Education Cannot Wait – fund for education in emergencies

Girls face a unique set of challenges and barriers when seeking education, and in the midst of an emergency - whether this is a conflict or natural disaster - these challenges are made much worse.

During and after emergencies girls are often at greater risk of rape, sexual exploitation or abuse, and trafficking. Girls are often unseen and unheard, with their needs seen as low priority amidst the chaos of a disaster. 

In an emergency, ensuring girls receive an education must be a priority, yet in 2014, only 2% of humanitarian funding went towards education.

This is set to change; yesterday the UK government committed £30 million over the next two years, to the newly launched fund “Education Cannot Wait – a Fund for Education in Emergencies”. The platform, if fully funded, aims to help some of the 75 million girls and boys, young women and young men whose education is currently affected by emergencies to access quality, inclusive education.

This is a huge success for Plan’s campaigners, who have been tweeting Justine Greening to ask her to support the platform.

The Education Cannot Wait platform and the UK’s commitment to support it financially and politically is the first step towards ensuring all girls can continue their education in safety. As we outlined in our joint report, now the focus must be on ensuring the work of the fund reaches the most marginalised girls in all emergencies. We also need to ensure ongoing, multi year commitments to the platform, to ensure its ambitions can be realised.

This is just the first step; the challenge facing us is huge.

It is critical that other donor governments step up and support the fund to reach its targets of $3.85 billion in the next five years, to ensure that it can reach 13.6 million children living in crises. 
 
Providing children with education in emergencies means they will have access to life-saving skills and the information they need to be resilient and protect themselves - information on HIV, land mines, first aid and disaster risks can be shared through schools. Safe education spaces in schools can offer girls protection from exploitation and harm, and can provide a sense of normality and distraction during times of distress.

This is why education cannot wait for girls living through a crisis, and why Plan International UK are so pleased to see the launch of this new platform today. We are calling on all governments to ensure the platform is fully funded so that it can reach children who need an education.