deliver comprehensively and completely. It is possible.

In Sudan, for example, recent analysis from OCHA indicates that of the 4.2 million targeted through the humanitarian response toward education, only 777,000 have been reached thus far, and of the US$131 million humanitarian funding ask for education, only US$22.8 million has been funded thus far. That is an 83% funding gap.

It is astonishing considering that education is both lifesaving and has the power to reduce aid-dependency in the long run. Now, more than ever, we need to step up funding for education in emergencies and protracted crises. Humanitarian, development, public and private sector funding can make a huge contribution to address the vicious cycle of humanitarian crises.

We should make no mistake: the children and adolescents in crises are extremely resilient due to their soul-shattering experiences. Once they get an education, they will certainly tap into extraordinary innovation, unbreakable courage and a limitless source of creativity. Then, they will show us how to make the impossible possible.

In conclusion, we need to connect the dots and see the whole picture. Climate change is no less of a major factor in disrupting education than conflict. Indeed, conflicts, climate change and forced displacement are all interconnected humanitarian crises. In this month’s high-level interview, we discuss the connection between education and climate change with ECW’s Climate Champion Adenike Oladosu. Funding climate change demands funding education, too. We cannot afford to separate the two.

Or, as the multi-faceted Leonardo da Vinci once said: “Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

The 234 million children and adolescents deprived of a quality education are connected to 8 billion people, our future as a human species and the progress of our world. Making an investment requires us to see the whole picture. It is not an option. It is a call for action.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait

IPS UN Bureau

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Yasmine Sherif with children at a school in Ethiopia

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Dec 20 2024 (IPS)

As 2024 comes to a close, I dare to say that this has been an especially gruesome year for millions upon millions of young children, their parents and their teachers. The world has witnessed one horrific crisis of cruelty, dispossession and human suffering after another.

Ukraine has entered its worst winter, suffering a brutal war with 65% of its energy supplies destroyed. While the West Bank is increasingly under attack, Gaza is still under bombardment, 1 million Palestinians lack shelter in the cold and, as the Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator for OCHA, Tom Fletcher, stated, “Gaza is apocalyptic right now.”

Meanwhile, the gruesome internal armed conflict in Sudan rages on, having caused over 11 million internally displaced and over 3 million refugees in neighboring countries. Each carries the yoke of profound human suffering. From Lebanon, Yemen and the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to the Sahel and across sub-Saharan Africa, millions of children have very little hope left for a future.

Girls in Afghanistan beyond grade 6 remain shackled to their homes, banned from continuing their learning. Countless children have to live with the life-long consequences of surviving rape and brutal sexual violence – sometimes as mere babies – in armed conflicts in the DRC, North-East Nigeria and beyond. In the Sahel, children have to flee their villages on fire with nothing more than their last piece of cloth on their frail bodies. In Latin America, Venezuelan refugee children continue to struggle in exile, facing dangers in every corner, from trafficking and gangs, to missing out on the opportunity of an education and a future.

These are real examples of some of the 44 countries and contexts in which ECW invests financial resources towards a holistic quality education, safe learning environments and school meals.

The question is: are we all doing enough?

As many will know, Education Cannot Wait is a global platform in the UN system, hosted by UNICEF. It is made up of our High-Level Steering Group, our Executive Committee and our Secretariat, along with strategic public and private donor partners, Ministers of Education and numerous admirable and hard-working UN and civil society partners, as well as communities.

ECW is able to deliver with speed because it is a catalyst that brings together partners who operate with the same level of commitment, energy and determination. We are also able to deliver with depth and quality because we share the same vision of a child-centered approach and learning outcomes.

In the midst of this very dark year, Education Cannot Wat delivered on its mission, making more than US$228 million in investments, including US$44 million in First Emergency Responses, US$176 million in Multi-Year Resilience Programmes and US$8 million in Acceleration Facility grants – the latter for piloting innovative approaches.

Our funding gap was further closed as we reached nearly US$1 billion in financial resources for our 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. But more resources are urgently needed if we are to cater to the actual needs and reach, at minimum, 20 million children (pre-school, primary and secondary) and their teachers by the end of this strategic period.

With an additional US$570 million, we can completely close this gap. It is possible. When annual military expenditures worldwide stand at US$2.4 trillion, there is no justification whatsoever to fail in investing a minimum of US$570 million for Education Cannot Wait to support lifesaving and life-sustaining education for children enduring the brunt of man-made and climate crises; as well as to invest substantive financial resources to our sister-funds, such as the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd).

As our ongoing analysis and research at Education Cannot Wait indicates, the number of children in emergencies and protracted crises – who are denied or deprived an education – is getting closer to a quarter of a billion children and adolescents. We can prevent this.

While we are all trying to do something, we can and must do so much more. It is possible.

This leads me to the founder and outgoing High-Level Steering Group Chair of Education Cannot Wait, The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education. He had a vision that led to the creation of Education Cannot Wait. Joined by strategic partners in governments, the UN and civil society, he pulled through its establishment at the World Humanitarian Summit.

In just a few years, this vision has turned into over 11 million children, adolescents and teachers benefitting from a quality education in the harshest circumstances around the globe.

In the immortal words of Viktor Frankl: “The world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his [and her] best.”

The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown did his best and has made an incredible difference transforming millions of lives and generations to come.

Let his legacy inspire us all.

With this, on behalf of the whole Education Cannot Wait family, I wish you Happy Holidays. May 2025 be a brighter year.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait

IPS UN Bureau

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Nov 1 2024 (IPS)

Africa has the youngest population in the world today. Around 40% of the population is 15 or younger. They have a non-negotiable right to an inclusive and continued quality education, just like young people everywhere across the globe.

As we celebrate Africa Youth Day – and the African Union year of education – we call on world leaders to substantially increase investments in education across the African continent. We can no longer leave them behind. It is time to put them at the forefront.

It is inconceivable that only one in ten children aged 10 in sub-Saharan Africa can read and comprehend a sentence. This is a distressing fact and cause for real alarm.

The potential of the children and adolescents of Africa is unlimited. I have seen their eagerness to learn, their gratitude for every opportunity and their powerful desire to get an education – from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa and beyond.

Sadly, another fact remains: the needs far exceed the financial resources available – especially on the frontlines of armed conflicts, forced displacement and climate change.

Fact is that we can collectively change this. Between 2000 and 2022 primary school completion rates across the region rose from 52% to 67%, and about half of students were able to complete lower secondary education, according to analysis by UNESCO.

In all 17 million young Africans are in university today, and more girls than ever before are able to attend school.

This progress, however, fails to present a full picture of education in Africa. “Of all regions, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of education exclusion. Over one-fifth of children between the ages of about 6 and 11 are out of school, followed by one-third of youth between the ages of about 12 and 14. Almost 60% of youth between the ages of about 15 and 17 are not in school,” according to UNESCO.

Our collective support is now more urgent than ever. It is the smart thing to do for economic progress. It is the right thing to do for equality and equity. It is the least we can do for the people with such immense potentials and yearning to study, to become and to live a full life.

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and our strategic partners are working tirelessly to create sustainable education and lifelong learning pathways for all of Africa’s children and youth.

According to our latest Annual Results Report, ECW investments reached over 900,000 children in East Africa with quality learning supports in 2023 alone. In West and Central Africa, we reached over 1.8 million!

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, young mothers like Meda are realizing their dreams of finishing school. In Chad, where the Sudan regional refugee crisis is straining budgets and resources, girls like Khadidja Abdoulaye are gaining valuable vocational skills in sewing, mechanics and gardening.

This is what collective support can achieve. It gives us a peek into what the African continent of young people can achieve – not just for themselves, but for all of us.

IPS UN Bureau

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Excerpt:

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Oct 5 2024 (IPS)

We must build a new social contract for education – a contract based on equality, equity, and universal human rights. At the center of our global efforts to ensure education for all, we must put teachers first in everything we do. They are frontlines heroes who deliver every day to educate children, cultivate young talent, and build a strong society. They are the substitute parents, the mentors and the ones who contribute to shaping the identify of a child in war, in refuge or in climate change.

On World Teachers’ Day, we commend the remarkable work done by teachers on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. In places like Beirut, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Haiti, Sudan and Ukraine, these teachers work in dangerous conditions to provide girls and boys with the life-saving – and life-affirming – opportunity that only a quality education can provide.

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) puts teacher voices first in everything we do. Last year alone, we provided training to more than 100,000 teachers (59% women) on topics ranging from mental health, education in science, technology, engineering and math, gender-inclusion and disaster risk reduction. Approximately 60% of our investments active in 2023 supported teacher recruitment and/or financial assistance to retain teachers, with a focus on equity and inclusivity. This collective work reached a total of 5.6 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents in 2023.

In Nigeria, where approximately 18 million children are out of school, bold and brave teachers like Hafsat are making a real difference. In the Hajj Camp in Borno State, Hafsat and other teachers like her are providing education for girls and boys that were either the children of armed group members or may have been child soldiers themselves. In this wild corner of North-East Nigeria, children are born from conflict and live in constant fear of abduction, forced recruitment, enslavement and sexual exploitation.

Imagine the difference Hafsat can make in the lives of her students, her community and the world as a whole; as she puts it: “I love children, and I also believe that my line of work is important for peacebuilding.”

