Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, issued its new Annual Results Report indicating that ECW investments with strategic partners have reached close to 7 million children and adolescents – 48.4% of whom are girls – since becoming operational in 2017.
According to ECW’s “We Have Promises to Keep: Annual Results Report,” despite the ongoing challenges of COVID-19, conflict, protracted crises, and climate-related disasters, the Fund and its partners continue to expand the response to education in emergencies and protracted crises need globally.
ECW mobilized a record-breaking US$388.6 million in 2021 alone. Total contributions to the ECW Trust Fund top US$1.1 billion. Furthermore, across 19 countries supported through ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programmes (MYRPs), donors and partners mobilized an additional cumulative amount of more than US$1 billion in new funding for education programs supporting the same type of beneficiaries as the MYRPs. This includes $685 million of investments strongly aligned and coordinated with the MYRPs.
Through its strategic partnerships, ECW reached 3.7 million children and adolescents across 32 crisis-impacted countries in 2021 alone (including 48.9% girls). An additional 11.8 million children and adolescents were reached through the Fund’s COVID-19 interventions that same year bringing the total number of children and adolescents supported by COVID-19 interventions to 31.2 million (52% girls).
ECW’s results report provides evidence of progress made by focusing on quality learning outcomes for the most marginalized children in crises. Of all children reached by ECW’s investments to date, half are girls, and 43% are a refugee or internally displaced children.
The results report comes on the back of shocking new estimates issued by ECW in June 2022 indicating that 222 million school-aged children and adolescents caught in crises globally are in urgent need of educational support. These include 78.2 million who are out of school and 119.6 million who are in school but not achieving minimum competencies in mathematics and reading.
“While progress is being made, we still have a long way to go. There is no dream more powerful than that of education. There is no reality more compelling than to attain one’s full potential. We must keep our promise: to provide inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, as enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG4) and Human Rights Conventions,” said The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Steering Group.
Education Cannot Wait’s High-Level Financing Conference will take place in Geneva in February 2023. Hosted by Switzerland and Education Cannot Wait – and co-convened by Germany, Niger, Norway, and South Sudan – through the 222 Million Dreams campaign, the conference calls on government donors, private sector, foundations, and high-net-worth individuals to turn commitments into action by making substantive funding contributions to ECW.
“ECW’s solid results in our first five years of operation are proof of the concept that we can turn the tide and empower the most marginalized girls and boys in crises with the hope, protection, and opportunity of quality education. We can make their dreams come true, whether it’s to become a nurse, a teacher, an engineer, or a scientist. With our strategic partners, we urge governments, businesses, and philanthropic actors to make substantive funding contributions to ECW to help turn dreams into reality for children left furthest behind in crises,” said Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait.
According to the report, ECW expanded its portfolio of grants active in 2021 to a total amount of US$495.8 million. Six new Multi-Year Resilience Programmes (MYRPs) were developed in 2021, bringing ECW’s MYRPs portfolio to a total of 24 protracted crises. These multi-stakeholder programs provide a framework to strengthen coordination, and predictable and flexible funding required to achieve quality education outcomes in protracted crisis settings ranging from Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, and the Sahel and Venezuela regional crises.
Original Source: Education Cannot Wait