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| Education Cannot Wait | |
|---|---|
| Name | Education Cannot Wait |
| Type | International fund |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Leader title | Director |
| Leader name | Yasmine Sherif |
| Area served | Global humanitarian contexts |
Education Cannot Wait is a global fund created to finance and promote learning for children and adolescents affected by crises. It mobilizes multilateral and bilateral donors, United Nations agencies, international NGOs, philanthropic foundations, and private-sector partners to deliver schooling in emergencies and protracted crises. The fund operates at the intersection of humanitarian relief and long-term development, coordinating with actors across United Nations, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNESCO, and World Bank ecosystems.
Education Cannot Wait channels pooled financing to support education in emergencies across conflict-affected states like Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan, Yemen, and Democratic Republic of the Congo while responding to natural disasters in countries such as Haiti, Philippines, and Mozambique. It seeks to align with global frameworks including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Compact on Refugees, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The fund engages actors such as Save the Children, World Vision, CARE International, Norwegian Refugee Council, and International Rescue Committee to implement country-level programs. It coordinates with financing instruments like the Global Partnership for Education, the Education Above All Foundation, and humanitarian pooled funds coordinated by OCHA.
Initiated in 2016 following calls at forums such as the World Humanitarian Summit and summits convened by UN Secretary-General initiatives, the fund drew political support from donor states including United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. Founding partners included UNICEF, UNESCO, UNHCR, Save the Children, and the World Bank. Early governance discussions involved stakeholders from European Union, African Union, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and philanthropic actors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The initiative built on precedents from emergency education work by UNICEF Somalia, Education Cluster activities, and lessons from responses to crises like the Syrian Civil War, Rohingya refugee crisis, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
The fund is governed by a board that includes representatives from donor states such as Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, and Denmark, as well as representatives from operational partners including UNICEF, UNHCR, and Save the Children. Funding streams include multilateral contributions, bilateral aid from ministries such as DFID (now Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office), grant support from foundations like MacArthur Foundation and Ford Foundation, and private-sector contributions from corporations such as Microsoft and Google. Financial mechanisms engage with institutions like the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank for coordination, and the fund aligns disbursement with humanitarian architecture including Cluster approach coordination led by OCHA. Accountability and oversight involve auditing by firms akin to the International Court of Auditors model and reporting to stakeholders including United Nations General Assembly forums.
Programs include rapid-response grants for acute crises, multi-year resilience programs in contexts like Jordan and Lebanon hosting refugees from Syria, and cash-transfer pilots inspired by models used in Ethiopia and Kenya. Initiatives encompass teacher training adapted from curricula developed with UNESCO Institute for Statistics inputs, psychosocial support modeled after practices from Red Cross operations, and inclusive education strategies informed by UNICEF Afghanistan and Save the Children Sierra Leone experiences. The fund supports innovations such as digital learning platforms comparable to projects by Khan Academy, mobile classrooms used in South Sudan operations, and accelerated learning programs akin to those in Liberia post-conflict recovery.
Strategic partners include UN agencies (UNICEF, UNHCR, UNESCO), multilateral development banks (World Bank, African Development Bank), NGOs (Médecins Sans Frontières, Mercy Corps, Plan International), and philanthropic organizations (Gates Foundation, Children's Investment Fund Foundation). Corporate collaborations involve technology firms like Microsoft, Google, and telecommunications partners similar to Vodafone for connectivity in displacement settings. The fund coordinates with regional bodies such as the Economic Community of West African States and Association of Southeast Asian Nations for contextualized programming, and liaises with academic institutions including Columbia University and University of Oxford for research partnerships.
Reported impacts include support for millions of children in crisis-affected contexts, improvements in access to learning in settings influenced by the Syrian refugee crisis, and pilot successes in cash-transfer education programming as seen in Jordan and Bangladesh. Evaluations reference monitoring practices used by UNICEF and independent assessments from organizations like ODI and Humanitarian Policy Group. Criticisms have focused on challenges of scale compared with global need, coordination tensions with national ministries such as Ministry of Education (South Sudan) and Ministry of Education (Yemen), and questions about long-term sustainability versus short-term humanitarian aid, similar to debates around humanitarian-development nexus interventions and critiques levelled at entities like Global Partnership for Education and World Bank schooling projects.
Country-level investments span fragile contexts: in South Sudan supporting displaced learners, in Yemen partnering with UNICEF Yemen and local NGOs, in Central African Republic aligning with Education Cluster response plans, and in Nigeria addressing disruptions from Boko Haram conflict. Regional engagements include coordinating with UNHCR Regional Bureau for the Middle East, working in displacement settings like Cox's Bazar for the Rohingya refugees, and supporting recovery in disaster-affected regions such as Sindh after flooding. Operations adapt to contexts with inputs from national stakeholders including ministries and local civil society groups, and engage donor embassies from capitals like Washington, D.C., London, Berlin, and Oslo.
Category:International educational organizations