We face a number of challenges in mobilizing, training and supporting teachers, especially on the frontlines of armed conflicts, forced displacement, the climate crisis and other humanitarian catastrophes. According to recent analysis from our partners UNESCO, 44 million additional teachers are needed to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030.

With more funding we can provide cash incentives to support teachers in the war zones and climate disasters around the globe. Besides being affected themselves, we also have to empower them. We can train teachers like Hafsat to deal with the unique needs of children who have lived through the horrors of war and terror. We can build the policies and systems in countries to ensure gender-inclusive education and encourage pupils to turn their resilience into power.

And we can work collectively to ensure coordinated and synchronized support across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus to connect teachers, students and the communities they serve to deliver on a new social contract based on universal values and universal human rights. Today, we honor all teachers in the most difficult situations in the world. Now, we must act.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Sep 21 2024 (IPS)

The longing for peace transcends time, geography and religion. Based on justice, human rights and universal values outlined in the UN Charter, a culture of peace brings us all together in our common agenda for humanity. We can only co-exist by aligning ourselves with such a world order.

On today’s International Day of Peace, we call on world leaders to end conflict and embrace a culture of peace as enshrined in the UN Charter and related international law.

As the UN General Assembly outlined in the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace a quarter of a century ago, this must include: “Respect for life, human rights and fundamental freedoms; the promotion of non-violence through education, dialogue and cooperation; commitment to peaceful settlement of conflicts; and adherence to freedom, justice, democracy, tolerance, solidarity, cooperation, pluralism, cultural diversity, dialogue and understanding at all levels of society and among nations.”

Educating for peace starts at home and continues in school through years of education. This takes place during the most formative years of a child learning about their identity, ethics, values, conscience, courage and compassion. Wherever there has been a failure in imparting on children the imperative for peace, the world is turned upside down. This is a global failure with no geographical boundaries.

Today, we live in a world of unprecedented violence, armed conflict and chaos. All the genuine and heartfelt commitments made in 1945 in the UN Charter seem to be fading away. Children and adolescents are the most vulnerable, the least protected, and the most impacted. They bear the brunt.

Global conflicts killed three times as many children in 2023 than in the previous year, according to the United Nations. The number of forcibly displaced people reached an unprecedented 120 million in May 2024.

“In 2023, the United Nations verified a record 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children in 26 conflict zones, a 35% increase from the previous year,” according to recent analysis by the UN.

We can end these violations and invest in a constructive co-existence globally. We can use our resources for education, rather than for wars. In classrooms around the world, girls and boys who have withstood the wrath of war can rebuild their hopes and their lives. Cultivating a culture of peace is possible. The financial resources exist. The choice as to how we use them is ours.

IPS UN Bureau

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Excerpt:

Ahead of the 3-year anniversary of ban on girls’ secondary education in Afghanistan.

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Sep 17 2024 (IPS)

Today, we stand with solemn hearts as the world marks this week the three-year ban on girls’ secondary education in Afghanistan.

Today and every day, we must stand up for the millions of Afghan girls and women living under the yoke of gender-apartheid: systematized and institutionalized oppression, exclusion, and marginalization based exclusively on their gender. However, standing in solemnity for their suffering is not enough. We must act to remove the oppression and injustice. Against all odds, we must continue to deliver results to provide the girls access to an education well beyond grade sixth.

As a staunch champion for girls’ human rights, not the least the most foundational right – their right to an inclusive and continued quality education – Education Cannot Wait and our strategic partners call out to the world through our #AfghanGirlsVoices advocacy campaign. Together and collectively, we have brought together artwork and calls to action by global leaders, and conveyed the inspiring stories of hope, courage and resilience straight from Afghan girls and young women refusing to succumb to oppression and refusing to give up on their right to an education.

The quotes from Afghan girls are heart-breaking, poetic and passionate. Some resound with hope: “Every beat of my heart resounds with a rhythm of hope, pushing me forward in my quest of education despite all odds.” Others chart the abuse and fear that millions of girls face on a daily basis: “At just 14 years old, I became a bride, when I should have been in the ninth-grade learning and playing with my friends. Instead of holding a pencil, I held the weight of a marriage I never wanted.” Others are defiant: “In the face of adversity, my dreams become my armour, shielding me from doubt and empowering me to forge ahead towards knowledge.”

Celebrities, world leaders and passionate influencers continue to promote the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign.

“The world must unite behind Afghan girls. Denying their right to education is a violation of the UN Charter, Convention on the Rights of the Child and basic human rights. Through the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign, people everywhere can stand up for human rights and gender-justice by sharing their words of courage, hope and resilience,” said The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of ECW’s High-Level Steering Group.

As Khaled Hosseini, best-selling author of The Kite Runner, puts it: “Today, some three years after Afghan girls were banned from secondary education, 80% of school-aged Afghan girls and woman are out of school. Many are forced into unwanted marriage. This is a catastrophe, because denying Afghan girls access to school not only violates their human right to education and jeopardizes their future, it jeopardizes the future of the homeland as well.”

The pursuit of knowledge is a key tenant of Islam, and a key component in delivering on our universal promises of peace, equality and human rights. Education for all of Afghanistan’s daughters is essential to rebuilding this long-suffering nation.

Today, we ask world leaders everywhere to join ECW and our global strategic partners in calling for an end to the ban on education and to take action. We call on you to fund the ongoing education initiatives at the local level defying this illegal and irrational ban. Second, we call on you to resolve the catastrophe for the girls of Afghanistan stemming from ignorance rather than enlightenment. Afghanistan deserves better and it is urgent.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait

IPS UN Bureau

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A Rohingya refugee, Jannat is back in school and dreams of being a doctor. Credit: Save The Children Bangladesh/Rubina Hoque Alee

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Aug 26 2024 (IPS-Partners)

Seven years ago, a brutal campaign of violence, rape and terror against the Rohingya people ignited in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Villages were burned to the ground, families were murdered, massive human rights violations were reported, and around 700,000 people – half of them children – fled their homes to seek refuge in Bangladesh.

Today, Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar hosts the largest refugee camp in the world with close to a million children, women and men living in makeshift settlements. The crisis is an abomination for humanity. And while the Government of Bangladesh and other strategic partners are supporting the response, the resources are severely strained and access to essential services is scarce.

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), along with its strategic donor partners, government, UN agencies and civil society, has supported holistic education opportunities for both Rohingya and host community children in Bangladesh since November 2017. The more than US$50 million in funding, delivered through a consortium of partners – including government counterparts, PLAN International, Save the Children, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNICEF and other local partners – has reached over 325,000 girls and boys with quality education. Over the years, the programmes have provided learning materials for close to 190,000 children, financial support to over 1,700 teachers, and rehabilitated over 1,400 classrooms and temporary learning spaces.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, fires in the refugee camp and other pressing emergencies, the programming in Bangladesh was quickly adapted, and over 100,000 girls and boys were able to take part in remote education programmes during the height of the pandemic.

For refugee girls like Jannat, these investments mean nutritious school meals, integrated learning opportunities, catch-up classes, and security and solace in a world gone mad.

We must not forget Jannat and the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya girls like her that only yearn to learn in safety and freedom. Our investment in their education is an investment in peace, enlightenment and security across the region. Above all, it is an investment in the Rohingya people’s rights and other persecuted groups that face human rights abuses and attacks the world over.

Despite strong support from donors – as shown in this powerful joint statement by Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States following their visit to the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in May of this year – the Rohingya crisis is fast-becoming a forgotten crisis.

The Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Joint Response Plan 2024 calls for a total of US$852 million in funding, including US$68 million for education. To date, only US$287 million has been mobilized toward the plan. More concerning still, only 12.8% has been mobilized towards the education response, according to OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service. What we need to realize is that our investments in education are investments in health, food security and skills development. Taken together with other actions, it forms a cornerstone upon which all the other Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved.

As we commemorate seven years of persecution and attack, we must demand that perpetrators are held accountable for human rights violations, we must establish conditions conducive for a safe return of the Rohingya to their native lands, and we must enforce the rule of law and expect humanity for the people whose lives have been ripped apart by this brutal crisis.

Join ECW and our partners in urgently mobilizing additional resources to provide Rohingya girls and boys – and other children caught in emergencies and protracted crises worldwide – with the promise of a quality education. They deserve no less.

IPS UN Bureau

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Excerpt:

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Aug 12 2024 (IPS-Partners)

We live in a divided world of the haves and the have nots. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. There is learning poverty, technology poverty, healthcare poverty, and food poverty. When you think about the dynamics of the world today, there is even empathy and humanity poverty.

This divide gets greater for young people living on the frontlines of the world’s most pressing humanitarian crises in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Haiti and Sudan, where the remarkable potential of youth is eviscerated by brutal armed conflicts, forced displacement, the climate crisis and other horrific, compounding challenges.

To empower today’s youth, we must urgently address this growing divide. It starts with quality education, skills training, and a broad collection of supportive life-long learning measures fit for purpose, activating an entire generation of future leaders.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres points out: “Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires a seismic shift – which can only happen if we empower young people and work with them as equals.”

This year’s International Youth Day calls for us all to look at the power of digital pathways to enhance sustainable development. Indeed, digitization, artificial intelligence and other technological advances are transforming our world and offer unprecedented opportunities to accelerate sustainable development.

