Today, 127 million primary and secondary school-age children and young people living in crisis-affected country are out of school. It’s almost one-half of the global out-of-school population.
UNESCO is committed to supporting education systems and making them more resilient and responsive in the face of conflict, social unrest and natural hazards – and to ensure that education is maintained during emergency, conflict and post-conflict situations.
One of the key challenges facing education in crisis-affected countries is the lack of accurate, reliable and timely data, needed to drive effective education responses. Available data is typically fragmented. Its collection and use tend to reflect and reinforce misalignment between humanitarian and development programming. This leads to the inaccurate identification of vulnerable groups and their needs, insufficient and misallocated funding, inefficient policy and program interventions, and weak Education Sector Plans.
In response to these challenges, UNESCO – with IIEP and UIS - in partnership with NORCAP and supported by Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), is working to Strengthening institutional education information systems for data driven education in emergencies and resilience to crises. Institutional education information systems adapted are key to identifying, addressing, and monitoring the education needs of populations affected by emergencies in a comprehensive and coordinated manner. It is an essential step towards effectively building the resilience of education systems and ensuring quality and safe education for all.
With its initiative, launched in 2019, UNESCO and its partners are implementing country-specific interventions, seeking to make institutional education information systems more crisis-sensitive and support the alignment of data collected and used by both humanitarian and development partners and education authorities. Following an initial stage of elaborating six country case studies (Chad, Ethiopia, Palestine, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic and Uganda), the current phase is the implementation of recommended interventions at both global and national levels.
By bringing together governments and partners from across the humanitarian and development community, the project addresses the challenges facing EiE and institutional education information systems in a holistic manner by tackling the entire data chain. In Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, countries selected from among those that participated in the first phase, UNESCO and its partners implement adapted interventions that contribute to:
- Strengthen emergency preparedness and response capacities of education authorities and education in emergencies partners
- Improve accountability of government authorities and partners
- Increase political support at all levels to education in emergencies and protracted crises
- Increase financing for education in emergencies and protracted crises
