Director's Corner

Yasmine Sherif speaking with a kid from Lebanon
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ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif

Yasmine Sherif is the Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW). A lawyer specialized in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law (LL.M), she has over 30 years of experience with the United Nations and international NGOs. 

Ms. Sherif has served in some of the most crisis-affected areas of the world, including Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Balkans, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan as well as in New York and Geneva. She has led high-level missions to numerous conflict and crisis-affected countries. Her expertise spans across the education, humanitarian, development, human rights, gender and peacekeeping spectrum.

She is the author of the book, The Case for Humanity: An Extraordinary Session, and a Champion for ‘No Lost Generation.’ In 2017, she received the annual award Sweden’s UN Friend of the Year, in 2020 she was awarded the Global Educator Award in the United States, and in 2022 she received on behalf of Education Cannot Wait, the prestigious Mother Teresa Award.

Ms. Sherif also received an award from the United Nations Association-USA Brooklyn Chapter in 2023. She has also been honored as a Listee in Marquis Who's Who for her dedication to the field of international affairs and law, and leadership of ECW, as well as in the “Women Leaders 2024 Collector’s Edition" as a woman leader to look up to in 2024. 

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All Statements and Updates

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17 July 2022
Director's Corner

We Have Promises to Keep

During a visit to an elementary school in Kabul in October 2021, two months after the Taliban takeover, the pupils stood up one by one in front of Taliban leaders and spoke: “Our classes have resumed, but not for our older sisters. We have been promised that our older sisters...
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Safe to Learn Essay Collection
30 June 2022
Director's Corner

Safe to Learn Essay Collection: 'How conflict and emergencies escalate violence in schools and what must be done'

Ukraine, the latest armed conflict to have erupted in the world, is yet another stark reminder that schools are not safe in times of conflict and may even be the target of violence. Between 17 February and 3 March 2022 alone, over 20 incidents of attacks against education were reported...
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Kids
10 June 2022
Director's Corner

222 Million Dreams

Conflicts rage around us, climate change triggers armed conflicts and forced displacement, and a global pandemic continues to take lives and keep children out of school. More concerning still – as we learned in the latest Education Under Attack 2022 report – children, teachers and schools are victims of an...
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Attacks on Education in Syria
01 June 2022
Statements

Statement by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif: GCPEA ‘Education Under Attack 2022’ Report

Attacks on schools, teachers and students in places like Cameroon , the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Mali , the State of Palestine , and Ukraine have been going on for decades, with impunity and no accountability. We must immediately address this crisis by ensuring adherence to the Safe...
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Modern Diplomacy banner, girl at white board
24 May 2022
Op-Eds

Modern Diplomacy: Education Must Come First in our Global Economic Agenda

Article re-posted with permission from Modern Diplomacy. With leaders gathering at this year’s World Economic Forum, it’s time to prioritize the impact investments in education bring to businesses, economies and beyond. As all eyes turn to this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, we call on world leaders and world-leading...
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Child's drawing of the Ukraine flag
08 May 2022
Statements

Statement by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif on Deadly Attack on School in Ukraine

Education Cannot Wait joins the international community in calling for an immediate end to all attacks against children, teachers and schools following the bombing of a school in Bilohorivka, Luhansk region, Ukraine, in which dozens are feared dead, including amongst those taking shelter there. “I am appalled and outraged by...
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Group of girls sitting on their desks attending class
07 May 2022
Director's Corner

Today is the Time for Transformation

“I first think about my children. They are why we were forced to leave - because our children are always our first concern.” These are the moving words of Victoria, who fled the brutal war in Ukraine with her two daughters. Her eyes welling up with tears, she recalled their...
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Afghanistan attacks
20 April 2022
Statements

Statement by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif on Attacks on Schools in Kabul, Afghanistan

“Education Cannot Wait joins the international community in calling for an end to attacks against children and schools following yesterday’s deadly attacks on the Mumtaz Tuition Center and Abdul Raheem Shaheed High School in western Kabul, Afghanistan.” “I am profoundly shocked by this senseless violence and brutality perpetrated against children...
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Education in emergencies.
08 April 2022
Director's Corner

Connecting the Dots for the Transforming Education Summit

Look around the world at this very moment. Whether we look at it in stark numbers and statistics, whether we look at it as a generational loss of basic human rights, including the right to an education, or whether we look inwardly and feel the unspeakable human suffering and devastation taking place, we all agree: we are at a historically low point in our collective humanity.
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Afghanistan secondary school
25 March 2022
Statements

Statement: Education Cannot Wait Director Calls for Immediate Return to Education for Girls in Afghanistan

This statement is attributed to Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. Despite the assurance that they are “committed to the right to education of all citizens,” Afghanistan’s de facto authorities announced this week that they will not...
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Director's Corner
08 March 2022
Director's Corner

Bold Action Cannot Wait: Invest in Their Education – Director’s Corner

For far too long, millions of parents have struggled to send their children and adolescents to school amidst armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change-induced disasters and COVID-19. Now, the brutal daily reality of millions in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America is playing out in Europe. We are...
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International Women's Day
07 March 2022
Director's Corner

Girls’ Education Must Come First

The International Women’s Day is not a celebration – it is a reminder that we have yet to empower young girls in crisis to access their inherent right to a quality education. Republished with permission from Modern Diplomacy . On the International Women’s Day, ECW celebrates the role of education...
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Latest Photos

Access Photos of ECW Director Yasmine Sherif
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, ECW Director Yasmine Sherif and ECW staff at UN's Transforming Education Summit
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
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Director Yasmine Sherif speaks with students during a school visit on her all-women mission to Afghanistan.
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Leading an all-women mission to Afghanistan, Director Yasmine Sherif arrives at a local school, hand-in-hand with female teachers and staff.
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Director Yasmine Sherif and actress and education champion Rachel Brosnahan take the stage at Global Citizen Live 2021 in NYC.
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Director Yasmine Sherif meets children with disabilities during ECW’s Lebanon Mission.
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Director Yasmine Sherif and Nasser Faqih, ECW Chief of Partnerships, visit a refugee camp with partners during a mission to Lebanon.
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Director Yasmine Sherif speaks with on-the-ground partners during ECW’s mission to Lebanon.

Latest Videos

Al Arabiya with Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

قناة العربية: الشارع الدبلوماسي مع طلال الحاج يستضيف ياسمين شريف حول وضع التعليم في افغانستان

Diplomatic Avenue : Al Arabiya Exclusive with Yasmine Sherif, Director of UN Global Fund ECW

ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif Celebrates the Fifth Anniversary of Education Cannot Wait

[FR] ECW Director Yasmine Sherif mission in DRC - part 1

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Resolutions are just tiny steps. To make them a reality requires Action. Until it becomes action on the ground, those words mean very little. Not until you help that child to access a safe, quality education have you actually achieved the result.

Yasmine Sherif, ECW Executive Director