But in a world where 250 million children cannot read – or do not have access to a school meal or mental health – how can we leverage the potential of technology to accelerate our efforts to deliver on the goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

Education Cannot Wait – the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations – puts youth first in everything we do. This starts from the highest levels of ECW’s governance, which includes two inspirational youth leaders, Mutesi Hadijah and Hector Ulloa, who are activating a global youth movement through the #Youth4ECW campaign.

Through ECW investments, we are working to bridge the digital divide, extend remote learning, enhance skills training, and provide young people with the tools, training and knowledge they need to thrive in the fast-changing world of the 21st century.

In Moldova for instance, ECW investments focused on refugee children from Ukraine and host community children – and delivered by UNICEF and the Refugee Education Working Group – have established 98 EduTech Labs across 32 regions. In countries like Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger and Nigeria, ECW supports vocational education programmes for adolescents who have been pushed out of school.

These collective actions offer an essential first step in bridging the divide for the millions of children pushed into learning poverty by emergencies and protracted crises. But more needs to be done and we urge private sector donors, high-net-worth individuals and philanthropic foundations to provide urgently needed funding as we race to mobilize an additional US$600 million to deliver on ECW’s three-year strategic programme.

Together, through the power of inclusive education, digital pathways and lifelong learning, we can bridge the divide and create a world united through a wealth of humanity.

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Excerpt:

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 20 2024 (IPS-Partners)

On World Refugee Day, we must stand in solidarity with the 120 million forcibly displaced people – including 43 million refugees worldwide – who have lost their homes and their human rights as the result of persecution and conflict.

As we unite with partners across the UN system, donors, the private sector and member states, we cannot forget the power of education to protect and safeguard the futures of the world’s most vulnerable children. These are children uprooted from their homes, their schools and their country, often ending up outside the public school system.

Our world is bleeding from inhumane and brutal armed conflicts. The most recent statistics from our partner UNHCR indicate the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide increased by 8% between 2022 and 2023, continuing a series of year-on-year increases over the last 12 years. In the State of Palestine alone, 6 million refugees are under UNRWA’s mandate. The world at large is facing the largest number of refugees since World War II.

Low- and middle-income countries are affected the most, with 75% of the world’s refugees and other people in need of international protection.

The dispossession, the uprooting, the suffering stemming from human rights abuses has become the new ‘normal’ for these forcibly displaced populations. Their lives and development demand a turn-around from the abnormal to real normalcy. Living at home and attending a public school is every child’s right and necessity.

On my recent visit to Chad, I saw firsthand the hollow eyes and fears in the eyes of young children fleeing from Darfur in Sudan to Chad. I saw firsthand how UNHCR and other aid organizations stayed with them day-and-night to provide a sense of safety and basic necessities. I saw how the power of education to insulate children from the horrors of conflict and forced displacement indeed is possible.

ECW has provided US$10 million to date in response to the Sudan regional refugee crisis, with First Emergency Response grants in the Central Africa Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. In Sudan itself, 18 million children are out of school, and we must urgently ramp up global funding to address what is fast becoming the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has become one of the largest international displacement crises in the world with 8 million Venezuelans displaced globally, according to UNHCR. In neighboring countries including Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, ECW has provided catalytic funding for Multi-Year Resilience Programmes that are having a tangible impact on the lives of millions.

There is a human face to these stories of transformation. For forcibly displaced children like Shaimaa in Sudan, Darya in Moldova, Josveglys in Colombia and Jannat in Bangladesh, our investment in education is our investment in human life, in human rights, peace and security.

The best step we can take is not to simply race from one emergency to another. We must build the systems, policies and infrastructure needed to ensure development depth and sustainability. By translating our response through humanitarian-development joint programming, we can respond with both speed and depth. This requires financing.

On World Refugee Day, step up to #ShareTheirVoices as we stand in solidarity #WithRefugees everywhere. More so, let’s step up to end all the conflicts that force them to flee. Let’s step up and finance their right to an inclusive and continued quality education. Let’s empower them to use their resilience and, one day, lead.

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Excerpt:

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 13 2024 (IPS-Partners)

Few will disagree with the nearly universal concern that we – the human family – are once more faced with an era of darkness. An era whose burdens are mainly carried on the tiny shoulders of crises-affected children and adolescents, their teachers and families, all left furthest behind.

Two years ago, Save the Children issued a report estimating that 468 million children were living in, or fleeing from, conflict zones. The past two years have only increased this figure with new conflicts, climate disasters and forced displacement. The light of hope enshrined in international law, including human rights law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is slowly dying. The light of hope to arise from protracted crises and sudden disasters through an education is fading further away for millions upon millions of young people.

In the Middle East, schoolyards are turned into graveyards for Palestinian children and their teachers, others deeply traumatized, maimed or orphaned. In Sudan, 18 million children are out of school, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, 9 out of 10 children cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10. In Afghanistan, a generation of adolescent girls are prohibited from attending school beyond the 6th grade.

In Latin America, children and their families flee instability in Venezuela, disrupting their education. In Haiti, children cannot attend school and live in constant fear of brutal attacks by armed gangs. As we highlight in this month’s high-level interview with Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Haiti: “The instability in Haiti continues to undermine education. Frequent disruptions in educational services have posed significant challenges in accessing schools.”

In Myanmar, the Rohingya continue to be persecuted, while the refugees across the border cannot attend the public education system. And in Europe, war rages on in Ukraine, pushing Ukrainian children into harms’ way rather than into the safety of schools.

The distance between ‘the haves and the have-nots’ continues to grow larger. According to the World Economic Forum: “The inequality gap is widening, with more than two-thirds (69%) of global wealth held by developed nations, while less than a third can be found in the developing world.”

And while millions of young people in the Global North celebrate graduations this month at high schools, colleges and universities, a quarter of a billion children and adolescents across crisis-impacted countries in the Global South are not even able to access early childhood development and the basic 12 years of education.

The darkness is creeping into every corner of our society. Still, rather than raging against the dying light, as the writer and poet Thomas Dylan once urged us to do, we sink deeper into a dark abyss by spending resources on destructive wars – rather than on the enlightenment and hope of education.

We seem bent on extinguishing the light of justice, peace and security for all – with an emphasis on all. For, as Martin Luther King Jr. said: “It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.”

We must “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Indeed, we must rekindle the light whose rays illuminate and transform. If not, what is the alternative?

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, May 14 2024 (IPS)

The words above, by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, serve as a reminder that we still have a long way to go to in educating ourselves. In doing so, we will naturally ensure that the young generation can access an inclusive quality education and use their knowledge to build a world of justice, equity, peace and security.

Yet, with brutal atrocities and horrific conflicts relentlessly spreading in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gaza, the Sudan and Ukraine – in addition to another 50 devastating conflicts taking place around the world – we cannot say in all honesty that we are using our hearts. It would also be dishonest to claim that since the proclamation of the UN Charter in San Francisco we have built a world based on human rights, peace and security.

Instead, the gulf between the rule of law and today’s wicked reality is only widening. In this dark abyss, millions upon millions of vulnerable and innocent children and youth are pleading for humanity and crying out for respect of their inherent human rights, starting with the foundational right to an inclusive quality education in a protective learning environment.

We have created a divided, bitter world reminiscent of a bloody battlefield. A world of destruction, disregard for human life and the earth itself. One begs to ask the question whether it really matters if we have advanced in technology while we are losing our humanity. Or, as Martin Luther King Jr said: “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

Consequently, over 226 million children and adolescents currently living in these battlefields cannot access a quality education – with many also losing their mothers, fathers, siblings, limbs, homes and future. It is quite astonishing how destructive the mind can be in the absence of emotional intelligence or the education of the heart.

Schools, teachers and students are purposely and blatantly targeted, adolescent girls are subjugated and pushed into the shadows, and both girls and boys are victimized by wars and systematic violations of their inherent human rights. It has been going on for so long now that the abnormal has almost become normal. This cannot continue.

When will we respond to the universal and collective commitments outlined in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals? When will we realize the right of every child to an education in a safe learning environment?

It will only come the day that we begin to educate our hearts as well as our minds.

An educated heart cannot turn a blind eye to the unrelenting destruction of human life or nature. An educated heart acts to prevent the growing inequities in the world. An educated heart finds it unbearable to ignore the right of 226 million children to a quality education.

According to Education Cannot Wait’s strategic partner Educo, humanitarian appeals to meet education demands have dramatically increased more than sevenfold in the last decade – from US$517 million to US$3.785 billion – while contributions have only increased fourfold over the same period, from US$190 million to US$805 million.

The gap is daunting and the consequences for children caught in emergencies and protracted crises are beyond devastating. Indeed, this growing funding gap will result in dangerous consequences for the world. According to Educo’s analysis, “88% of the countries and territories in humanitarian crises have significant or fundamental challenges for achieving the SDG goal (SDG4) for education.”

In forgotten crises, such as Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, Chad, Lebanon, Yemen and beyond, we have instead contributed to creating a generational gap and perpetuating cycles of violence, poverty, forced displacement and further inequality.

There is also a significant gap between the Global North and Global South. In OECD countries, around 7% of GDP is spent on primary and secondary education per student every year. In some countries, such as Luxembourg, it rises to as much as US$25,000 a year per student.

On the other hand, according to the IMF: “In sub-Saharan Africa, the median education budget was equal to about 3.5% of GDP in 2020 – below the international recommendation of at least 4% of GDP. Recent IMF analysis reveals that achieving the key Sustainable Development Goal of universal primary and secondary school enrollment by 2030 may require doubling education expenditures as a share of GDP, including from both public and private funding sources.”

