International Coalition Led by Education Cannot Wait Provides New Educational Opportunities for 194,000 Children Displaced by Conflict in Nigeria
Children returning home to benefit from US$2.5 million in funding to rehabilitate 50 classrooms and build capacity for 800 teachers
Connecting a broad international coalition that includes Plan International, Save the Children, Street Child and UNICEF, Education Cannot Wait announced a new allocation totaling US$2.49 million to provide safe and equitable access to education for 194,000 conflict-affected children – 52 per cent of whom are girls – in the Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States of North East Nigeria.
The overall emergency education package includes US$210,000 for Plan International, US$249,999 for Save the Children, US$230,000 for Street Child, and US$1.8 million for UNICEF.
The 12-month programme coordinated by the Education Cluster in North East Nigeria in partnership with the Government of Nigeria, will support capacity building for 800 teachers and rehabilitate 50 classrooms. In all, 116,400 internally displaced children and 77,600 children permanently settled in these regions will be targeted with the intervention, which will provide educational supplies, permanent schools, basic humanitarian support, and training for teachers to promote the psycho-social development of these war-affected students.
“This support is essential in responding to the immediate needs of the people of North East Nigeria,” said Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait, a new global Fund that has already reached close to 1 million children living in conflict. “Education for all cannot be an afterthought in crisis. This First Emergency Response is just the beginning of our efforts to break the cycle of poverty and violence in the region, and protect boys and girls returning from conflict and still living with the scars of war. As we scale up this work through multi-year investments along with other local, national and international actors, we will expand our support to include more comprehensive actions to reach the estimated 1.8 million children in the region in need of this targeted support.”
The conflict in North East Nigeria and neighbouring states has been devastating, with schools and children often targeted in violent attacks.
“Girls were raped, children were forced into violent extremism, teachers were murdered, and families were ripped apart by this protracted crisis,” said Sherif. “If we are to reach our goal for universal, inclusive and equitable education for all as outlined by world leaders in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, immediate action needs to happen – not just in Nigeria, but across the globe.”
Since the rise of armed conflict in 2009, some 1,400 schools have been damaged or destroyed in Nigeria. In Borno State alone, 57 per cent of schools remain closed today.
According to Human Rights Watch, in some cases students recruited by Boko Haram attacked their own schools and killed their own teachers. An estimated 19,000 teachers have been displaced by conflict in Nigeria since 2009, with 2,295 killed in the violence.
Without teachers and without schools, the children of this region have very limited opportunities. To halt the continued scourge of violent extremism in the region – and protect our most valuable natural resource, our children – we’ve partnered with key actors in this humanitarian response phase to help rehabilitate schools, train teachers, provide essential educational supplies and get boys and girls back in safe and secure educational environments,” Sherif said.
The situation in North East Nigeria continues to be a highly complex humanitarian crisis. With 7.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including 4.3 million children who remain the primary victims of the ongoing conflict.
“This First Emergency Response funding is specifically designed for sudden onset crises or escalations of existing emergencies such as what we are seeing in North East Nigeria and neighboring states today,” said Sherif. “This is a start, but the magnitude of the crisis requires specific, extensive, multi-year engagements to get Nigeria’s boys and girls back in safe schools and help them recover from years of conflict.”
Education Cannot Wait has been operational for just over a year, the new global Fund was created to mobilize US$1.84 billion in funding by 2021 to provide reliable and quality education to 8.9 million children affected by crisis.
Read the PDF version of the press release here
Links
To know more about Education Cannot Wait visit www.educationcannotwait.org
Contact us at: info@educationcannotwait.org
Join the movement! Follow us @educannotwait
About Education Cannot Wait (ECW)
ECW is a global fund launched by international humanitarian and development aid actors, along with
public and private donors, to deliver education in conflict and crisis settings. The Fund ECW’s investment
modalities are designed to usher in a more collaborative approach among actors on the ground, ensuring
relief and development organizations join forces to achieve education outcomes.
ECW’s Secretariat is hosted by UNICEF in its Headquarters in New York.
Additional information is available at www.educationcannotwait.org
For press enquiries and to schedule an interview, contact:
Ms. Anouk Desgroseilliers,
adesgroseilliers@unicef.org, +1 917 640-6820
For Press Inquiries:
Anouk Desgroseilliers:
adesgroseilliers@un-ecw.org
+1-917-640-6820
Kent Page:
kpage@unicef.org
+1-917-302-1735
Tweets
Related press releases
