Strengthening Rapid Education Response

A child’s right to education does not cease at the onset of a humanitarian emergency. Rather, education becomes an important life-saving and life-sustaining tool. Despite this, education is often not prioritized or included in first phase rapid response, which endeavours to promote quick humanitarian assistance at the onset of a new emergency or the escalation of an existing humanitarian crisis. This is a critical gap jeopardizing children and young people’s well-being.

To address this gap the European Commission’s Directorate General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) partnered with the Global Education Cluster, UNICEF, REACH, UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), Save the Children, Translators without Borders and NORCAP to gather evidence, develop tools, and reinforce capacities to promote and strengthen the systemic inclusion of life-saving and life-sustaining education in rapid response.

The partnership has achieved great results along three key areas:

Result 1 | Evidence Building: Produced a robust evidence base to advocate for the life-saving and life-sustaining role of education in rapid response, comprised of three components:

- Global snapshot of rapid response mechanisms, with a focus on key lessons for rapid needs assessment, lead by REACH

- Findings and recommendations on key challenges and way forward for including education in rapid response, including rapid response mechanisms, led by the University of Sussex, UNICEF and GEC

-Unpacking the role of Ministries of Education in rapid education response, including recommendations to strengthen their engagement, led by UNESCO’s IIEP

Result 2 | Tools: Developed a first of its kind toolkit offering education practitioners and coordinators:

- Easy-to-use tools which serve as an example and can be adapted to the country/field context

- Supplementary resources for additional information

- Links to relevant platforms hosting a wide range of Education in Emergencies (EiE) resources.

Learn more and download the Strengthening Rapid Education Response Toolkit here.

Result 3 | Capacity Building and Support: Equipped 192 participants from 69 organizations across 11 countries (as of Nov 2022) with skills and knowledge to plan, coordinate and implement rapid education responses. Dedicated technical support provided by the GEC enabled country teams to further hone tools and skills from the training.

Questions about the Strengthening Rapid Education Response project? Contact the GEC Helpdesk

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