An educated heart cannot accept these figures and leave millions of young lives and the potential of their futures behind. The resources exist. Referring to Martin Luther King Jr’s quote above, the question is how we choose to use these resources. We can either continue on the path of destruction or take a more constructive and responsible approach.

By crowding in resources from the public and private sectors, we have the chance to educate both the hearts and the minds of an entire generation. A generation that may be the one establishing human rights, peace and security for all, while creating a world of shared values that rests on the rule of law, rather than the rule by force.

In this month’s high-level interview with Amy Clarke, Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer for Tribe Impact Capital LLP, we explore a promising new modality to connect private sector capital to sustainable results, environment and building a better world. In joining forces with Education Cannot Wait, Amy Clarke says: “As ECW works tirelessly to address the immediate educational needs of these children, it’s crucial we also forge a path toward a future that promises fairness, justice and equity.” As such, Tribe Impact Capital LLP stands out as one of our private sector partners that lead with both their heart and mind. They show us that it is indeed possible.

It has been said that the longest journey we can make is the one between the mind and the heart. At this point in time, when the world is engulfed in utter destruction, when nearly a quarter of billion children and teachers are losing limbs, life and hope under the rubble of their targeted schools, it is time for us all to set sail on that journey.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

IPS UN Bureau

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Apr 15 2024 (IPS-Partners)

The conflict in Sudan is one of the worst in the world today, and millions of children and adolescents bear the brunt within and across the border from Sudan.

As we mark the one-year anniversary of this vicious conflict, we call on world leaders to ensure that all girls and boys impacted by the conflict can access life-saving quality education. Their hope and future hinge on this.

Sudan experiences a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Without urgent international action, this catastrophe could engulf the entire country and have even more devastating impacts on neighboring countries, as refugees flee across borders into neighboring states.

The brutal conflict continues to take innocent lives, with over 14,000 children, women and men reportedly killed already. According to the United Nations, half of Sudan’s population – 25 million people, including 14 million children – urgently need humanitarian assistance. An estimated 5 million people are one step away from famine.

Sudan also has the outside Sudan since 15 April 2023, including 4 million children.

Most schools are shuttered or are struggling to re-open across the country, leaving nearly 19 million school-aged children at risk of losing out on their education. To put this in perspective, that’s more children at risk than the total populations of Finland, Ireland and Norway combined.

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises hosted within the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and our global strategic partners have responded with speed, agility and coordination to provide girls and boys impacted by this complex conflict with the safety, hope and opportunity of a quality education.

ECW has provided US$10 million to date in response to the largest forced displacement crisis in the world today. Over 8 million people have been displaced inside and regional refugee education needs, with First Emergency Response grants announced in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan. In Sudan, we have provided US$28 million in funding, including a US$5 million grant announced in August 2023 that will reach over 86,000 girls and boys with access to an inclusive, quality education.

Yet, these investments are simply not enough. We must step up global funding for education in all the world’s forgotten crises, in places like Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, the Sahel, South Sudan and so many more. In all, over 224 million girls and boys are having their futures ripped from their hands by armed conflict, forced displacement, climate change and other protracted crises around the globe.

This not only threatens global security and efforts to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, but it is also an affront to their humanity. Without safe places to learn and grow, girls face a number of grave risks, including child marriage, sexual violence, human trafficking and forced labor. Boys find themselves against impossible odds and risk forced recruitment as child soldiers, forced labor and other assaults on their human rights. It’s an impossible un-ending cycle of violence, displacement, poverty, hunger, chaos and uncertainty.

With school feeding programmes, they have nutritious meals. With gender-inclusive classrooms, they have safe places to learn. With mental health and psychosocial support, they find a way to regain their dignity and build strong, resilient communities. It’s a systems-wide approach that puts children first in our investments in sustainable development and puts humanity first in our global efforts to end war and build a better future for generations to come.

As we build on calls from today’s International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan and its Neighbours, the African Year of Education, and other important efforts to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, we appeal to public donors, the private sector and philanthropic foundations to urgently mobilize US$600 million in renewed support for ECW’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. With a total of US$1.5 billion, we can reach 20 million children and adolescents.

In South Sudan, education is an opportunity to “change my life” for Living Sunday, a young teenage mother who resumed her education against all odds. In Ethiopia, where prolonged drought made worse by climate change has disrupted education for an entire generation, it means Nakurchel, 12, is attending school for the first time in her life. In her own words: “Education has given me wings to fly.” Still more needs to be done, in sub-Saharan Africa, only 1 out of 9 children can read a simple text.

Sudan cannot wait. Africa cannot wait. The rest of the world needs to be unapologetically impatient in heeding their calls.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Apr 4 2024 (IPS-Partners)

There is a fork in the road before us. We have to choose who we are as human beings and as a human family. Do we break humanity or do we make it?

As I write, the already staggering number of 224 million children and adolescents denied their right to quality education because of violently cruel armed conflicts, forced displacement and climate disasters is fast escalating. If we continue in this direction, we will soon hit a quarter of a billion crisis-affected children who urgently need quality education. I dare not imagine the number of children and youth affected 50 years from now – unless we act now. We are on a path of destruction and despair when we should be on a path of hope and opportunity.

All wars, all breaches of international laws and the ongoing disregard for peaceful conflict-resolution are caused entirely by adults – never by school-aged children. The same applies to man-made climate-induced disasters. Yet, it is innocent and vulnerable children who bear the brunt. Our most precious and innocent carry this heavy burden on their tiny shoulders with little hope for their future. It is unconscionable.

From Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Yemen to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, North-East Nigeria, Sudan and the Sahel, from Haiti and Ukraine to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and many more humanitarian crises in between where ECW invests. Why has the world chosen to fail them? Who are we and why are we doing so? Did something go wrong with our education or did we lack it all together?

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated at the recent Human Rights Council: “Conflicts are taking a terrible toll as parties to war trample on human rights and humanitarian law … Parties to conflict are turning a blind eye to international law, the Geneva Conventions and even the United Nations Charter.”

Indeed, all that we built after World War II and the Holocaust – the United Nations, Human Rights and related International Law – is being trampled upon with disrespect and impunity. Yet, it is the youngest and most vulnerable who are paying the heaviest price.

It is time for self-examination, individually and collectively. It is time to stop this horrific spiral downwards. It is time to start anew, to step up together and reclaim our humanity.

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), is determined to work with all partners – UN agencies, civil society, Member States, Education Ministries, local communities, teachers, parents and school-aged children – to jointly turn this global education nightmare and its related crises of humanity around.

We are committed to the UN Secretary-General’s new system-wide United Nations Agenda for Protection. We continue to uphold the UN Charter and to defend the Sustainable Development Goals through SDG4 to ensure an inclusive, equitable and continued quality education for all children and adolescents left furthest behind in the darkest corners of the world.

The Summit of the Future in September and the New Agenda for Peace are crucial opportunities to recommit to end violence in all its forms, ensure universal human rights, and build peace in our times. Education must be a central building block in delivering on these commitments.

Because the world is created at home and in school. It starts with parents and teachers during children’s most formative years. They impact our identity, our value system, our intellectual, emotional, social and even spiritual development. Education is therefore the most critical, foundational priority for the world to be able to survive and thrive. Education determines who we are, who we will become and whether we choose to either advance or destroy humanity and Mother Earth.

Let me share just one of thousands of illustrative examples. On a recent joint mission to North-East Nigeria with our dedicated co-chairs of ECW’s Executive Committee – Germany and Norway along with representatives from the Government of Nigeria, UN agencies and local partners – we met with girls and boys whose dreams of education have been interrupted by this forgotten crisis.

Two million children and adolescents in the North-East of the country continue to suffer from the ongoing insurgency by Boko Haram and other armed groups. Attacks on schools, abduction, enslavement, sexual violence, child marriage, forced recruitment are among the litany of human rights violations that have become all too commonplace in the world.

We met with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence – girls and young women whose lives and their dreams have been ripped apart by the perpetrators of these cruel, heinous attacks. Yet, thanks to the ECW investment in jointly coordinated efforts of UNICEF, Norwegian Refugee Council and the Global Survivors Fund (established by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Dr. Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad), we met with young girls who had fled Boko Haram and are now rebuilding their lives through the highest standard of reparative education, including specialized mental health and psycho-social services. Through the power of inclusive, safe, quality education, they have transformed themselves from broken souls to extra-ordinary healers and role-models for other affected girls.

Each one of these girls is an inspiration and a testament to the human spirit. If they can transform, then so can we. We can make the choice not to continue further down the abyss of a broken world-order and instead choose to move upwards towards a greater, collective humanity. We can decide to restore the international world-order and the dignity and rights of every child and young person.

We have a chance to do so. And we must do so; now.

This is the Africa Year of Education. It is worth noting that only 1 out 10 school-aged children in sub-Saharan Africa can read a simple text. This is outrageous and unacceptable in the 21st century and cannot be allowed to go on. With African leadership and long-awaited financial resources, Africa can and must reclaim its rightful place in this world through an inclusive and continued quality education.

In this month’s insightful ECW high-level interview, we feature the wise words of African Union Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology & Innovation Professor Mohammed Belhocine. By delivering locally-led initiatives – supported by multilateral institutions such as Education Cannot Wait and our strategic global partners – we can open the school doors for millions of children and young people, who are all yearning to create a better world in the 21st century.

