2021 GEC Thematic Support

With generous support from Education Cannot Wait, the Global Education Cluster has bolstered its capacity to provide critical thematic support to country clusters and working groups, working towards a more holistic, inclusive and localized response. 

Child Protection and EiE Collaboration  
After launching the Global Education Cluster and the Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility (GCPAoR)’s–Collaboration in Coordination Framework in 2020, the GEC worked with country coordination teams in 2021 to learn from, and support their CP-EiE collaboration initiatives, including:

• Joint needs analysis in DRC: conducted a joint CP-EiE SDR and analysis; to inform HNO chapters with inter-connected CP and Education needs and the impact of COVID-19 on both sectors.
• Strategic planning in Cameroon: developed a chapter on protection mainstreaming to systematise CP-EiE collaboration as a key element of their 2021-2024 strategy and MYRP.
• Preparedness in Afghanistan: initiated two standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the case of mass displacement, and attacks on schools, developed jointly with the CP sub-cluster.
• Advocacy in oPt: developed advocacy messages on protecting of education from attack and the critical links between CP and Education in the Gaza context, following the May 2021 escalation.
• Inter-sector discussions in Ethiopia: to encourage integrated programming among partners and systematize coordinated inter-sector approaches.

 The GEC continues to partner with the Global CPAoR on global initiatives including multi-sector MHPSS responses and joint needs analysis. We launched a skype Community of Practice – a space to dig into challenges and best practices in inter-sector coordination.
 
Localization
The Localization workstream supported global and country-level initiatives. At global level:

• GEC engaged in the Inter Agency Standing Committee’s Result Group 1 (RG1) during the development of the Guide on Localization and supported its translation into French, Arabic, and Spanish. For key documents, please visit the GEC localization webpage.
• A Localization Community of Practice was established to share good practices and address common challenges.

At country level:

• Localization Working Group in Ethiopia: the GEC supported the Ethiopia Cluster in setting up a localization technical working group. The Ethiopia Cluster Strategy and ToR was updated to enhance the focus on local NGOs participation in decision making processes.
• Dashboard and Analysis, Nigeria: the GEC remotely supported the Nigeria EiE Working Group to produce a localization dashboard and analysis of the partnership survey with EiEWG members.
• Localization advice – Myanmar, Cameroon and Northeast Syria: localization inputs into the Myanmar Preparedness Plans and Cameroon Education Cluster Strategy; the  GEC organized online localization workshop with Northeast Syria EiE Working Group members to support them in the identification of key activities for localization.

Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA)
In 2021, GEC strengthened its field support in Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) to Education Clusters and Working Groups. At global level:

• In 2021, the GEC Cash Task Team had regular meetings during which progress was made on updating the Task Team work plan, contributing to work done in the Grand Bargain on education indicators for multipurpose cash grants, finalizing the report on the Role of Cash and Voucher Assistance in Increasing Equity and Inclusion for Girls and Children with Disabilities in Education in Emergencies and starting new work on research and guidance development on the use of “cash-like” interventions in education in emergencies and their integration with CVA. In addition to the regular meetings, the Task Team organized a launch webinar on two important resources on response analysis and targeting developed by UNICEF on behalf of the Task Team, attended by close to one hundred participants globally.
• In the area of capacity building, CVA was mainstreamed into the newly developed GEC training package and toolkit on the inclusion of education in rapid response mechanisms. An 80-minutes online training module on cash was developed for the use of cluster coordinators and information management officers.  

At country level, in 2021 the CVA workstream supported DRC on the education component of the Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) and integration of CVA in the Rapid Response Mechanisms (RRM), Lebanon and Syria on country specific guidance on CVA for EiE,  Myanmar on the review of the Minimal Expenditure Basket and provided CVA inclusion inputs to the CAR, Niger and Burkina Faso 2022 HRPs

Accountability to Children
The focus of the Accountability to Children workstream in 2021 evolved around mainstreaming Child Participation in the key Humanitarian Programme Cycle stages. A number of country coordination staff and partners were  trained to strengthen their understanding on how to safely and meaningfully consult children in critical phases of the Humanitarian Programme Cycle in Yemen, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ukraine, Mozambique and Cameroon. This resulted in strengthening the inclusion of children’s inputs and feedback into Joint Education Needs Assessments,, Monitoring reports and Strategy documents with the aim of influencing the EiE response.

Child Participation in Humanitarian Programme Cycle Stages:

• Child Participation in Joint Education Needs Analyses:  63 enumerators were trained in meaningful & ethical consultations with children for more accountable EiE responses in Sudan (408 children), Nigeria (212 children) and Ethiopia (186 children).
• Child Participation in Strategy Development: 22 enumerators were trained in Cameroon to support the Cameroon Education Cluster consult children and capture their voices (365 children) in the Cluster’s strategy development process.
• Child Participation in Monitoring: support was provided to introduce innovative approaches to involve children in EiE monitoring for partners to review programmes & influence the education response in Ukraine (301 children) and Mozambique (543 children).

Child Safeguarding
At global level the Child safeguarding workstream finalized the following guidance and training modules:

• The GEC facilitated the child safeguarding Task Team comprising of international and national organizations and agencies.
• The GEC’s 50-minute self-paced e-module, “How to embed child safeguarding in Education Coordination through the HPC”, was launched in English on the UNICEF Agora platform; the French translation will be available in February 2022.

At country level:

• Trained 17 partner staff of the North-West Syria Education Cluster in child safeguarding in Education Coordination.
• Delivered a child safeguarding (and PSEA) awareness raising session to 23 participants of the Libya Education Sector.
• In Nigeria, the Education in Emergency and Child Protection Working-Groups received support in child safeguarding and child participation: 46 EiE and 39 Child Protection partners attended a Child safeguarding- child participation awareness presentations; 32 EiE and 19 CP Partners completed a survey on these thematic areas and 34 EiE Partners attended a workshop to agree on joint commitments to mainstream these areas. 

Attacks on Education
In 2021, GEC launched a work stream to systematize cluster approaches to better monitor and report attacks on education.

• A Scoping Paper on cluster engagement with attacks on education was developed to provide analysis on the existing cluster practices, and engagement on monitoring and reporting of incidents. In total 50 people contributed their time for interviews and inputs. The scoping paper provided a frame to develop a practical guidance note for country clusters.
• Guidance Note for Systematizing Cluster Approaches for Attacks on Education is under development. The first version of the note will be completed end of January. The note has been developed in consultation with a Reference Group of key stakeholders, country clusters and the Global Education Cluster SAG.   

A piloting phase has been planned for 2022 to ensure that the guidance is adapted to needs and country examples are developed.