Strengthening Education and Child Protection Needs Assessment and Preparedness

The unparalleled loss of learning and heightened protection concerns witnessed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of holistically addressing children’s interlinked education and protection needs. However, the pandemic also revealed limited tools and resources available to support practitioners identify, collect and assess robust data to inform inter-sectoral response.

Against this backdrop, the Global Education Cluster (GEC) and Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility (GCPAoR) leveraged generous support from USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs to address this gap by:

Result 1: Scaling up support to countries to strengthen national and local capacities to implement robust Education needs assessment and analysis. 

Result 2: Enhancing integration of Child Protection considerations in Education needs assessments to improve holistic understanding of children's needs in 6 countries; this includes an emphasis on giving children a strong opportunity to voice their needs through child participatory approaches in data collection.

Result 3: Improving emergency Education and Child Protection preparedness tools, resources as well local and national capacities to respond to sudden onset emergencies.

The GEC and GCPAoR will be releasing the results of the 6 country needs assessments:

Niger | Summary Note (EN) | Full Assessment Report (FR)

Detailing findings from 36 schools assessed in the regions of Diffa, Maradi, Tahoua and Tillaberi, as well as corresponding communities, this assessment outlines key findings around children’s education and protection needs, organized around enrolment and drop-out, teachers, infrastructure, risks in and outside schools, and around public health and epidemics.

Burkina Faso | Summary Note (EN) | Full Assessment Report (FR)

Detailing findings from the interviews with 401 key informants and 37 focus groups with children within the regions in Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-East, East, Centre-North, North, Sahel, Cascades and South-West, this assessment outlines key findings around barriers to children's education and protection needs, organized around attendance and drop-out, teachers and risks in and outside schools. The joint assessment shows that the reception of displaced children in schools remains a major challenge. Building on the key informants’ recommendations, the joint assessment concludes with recommendations to encourage parents to send their children to school and improve the schooling rate of children.

Myanmar | Executive Summary (EN) | Executive Summary (MM)

Detailing findings from 27 townships of nine States/Regions — Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Magway, Rakhine, Sagaing, Shan (north), and Shan (south), this assessment summarizes key findings concerning obstacles to children’s education and protection needs, organized around enrolment and drop-out, infrastructure, teachers, and risks in and outside schools. The joint assessment captures the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the coup d’état in Myanmar which continues to significantly disrupt children’s wellbeing and deny their right to education. The assessment reveals lack of prioritization of education and financial constraints as the two main causes of school drop-out and highlights, among other things, the need to raise awareness among children and parents about the importance of education and providing cash and in-kind support to improve children’s access to education.

Northwest Syria | Full Assessment Report (EN) | Post-Earthquake SDR Report (EN)

Detailing findings from 49 communities in Aleppo and Idlib, supplemented with a secondary data review (SDR) after the February 2023 earthquake in Syria, this joint assessment presents the main findings concerning barriers to children’s education and protection needs. These findings are organized around enrolment and drop-out, learning conditions, and security concerns both in and outside schools. The assessment identifies distance and lack of transportation, formal education costs, and security issues as the key hindrances to education, which are reported to have worsened due to the earthquake. These barriers are also exacerbated by the profound impact of instability and economic turmoil, and violence, further magnifying the threat to education and child protection needs in NWS. Building upon suggestions from key informants, the assessment recommends addressing economic barriers, implementing child safeguarding and GBV risk mitigation measures, and integrating water, sanitation, and hygiene protocols to ensure equitable, secure, and high-quality education.

Central African Republic | Full Assessment Report (FR) | Summary Note (EN)

Just as the Central African Republic was beginning to slowly recover from the repercussions of COVID-19, the consequences of the conflict profoundly worsened the challenges faced on a daily basis by a population already exhausted by recurrent armed conflict and serious human rights violations. This joint education-child protection needs assessment looks at the impact of these crises on the inter-linked protection and education needs of boys and girls. Organized in 67 communities in 39 sub-prefectures, the assessment collected quantitative and qualitative data to identify barriers in children’s education. The assessment looks enrolment and drop-out conditions, gender disparity and other child protection needs. It identifies financial constraints, early/child marriage and pregnancy, as well as lack of adequate sanitation facilities as primary barriers. The assessment includes recommendations to improve children’s access to education going forward.

Others forthcoming in Q4 2023.

Learn more about the GEC’s approach to needs assessments here.