February also marked the second anniversary of the brutal war in Ukraine. With our partners – including government, donors, civil society and the private sector – we launched the far-reaching Ukraine Multi-Year Resilience Programme with the Minister of Education of Ukraine at the United Nations in New York. Globally, we continue to advocate for protection, mental health and psycho-social support and other holistic education opportunities for the girls and boys living on the frontlines of this horrible war, and all the world’s pressing humanitarian crises.

With the ongoing and unprecedented brutalities in Gaza, we steadfastly repeat the UN Secretary-General’s call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access, as well as the recent UN Security-Council Resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and the urgent need to expand the flow of aid into Gaza.

Because we cannot continue like this. Education is about helping a young child to mature and blossom. In the same vein, the United Nations was established to achieve global maturity and elevate humanity.

Through the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, a collective effort was made to support each human being to attain their potential in safety and freedom. In the final analysis, when all else falls away, the story of the mature soul is one that touches all with profound awareness and enables others to attain their humanity too. Who would want to break this down?

Indeed, now is the time to start anew and enable every child and young person to enjoy an inclusive, continued and conducive quality education – one that helps them mature and become the full potential of their and our shared humanity.

Let’s not discourage them further; we must rather inspire them through action.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Feb 16 2024 (IPS-Partners)

As we lead into the Africa Year of Education, and under the leadership of Africa, world leaders have an opportunity to solidify commitments to ‘Educate an Africa Fit for the 21st Century’. That means to empower Africa to deliver on the goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Paris Agreement and Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to invest in an end to inequity through the power of quality education and lifelong learning.

With the right opportunities, the current accomplishments and future potential of Africa are limitless. Sadly, inequity accompanied by armed conflicts, climate change, forced displacement, poverty traps and other factors continue to derail development gains and push children to the margins.

Approximately 54% of crisis-affected children worldwide live in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to Education Cannot Wait’s Global Estimates Study. The region has experienced a multi-million increase in the number of children affected by crises, primarily driven by large-scale droughts in Eastern Africa and the increasing intensity of several conflicts. We need to give Africa’s resilient young generation a chance equal to everyone else and an opportunity to blossom.

While the out-of-school rate is steadily decreasing across Sub-Saharan Africa, the absolute number has reached the alarming global estimate of 98 million. Put simply, about half of the crisis-affected children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not attend school.

In African countries where you see high-levels of armed conflict, combined with the push-on effects on climate change, forced displacement and extreme poverty – including countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and Nigeria – we are witnessing a concerning spike in the number of children that are out of school.

Quality is also an issue, as a result of lack of opportunity. “The share of children who cannot read a simple text with comprehension by age 10 was the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa before the COVID-19 pandemic, at 86%. This rate is likely to have worsened after the pandemic, estimated now at 90%,” according to the African Union. “This means that 9 out of 10 children cannot read a simple text with comprehension by age 10.”

To address this challenge, we must take a multilateral approach and responsibility, pool in resources, tap local, national and regional talents, and embrace a new way of working. This includes substantially increasing international funding support for education – especially on the frontlines of Africa’s emergencies and protracted crises.

This year’s G7 provides a remarkable opportunity for global leaders to step up. Education in Africa is taking center stage in the Italian Government’s Mattei Plan. Italy joined Education Cannot Wait’s group of strategic donors with an initial contribution of US$2.1 million at last year’s High-Level Financing Conference. As Italy assumes leadership of the G7 this year, we look forward to renewed support from Italy and all members of the G7 to invest in education for the young people of Africa.

In the United States, we also urge leaders to pass the READ Act Reauthorization. The commitment towards universal education makes it clear that access to quality education strengthens economies and reduces inequality. According to UNICEF, “it contributes to more stable, resilient societies that give all individuals the opportunity to fulfill their potential. Further, girls who receive an education are less likely to marry young and more likely to lead healthy, productive lives. They earn higher incomes, participate in the decisions that most affect them, and build better futures for themselves and their families.”

All governments must take firm steps to increase their own commitments to education, as we’ve seen through ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programmes in places like Chad, Nigeria and Uganda. With these innovative investment models, we have the power to crowd-in resources, to tap local organizations and to deliver as one for those left furthest behind.

This goes beyond building classrooms and providing learning materials. To address the challenges of Africa and beyond, we must make available a full assortment of holistic educational supports, including training teachers, improving access to mental health and psychosocial services, and ensuring young children are able to learn through play and older learners are able to continue on to secondary education and beyond.

By 2026, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), as the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, has committed to mobilize a total of US$1.5 billion to reach 20 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents. In Ethiopia, through our innovative investments, we are ensuring children with disabilities like Rewda Abdi are able to access accelerated learning programmes. In Somalia, we are building safe spaces for girls like Bisharo. And in Chad we are providing a lifeline for girls and boys fleeing the conflict in Sudan to continue their studies in quality learning environments, where they can find a sense of safety and hope in a world turned upside down by war and chaos.

For far too long, progress toward sustainable development across much of Africa has been faced with obstacles for generations after generations. The time has come and education cannot wait. Africa deserves to achieve its unlimited potential.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jan 24 2024 (IPS-Partners)

Education is the bedrock of peace, the foundation of strong societies, and the building block for a better world. This year, as we celebrate the Sixth International Day of Education under the theme of ‘learning for a lasting peace’, we call on world leaders to end wars and armed conflicts and focus on our common humanity to embrace the vast potential learning offers in uniting our world.

Our world is being torn apart by injustice, oppression, racism, xenophobia, fear, greed and violent conflict. School-aged children bear the brunt. No child in Gaza – over 600,000 girls and boys – has access to education. In Afghanistan, 80% of school-aged Afghan girls and women – 2.5 million girls and women – are out of school and are systematically denied their human right to an education due to their gender. In Ukraine, 300,000 children are at risk of learning losses over this school year. In Sudan, 19 million children are out of school today amidst the ongoing brutal conflict. In Ethiopia, 7.6 million children are not in the classroom due to compounding challenges – including armed conflicts, the impact of climate change and forced displacement.

Around the world, over 224 million crisis-affected children are denied education, often occupied with seeking protection and survival, girls are being forced into child marriage, and both boys and girls are being forcibly recruited as child soldiers. The safety, protection and hope of the school and their teachers is long gone.

224 million children impacted by the compounding impacts of armed conflicts, climate change and forced displacement are in dire, urgent need of quality education.

The world made a promise to future generations to ensure education for all through Sustainable Development Goal 4. UN Member States made a legal commitment to the right to an education in binding human rights conventions. This promise and legal commitment must be realized in order to end extreme poverty, aid-dependency, and the vicious circle of violations of children’s rights and dignity. “No peace which is not peace for all,” as the late UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld said.

As global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the UN, Education Cannot Wait has a proven, innovative model of bringing together governments, UN agencies, civil society, private sector and, above all, local communities, to rapidly deliver quality education for the world’s most vulnerable girls and boys. Working across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, joint programming allows for a holistic education approach to achieve an inclusive, continued quality education in emergencies and protracted crises. Together with all our partners, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) has reached over 9 million crisis-affected girls and boys with a quality education in just a few years.

Whether we jointly deliver a First Emergency Response or a Multi-Year Resilience Investment, we are together investing in transformative pathways towards sustainable development. This means that refugee and forcibly displaced girls and boys like Mariam* in Burkina Faso and Leonardo* in Colombia now access a child-centred and holistic education.

This includes early childhood education, accelerated learning, mental health and psychosocial support, school feeding, school supplies and equipment, gender-sensitive water and sanitation facilities, cash-transfers to incentivize school attendance, vocational training to enter the workforce, risk management to stay safe, and trained teachers that foster young talents and nurture the ideals of compassion, community and the common good.

To deliver on our promises outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals, legal commitments in the UN Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international accords, we urgently need more financial resources to deliver the hope and opportunity of an education for girls and boys living on the frontlines of these conflicts and crises. ECW calls on our strategic donors, philanthropic foundations and the private sector to reach our target of US$1.5 billion so that ECW and our partners worldwide can reach 20 million crisis-affected girls and boys with quality education by 2026.

By giving all children and adolescents the opportunity to realize their right to an education, by not leaving any one of them behind through affirmative action for girls, children with disabilities and refugees, and by empowering them to sustain hope, feel that their lives have a meaning despite all they have experienced, and keep pursuing their dreams, we are indeed investing in humanity and peaceful co-existence on the globe. Instead of investing in more wars, leading to more human suffering, injustices and extreme poverty, let us heed the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

* Names changed to protect identity.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Dec 10 2023 (IPS)

Today we mark a milestone in history: the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As people around the world commemorate Human Rights Day, we must also deeply reflect on the meaning of this historic document and what it takes to achieve peace in the world.

The inspiring preamble of the Universal Declaration is not the work of an indifferent or greedy mindset. It was crafted by those able to delve into their hearts and souls to authentically express the imperatives for peaceful co-existence in the world.

Inspired by the East and West, North and South, Eleanor Roosevelt, together with the French jurist, Rene Cassin, were the driving force behind the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. With the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and successive legal human rights conventions, one can safely say that these rights were not proclaimed to find consensus around the lowest common denominator. Rather, the Declaration was created to inspire and mold consensus around the highest of human values: the goal was to achieve peace.

The preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads: ‘Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.’ Yet, almost a century later, these universal rights are largely not respected, nor equally applied. As the essence of these values and laws are eroded and ignored, is it any wonder that there are more wars, conflicts and widespread injustices, resulting in more refugees, internal displacement and immense human suffering?

This unspeakable, yet preventable, human suffering comes about because we have departed from our highest of human values through many small and big decisions. These are decisions leading to actions severely undermining the foundation for peaceful co-existence in the world. Haven’t freedom, equality and justice for all members of the human family been compromised or disregarded enough?

The path to peace is not complicated. The answer lies in the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the rights enshrined in the Declaration.

The right to an inclusive, sustainable quality education is a foundational right. A continued quality education empowers every child and adolescent to claim all other rights. The chance of success is even greater provided that these children and adolescents live in an environment conducive to all other human rights – also for their families, communities and countries.

This is not complicated. It only demands that we take courageous decisions in every role we find ourselves – and deploy meaningful action – to begin materializing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for all members of the human family.

It would be such a purposeful way of moving forward. It would be a profound legacy to leave behind for the young generation and for generations to come. All we need to do is to act as our conscience dictates. Or, as the co-author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt, rhetorically asked: “When will our conscience grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it.”

IPS UN Bureau

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At the COP28 Climate Talks in Dubai, Education Cannot Wait Calls on Donors to Urgently Mobilize More Resources to Scale Up Life-Saving Access to Quality Education for Crisis-Impacted Children

By Gordon Brown and Yasmine Sherif
London/New York, Dec 5 2023 (IPS)

“The one international language the world understands” wrote Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children, “is the cry of a child,” and the evidence is accumulating that children are not only the innocent victims of conflict whose pleas need to be heard, but also the most vulnerable victims of climate change.

The climate crisis is an education crisis. Right here, right now, climate change is robbing millions of children and adolescents of their right to learn, their right to play and their right to feel safe and secure.

In Pakistan deadly floods destroyed or damaged over 26,000 schools last year. This exposed over 600,000 adolescent girls to higher risks of school dropout, gender-based violence, and child marriage. In Ethiopia, girls like Mellion are going hungry and risk dropping out of school forever as a result of the ongoing drought.

While the climate crisis threatens the rights of every person on the planet, those who are enduring the brunt of its impact are the most vulnerable girls and boys already living in protracted crises settings due to armed conflicts, forced displacement and other crises. For them and their communities, climate change is already a daunting reality that can mean the difference between life and death, between war and peace, between the chance to learn or not.

Today, there are more than 224 million crisis-impacted children worldwide who urgently need education support. New analysis by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, hosted by UNICEF, has found that 62 million of these children have been impacted by climate hazards such as droughts, floods, cyclones and other extreme weather events since 2020. That’s close to the total populations of several G7 nations such as the United Kingdom, France or Italy.

While these children have contributed least to the issue of climate change, they have the most to lose. Furthermore, over the last ten years, 31 million school-aged children have been displaced by the climate crisis, with 13 million in the last three years alone.

The climate crisis poses a real and present threat to global security, economic prosperity and the very fabric of our societies. Climate impacts could cost the world economy US$7.9 trillion by 2050, according to the World Bank, and could force up to 216 million people to move within their own countries by 2050.

Cyclones, typhoons, floods and droughts are increasing in severity and intensity. The number of disasters driven, in part, by climate change has increased five-fold in the past 50 years. Climate hazards are driving displacement directly, but also driving competition over scarce resources and threatening fragile peace in many parts of the world. Over 70% of refugees and internally displaced people on the move due to conflict and violence originally came from climate change hotspots.

Taken together, these intersecting crises of climate change, displacement and conflict are having a profound effect on education opportunities for millions of children and adolescents around the world.

As we look at this year’s Climate Talks in Dubai (COP28) and the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, we must connect the dots between climate action and education action. It’s our investment in our people, our planet and our future.

To rise to this challenge, ECW is calling on donors, the private sector and other key partners to urgently mobilize US$150 million in additional resources. This is an important contribution towards ECW’s overall resource mobilization target of US$1.5 billion toward the Fund’s 2023-2026 strategic plan.

We all know that education has a sound return on investment. Long-term investments in human capital – including education, skills training and overall health and well-being – offer 10 times more return on investment than investments in physical capital. By investing in education today, we are investing in economic and social prosperity tomorrow, we are investing in an end to displacement and hunger, we are investing in a better world and children’s futures.

The climate crisis threatens to end human civilization as we know it today. Now is our time to address this issue head on, and education plays a key role. By ensuring learning continuity for the most vulnerable children – and connecting quality education with climate action – we can equip an entire generation of climate stewards with the skills to adapt to the changing environment and pave the way to a better future.

In the eye of the storm, we are calling on new and existing donors to stand with us. We are appealing to you to act: right here, right now. Will you take up this challenge?

The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown is the UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Steering Group.

Yasmine Sherif is the Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait, the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Nov 22 2023 (IPS-Partners)

The UN Secretary-General has defined the crisis in Gaza not just as a humanitarian crisis, but rather as a crisis of humanity. According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres: “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day.” This continued trend of violence and disregard for international humanitarian law and human life has enveloped our world.

According to UNICEF, at least 120,000 children have been killed or maimed by wars since 2005. On average, that is almost 20 lives lost every day. Furthermore, in her remarks to the UN Security Council on 30 October, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell pointed out that ”… more than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza every day – a number which should shake each of us to our core.”

By the time you finish reading this brief introduction, a child will have died from a bomb attack or an attack on a school or hospital.

Children are not born with hatred and violence in their hearts. Either they are directly taught to hate or use violence, or they fall victims to hate and violence.

“There are two common perspectives. The first is the idea that ‘violence begets violence’ and that children exposed to violence at a young age will grow up to be more violent adults. The second is the ‘resilience hypothesis,’ which asserts that coping in the face of violence is possible with the right support, thus mitigating its effect on quality-of-life outcomes,” according to analysis by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Becoming a person of empathy and humanity starts during the formative years in childhood and adolescence. This is why early childhood education and a continued quality education are so crucial in preparing us for a fulfilled life, tolerant dialogue, and peaceful conflict resolution.

Paolo Freire, the Brazilian educator and philosopher, stressed that the role of the educator (and parent) is to make it possible for the child and adolescent to become themselves. In this vein, he stated that “If the structure does not permit dialogue, the structure must be changed.”

Every child needs encouragement and support to develop and be proud of their own identity. Every human being has a story to tell. Those who were not emotionally equipped to tell their story, I believe, are the most likely to resort to violence, to lack empathy or to commit acts of inhumanity. As Carl Jung said: “The reason for evil in this world is that people are not able to tell their stories.” A similar conclusion was made by Erich Fromm, who stated that “Destructiveness is the outcome of an unlived life.”

This is the untold story. Now it shapes a world divided.

The highest price is being paid by innocent children and adolescents. Instead of learning safely in school, telling their story and developing their potentials in preparation for life – millions are living in an inferno of inhumanity, where one of the most realistic options is simply to prepare for death.

This is indeed a crisis of humanity.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Oct 24 2023 (IPS-Partners)

Today, as we commemorate United Nations Day, more than 224 million children and adolescents are in need of quality education, and the hope, protection and opportunity it provides. Their numbers are increasing by the day. From Afghanistan and Sudan to Ukraine; from South Sudan, Latin America and across sub-Saharan Africa; and in Gaza, where 50% of the total population of 2.2 million are children under siege.

On United Nations Day, let us remember that the United Nations was born out of the unspeakable horror of World War II and the Holocaust. The world promised ‘never again’ for any human being. The preamble to the UN Charter in 1945 states:

“We, the Peoples of the United Nations determined

to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained …”

On this United Nations Day, we must revive and act upon the promises enshrined in the UN Charter of 1945 and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. These eternal, universal principles were translated into international law and will never change – just as the Golden Rule has remained true throughout history. It is not our international law and values of humanity that need to change. It is we who must change.

We must change for the millions of young people in this world – the majority in the Global South – who have no access whatsoever to education and its protection, no access to mental health services for their battered souls, no chance of at least one hot school meal a day for their empty stomachs, and no protection from attacks against schools, students and teachers – all enshrined in International Humanitarian Law. We must change for the millions of children and adolescents to whom we made these promises. The world is failing them.

It is time to face the unacceptable horrors of today with our collective resolve for positive action and change. It is time to fully apply and respect Universal Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law and the UN Charter, not disregard them.

It is time to start serving as a role model for the younger generation who suffer because of the world’s collective fears and failures. We must show them that we have the capacity to show empathy for all of humanity, without any discrimination. This is what makes us civilized and humane.

We must deliver on the right to quality education and protection for the millions of girls and boys who today risk never experiencing the excited anticipation of attending their first day in school, who may never carry a backpack of books and pens, or ever access psycho-social services to deal with the dispossession and brutality in which they live.

Working within and around United Nations for 35 years, I believe that the United Nations has not failed, and we need it now more than ever. UN national and international staff are working with national and local partners and with civil society, risking their lives on a daily basis to alleviate human suffering. They do so amidst excruciating human pain in the most dangerous parts of the world.

Unacceptably, one in six people are estimated to be affected by conflict today and last year saw a 96% increase in conflict-related deaths. Forced displacement is also on the rise. In 2022, the number of people forcibly displaced by persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations grew by 21%, with over 108 million people displaced by the end of the year.

