Strengthening Coordination with the Education Cannot Wait Fund

Support from the Education Cannot Wait fund has been instrumental in reinforcing the Global Education Clusters’ core cluster functions. Initial seed funding was provided by the Education Cannot Wait fund in 2018, which was then followed with additional support over two years (2019-2021) to support the Global Education Clusters’ core functions, chiefly direct and remote field support, capacity development, evidence and guidance, and partnership, advocacy and communication.

This support has been critical in reinforcing the existing humanitarian coordination architecture established under the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s Cluster Approach. 

Additionally, stronger partnership has resulted in greater linkages between the Global Education Cluster and Education Cannot Wait in country. Specifically, the Global Education Cluster’s guidance around developing comprehensive Education Cluster strategies has served as a solid foundation for the Education Cannot Wait’s Multi-Year Resilience Plans and First Emergency Response plans. Examples include:

• Afghanistan, where two members of the Global Education Clusters’ Rapid Response Team were deployed to support the country Education Cluster with the development and review of partner proposals for the first Education Cannot Wait investment
• Whole of Syria, where a member of the Global Education Clusters’ Rapid Response Team was deployed to initiate the development of the Multi-Year Resilience Plan for Syria
• South Sudan, where members of the Global Education Cluster’ Rapid Response Team were deployed to conduct a training on development of comprehensive education cluster strategies in support of the Multi-Year Resilience Plan process