Education Cannot Wait (ECW) announced US$13 million in new funding to scale up the education in emergency response in the Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. Approximately 247,000 crisis-affected children and youth (of which over 55 percent are girls), will be able to access quality education through the new funding.
“With this new funding, ECW’s total First Emergency Response investments in just the past four months alone now span 33 countries and crisis-affected contexts, with a record amount of US$60.1 million allocated by ECW for vulnerable children and youth in crisis-affected countries ranging from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, South Sudan, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe and many more,” said Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait.
The First Emergency Response investments in the Sahel were made possible with a frontloaded £10.5 million contribution from the United Kingdom. The new round of grants scale-up ECW’s investments in the Sahel announced in July 2019 and in December 2019.
Interventions will improve access to learning in protective environments and reduce school dropouts in Burkina-Faso, Mali, and Niger, responding to pre-existing crises and to the compounding effect of COVID-19. To build inclusive and equitable quality education, as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 4, grants target the most vulnerable populations impacted by forced displacement, including girls and children with disabilities. Investments will reach children and youth across age-groups and education levels: 13 percent in pre-primary, 66 percent in primary and 21 percent in secondary education.
Despite ECW’s expanded response, there remains an approximate US$94 million funding gap for the education response across these three countries. To help fill the gap, and to expand its support for children and youth impacted by COVID-19 in other crisis-affected countries, ECW urgently appeals for US$310 million in additional funding and calls on donors, the private sector and other key partners to support enhanced resource mobilization in response to the education crisis in the Sahel.
Original source: Education Cannot Wait
Published on 29 July 2020