The climate crisis is making matters worse. As people are forced from their homes by floods, droughts and other extreme weather events, we see further massive disruptions in education, impacting negatively on progress to economic and social stability. On our current trajectory, climate change will force 140 million people from their homes by 2050, disrupting continuous access to education for millions of school-aged children each year.

Today, as we commemorate United Nations Day, we must stand up for 1.1 million Palestinian children in Gaza who acutely need us and we must support all the national and international staff in UNRWA, UNICEF, WFP, UNHCR and WHO, and other aid organizations, living and working amongst them as I write this.

Education Cannot Wait has invested in 44 lower-income, crisis-affected countries across the globe. These are countries who cannot manage the needs alone. ECW has already reached 9 million children and adolescents with quality education. We have done so based on the imperatives of humanity and impartiality – without discrimination as to race, ethnicity, gender or religion. We have done so with an absolute commitment to the UN Charter, just like all our colleagues in the UN system and its civil society partners.

Education is one of the most critical tools we have in our global efforts to end violent conflict, breaches of international law and the erosion of our humanity. Today, we stand at a crossroad. We have choices to make. Do we choose ‘the will to power’ or the ‘will to humanity’, or finally a configuration of both? This is the choice we have to make, now.

Let me conclude by stressing that my modest poem is not simply a wishful ideal. It represents hardcore international law. The United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all related conventions, along with International Humanitarian Law, provides us with the roadmap.

We can no longer walk blindly.

In the final analysis, when all else falls away during our short lifespan on earth, true power can only be measured by our collective capacity to feel for – and serve – all of humanity.

That’s the power of humanity.

Yasmine Sherif

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Credit: UNICEF Bangladesh/2018/Sokol

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Oct 5 2023 (IPS)

We are in a race to deliver on our global promise of education for all by 2030 – especially for the 224 million girls and boys impacted by armed conflict, climate change, forced displacement and other protracted crises who so urgently need our support. At the frontlines of this movement are the inspiring, caring, brilliant teachers who work tirelessly to educate future generations.

As we commemorate World Teachers’ Day – along with key partners such as the International Labour Organization, UNICEF, UNESCO and Education International – Education Cannot Wait honours the sacrifice, compassion and dedication of the world’s teachers. We know you work long hours, with low pay. We know that after COVID-19, we face a massive learning and achievement gap. We know that world leaders have done far too little to support education or people like you on the frontlines, making learning happen day-in, day-out in classrooms around the world.

In the best of circumstances, being a teacher is a challenge. Now imagine what it is like for teachers in a crisis or conflict-hit area in Afghanistan, Colombia, Syria or Uganda. Imagine what it’s like teaching while being one of the millions fleeing wars, conflicts and disasters without any support. Teachers walk to school in fear of attack, bombings, abductions, and other forms of violence and threats. They see their schools swept away in floods and sometimes their family wakes up hungry because of climate change-related droughts. This is the reality facing millions of teachers in the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

We must do better. Education Cannot Wait, the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, puts teachers at the forefront of everything we do. The teachers are themselves affected by conflicts and climate-induced disasters, and yet they have to serve as mentors and caretakers – inspiring their students to develop and reach their full potential. We cannot underestimate the heroic work carried out by teachers in the most difficult circumstances.

Through ECW’s joint programming, or Multi-Year Resilience Programmes, 100% of the teachers we support receive skills building and training to succeed in the work they do. Since inception, we have trained over 140,000 teachers. In 2022 alone, we recruited and provided financial support to over 22,000 teachers and school administrators. We place a special emphasis on recruiting female teachers, with about half of all recruited teachers being women.

Now we must also focus on the quality of the training we provide in order to elevate and deepen the quality of education provided. That means expanded skills training and continued education for students, it means smaller classroom sizes, it means enabling policies at the local and national level, it means climate resilience in the classroom, so when the next disaster strikes, we are ready.

Together, we can make a better world. Teachers everywhere deserve our respect and admiration. Teachers cannot and should not wait! Join ECW and our strategic partners in supporting teachers in the toughest humanitarian crises on the globe. Let us all bow to them. Let us contribute with funding and a donation today.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Sep 19 2023 (IPS-Partners)

“My dream is to become a teacher,” says 13-year-old Alia. A small glimmer of hope can be traced in her beautiful, almond-shaped, brown eyes. Together with her mother, siblings and aunt, Alia has fled the conflict in Sudan to Chad. With extraordinary courage to survive, she made the harrowing journey at night across checkpoints, threatened by guns and militia roaming around in the dark. While her eyes are still hollow from the flight, I see that sparkle for a split second: she still has hope.

My colleagues and I met Alia with her mother in Chad, right on the border of Sudan. Alia’s resilience and capacity to hold onto hope serve as a great reminder of what needs to be done, infusing us all with the inspiration to actually do it: invest in her education!

This year’s United Nations General Assembly Week revolves around the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Action. By connecting the dots, we all know that education is the most essential foundation for every human being to achieve the skills and competencies for providing basic services to a population, govern a country and effectively manage and protect Mother Earth.

We know that without inclusive, quality education, we cannot end extreme poverty, achieve gender-equality, ensure health and save our planet from climate disasters. It is simply impossible. With no teachers, no doctors, no scientists, no innovators – all while child marriage and unwanted pregnancies continue to escalate for girls – there is no sustainable way to achieve these other important goals and ambitions.

By the same token, we all know that we cannot have a world where the educated in some privileged regions determine what basic service is a priority as opposed to another for another nation’s people. Real empowerment means ensuring that every child and adolescent – no matter who or where they are – can access quality education, thus allowing them to take on the decisions and responsibilities for rebuilding their countries.

In the same vein, we know we must avoid contributing further to existing socio-economic global inequities. This is why we focus on the most disempowered – those left furthest behind from the Sustainable Development Goals. They are the 224 million girls and boys who are most impacted by climate-induced disasters, armed conflict and forced displacement.

Education is the key that unlocks all rights, goals and ambitions. Do we have the hope and courage to invest in education as the quintessential contribution that we can make to humankind in the 21st century? If we listen to Alia, just one of 224 million children and adolescents in her situation, we can be inspired to make that investment, now.

It is not even a calculated risk – thus, far from the real risks Alia and her family took when fleeing Sudan – because proven models for delivering education and learning outcomes to those left furthest behind exist. The political will amongst host-governments is present. The capacity amongst United Nations agencies, civil society, local communities and populations is more powerful than ever. The in-country coordination systems are in place and the UN Secretary-General’s Reform on Joint Programming and bridging the humanitarian-development-peace nexus continue to be actioned as I write this.

Indeed, important progress is being made. As outlined in Education Cannot Wait’s new “With Hope and Courage: 2022 Annual Results Report,” ECW and our strategic and implementing partners have already reached close to 9 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents with life-changing quality, holistic and child-centred education.

During ECW’s first six months of operations as a catalytic pooled funding mechanism for SDG4 in emergencies and protracted crises, we jointly reached 700,000 children and adolescents. Just a few years later, by 2022, we reached nearly 9 million. This model of joint cooperation, coordination and collaboration works!

Still, much more needs to be done. The biggest challenge is securing sufficient financial investments for this innovative model – a model of United Nations reform and in achieving the SDGs. In close cooperation with the private sector it is a model of combining hard collective and coordinated work on the ground, the humanitarian imperative, development principles, with the spirit of both humanity and entrepreneurship towards results and impact.

Yet, education in crisis contexts faces a massive funding gap. Only 30% of education in emergencies requirements were funded in 2022 and just around 3% invested in education. Translate that into the budget for a family with school-aged children in more privileged parts of the world. No parents would put education for their children at the bottom of the household budget and allocate only 3% to their children’s future. Alia is our child, too; she is part of our shared humanity.

The UN General Assembly week is our chance to define the course of history. ECW is a global movement driven by the people, for the people and no one has more hope and courage than the young generation, represented by Alia and millions of young people like her caught in the toughest contexts in the world.

In this month’s high-level interview, we connect with two brilliant young leaders – Mutesi Hadijah and Hector Ulloa – who were recently elected to represent the youth constituency on ECW’s High-Level Steering Group and Executive Committee. As a catalytic pooled funding mechanism aimed at supporting our partners in-country with financing, we need to hear the voices of the youth who can help speak for Alia and millions like her.

Our valued donors and our strategic implementing partners have given so much to build ECW into the transformational, catalytic movement it is today, delivering life-changing results for crisis-affected children around the world. Due to the funding gap, we need more hope, we need more courage, we need more courageous investments in education.

As The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group, so eloquently states in his foreword to our new Annual Results Report: “With hope and courage, we must rise to the challenges before us. We must rise to the challenge of a world set afire by climate change, forced displacement, armed conflicts and human rights abuses.”

As world leaders, UN and civil society representatives, donors and the private sector from all walks of life gather in New York this week, let us invest in education inspired by Alia’s invincible courage and hope.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Sep 19 2023 (IPS-Partners)

Today, we mark the second anniversary of the ban on secondary school girls’ education in Afghanistan and join the world in calling for it to be lifted now.

Denying education to girls is a violation of universal human rights. The de facto authorities can do the right thing for the long-suffering people of Afghanistan by ensuring that every girl in Afghanistan can access quality education and contribute to rebuilding their war-torn country.

