UNICEF and Save the Children sign new MoU for co-leadership of the Global Education Cluster

UNICEF and Save the Children have entered into a new MoU at the global level, reaffirming their co-leadership of the Global Education Cluster (GEC) and mutual commitment to realizing access to quality education for children in crisis-affected settings.

Replacing the 2007 MoU, this new agreement signals strong support for Education in Emergencies (EiE) at a time when global crises continue to compound and threaten educational gains for children everywhere, especially in humanitarian contexts.

The GEC provides support to 25 countries across different regions, ensuring education clusters play an instrumental role in ensuring timely, inclusive, and effective responses to humanitarian crises and the education needs of girls and boys.

Education in Emergencies is a lifesaving and protective intervention to ensure the wellbeing and learning of children, and it requires strong coordination and collaboration to yield meaningful results given the complexity of EiE responses. As the only cluster co-led by an NGO and UN agency, the GEC recognizes partnerships as key to effective cluster coordination.

“With the new MoU, UNICEF and Save the Children commit to reinforce and reinvigorate their partnership as co-leads of the Global Education Cluster, underscoring our shared commitment to ensure that every crisis-affected girl and boy has their right to a quality education fulfilled,” state Global Co-Coordinators Friedrich Affolter, UNICEF and Michelle Brown, Save the Children.

The Global MoU is also supported by updated country-level guidance, which can be requested through the helpdesk.