In all, 80% of school-aged Afghan girls are currently out of school – that’s 2.5 million girls denied their right to the safety, protection and opportunity of education – their inherent human right.

As the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) stands in solidarity with all girls in Afghanistan who are courageously raising their voices for their right to education.

Throughout the year, we will continue to highlight their call through our ongoing #AfghanGirlsVoices global campaign, launched by The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group; ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif; and ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi.

The #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign features the inspiring, resilient and heart-breaking testimonies of Afghan adolescent girls whose lives have been upended by the ban on their education.

As one girl says, “I see a day when every Afghan girl will have the wings to soar, breaking free from the chains of ignorance and prejudice.” Afghan girls and young women love their country and want to help rebuild it together with their fathers and brothers.

ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Afghanistan aims to support more than 250,000 children and adolescents across some of the most remote and underserved areas of the country. The programme delivers community-based education, organised at the local level with support from local communities, and is critical to keep education going. Girls account for well over half of all the children and adolescents reached through this investment.

ECW also calls for urgent additional funding from government donors, the private sector, philanthropic foundations and high-net-worth individuals to fill the US$30 million funding gap to fully implement this programme, and the US$670 million required to fully finance the results under our new 2023-2026 Strategic Plan, which will reach 20 million crisis-impacted children worldwide over the next three years.

Courageous girls are raising their voices across Afghanistan and world leaders must stand with them to support Afghanistan and our collective humanity. “They think they can bury us in the shadows, but little do they know, we are seeds of resilience, ready to bloom and flourish,” says one inspiring girl in the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign.

Together, we must ensure that – through education – every girl in Afghanistan can emerge from the shadows so they can contribute to a brighter future which every Afghan so deserves.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Aug 12 2023 (IPS)

To save our people and our planet from the life-threatening risks of the climate crisis, we must invest in the education of today’s youth. They will be the climate activists, climate scientists, climate innovators, game-changers and leaders of the 21st century green economy.

On International Youth Day, ECW and our global partners urge world leaders in the public and private sectors to ensure today’s youth have the green skills they need to save our planet. The climate-change challenges and the detrimental impact are enormous – severely affecting the planet, as well as basic services and our very survival.

According to the recent position paper by the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO): “Addressing the climate, environment, and biodiversity crises in and through girls’ education”, the climate crisis is impacting the education of 40 million children every year. “Education is an assumed, but hugely undervalued, component of responses to climate change impacts, and efforts to mitigate and adapt to them. It is essential for reducing vulnerability, improving communities’ resilience and adaptive capacity, identifying innovations, and for empowering individuals to be part of the solution to climate and environmental change,” states the position paper.

Recent global estimates from Education Cannot Wait (ECW) – the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies & protracted crises – indicate that the number of crisis-impacted children who urgently need education support has spiked by as much as 25 million over the past year.

According to the new ECW Global Estimate Study: “Climate change interacts with underlying crisis drivers to increase crisis severity and worsen education outcomes. For example, droughts in East Africa deplete livelihoods, boost displacement, and undermine food security, worsening access to education and learning and accelerating protection needs.”

As we ramp up efforts to deliver on the Paris Agreement, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development Goals at this year’s SDG Summit and Climate Talks (COP28), we must ensure that quality education, as a critical response to climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience – especially for children and adolescents caught in emergencies – is inserted into the climate agenda, funding decisions and global policy. Because, climate change is not a stand-alone sector. It impedes and prevents the education of 224 million children and youth today, and their ability to survive and protect our planet tomorrow.

As we build toward COP28, ECW will work closely with the Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility, Adaptation Fund and other multilateral and bilateral funds – along with the private sector – to develop solution-oriented and actionable commitments to ensure that education in emergencies both responds to immediate crises, while also equipping communities with the knowledge and skills they need to adapt, mitigate, and build resilience in the face of an uncertain future.

For today’s youth, this means ensuring they receive a quality education in some of the highest-risk climate disaster areas on the globe. It also means to empower them with the knowledge and skills they need to develop, access and advance the green economy, and have the capacity to lead and make sustainable decisions for their communities and countries.

Youth are the human power of a green economy and of climate action and climate resilience. Financial investments in climate change mean financial investments in the education of 224 million children and adolescents. Empowered with an education, they will save their communities, their countries and our planet. If not them, who? Without them, how?

IPS UN Bureau

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jul 14 2023 (IPS)

We all know and agree that patience is a virtue. It is indeed. With one exception.

In the face of a child’s suffering, impatience is the highest virtue. Or as we say in the spirit of Education Cannot Wait: “We must be unapologetically impatient” in our collective goal to reach 224 million crisis-affected children and adolescents with quality education.

Over the past few months, we have met with refugee children, teachers, parents, community leaders, implementing partners, strategic donors and government officials in Colombia, South Sudan and Chad. Time and again we have seen first-hand how climate change, armed conflict and forced displacement severely disrupt lives, destroy hope and dramatically impede progress toward our global promise of inclusive quality education for all.

As stressed by United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, Violet Kenyana Kakyomya, in this month’s ECW high-level interview: “Refugees have been exposed to trauma due to the violence they witnessed and experienced, which for children can have short- and long-term negative effects on their physical, mental, cognitive and emotional development.” In this context, access to education is a crucial protection measure.

Unless we act now as a global community, we will lose an entire generation of children and, with them, future generations. We will leave behind a legacy of broken promises, denial of opportunity and loss of hope. The most effective way to counter this is to empower today’s generation with the academic, social-emotional learning, mental health, self-confidence, empathy skills and tools to reverse and mitigate the avalanche of despair and destruction and to build back better.

Above all, we need to #EmpowerHer – namely the millions of crisis-affected girls who are among the furthest left behind and yet who have so much to contribute in changing the world for the better.

Education is the most powerful means to break cycles of violence – committed on both human beings and mother nature. Education is the best pathway to end conflicts and climate disasters. Because the world needs profoundly educated people who can both think and feel; and, who know how to put this vision into action. None of this can wait.

The task is daunting, urgent and requires immediate action. Our recent global estimates study provides a clearer picture than ever of the growing challenges. In all, the new estimates indicate as many as 224 million crisis-impacted children are in urgent need of a quality education.

As we reflect on our progress in advance of this year’s UN SDG Summit, UN General Assembly, Climate Talks (COP28), and Global Refugee Forum, we must unite with a sense of urgency, impatience and concrete action to ensure Education Cannot Wait and our global strategic partners receive the financing required to deliver an inclusive and continued quality education. Our shared goal is to make more than #222MillionDreams come true.

With more funding, we can deliver faster and further, together.

In June, we launched new investments in South Sudan, Central African Republic and Somalia. Our proven results-focused strategy exists. The political will is there. The systems and processes for coordination of joint programming are in place. The missing link is financing. We need fully funded joint programmes across sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

It is possible to do: together, we continue our global advocacy efforts to urgently mobilize more than US$1.5 billion to realize ECW’s goal of reaching 20 million children and adolescents over the next four years of our strategic plan.

This is not only a very realistic and logical goal. It is an existential imperative requiring action now – not waiting for better financial prospects or until the world is a better place.

As the late UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold, said: “It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.”

We can’t play it safe. If there is any virtue we all need today, it is to be unapologetically impatient.

Yasmine Sherif is Director of Education Cannot Wait.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 19 2023 (IPS-Partners)

Sexual violence is unacceptable in any shape or form, in all contexts, including those of conflict.

As we come together on the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, we must reflect together on the pain, horror, fear and inhumanity that rape, sexual abuse, trafficking, slavery, child marriage and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence bring to a young child’s life, hence, our collective humanity.

Sexual violence is a grave breach of international law. It is immoral and it is unconscionable. Nevertheless, as we look back and towards brutal armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sudan and beyond, we read reports of girls and women – and boys and men too – being raped, sexually abused, pushed into marriage, trafficked and denied their most basic human rights and human dignity.

While sexual violence and rape have long been tactics of war, global efforts to end sexual violence in conflict are relatively new – and have been far too ineffective in curtailing these despicable assaults on people everywhere. Consider that the Lieber Code first mentioned rape as an executable offense during wartime in the late 1800s in the US Civil War. Sexual violence was also mentioned in the 1949 Geneva Convention as a “need to protect the honour of women.” It wasn’t until the late 1990s that rape during wartime was more largely prosecuted, with the United Nations classifying it as both a crime against humanity in 1993 and a war crime in 1995.

As a global community, we have done far too little to protect people – especially girls and women – from these heinous attacks. Growing militarization, the proliferation of arms and terrorism are making matters even worse.

In places that have experienced high levels of political, social and economic upheaval, recent UN reports indicate that “sexual violence is being used to subjugate and humiliate opposition groups and rival communities.” And when sexual violence occurs, perpetrators often go free, while girls and women are all too often blamed, ostracized and shunned from their communities.

We must stand united against these weapons of oppression. Education is key to empowering women and girls everywhere to stand up against sexual violence, it’s key to providing girls in crisis-impacted countries with access to safety and protection in the classroom. Education also entails mental health services to enable them to begin to heal from what otherwise would become lifelong scars. Education empowers them to pursue justice and end impunity. Education is also key for boys and men to understand that any act of sexual abuse or violence is criminal, despicable and unacceptable – anywhere, anytime, in every circumstance.

Please join Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies, in calling for an immediate stop to all forms of sexual violence. We will endure these assaults on individuals – and on our humanity – no more.

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