Powerful Speech by Gordon Brown on Why We Must Fund Education for Refugee Children

Full speech of Rt Hon Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education & Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group (HLSG) on Action for Refugee Education

In 2016 world leaders agreed to strengthen the international response to the global
refugee crisis and grow support to meet the needs of refugee and host communities.
This included promising “to ensure all refugee children are receiving education within a few months of arrival and to prioritize budgetary provision to facilitate this, including support for host countries”.

The new Global Compact on Refugees sets out a Programme of Action which includes commitments to “expand and enhance the quality and inclusiveness of national education systems to facilitate access by refugee and host community children and youth to primary, secondary and tertiary education”. It also commits to “provide more direct financial support to minimize the time refugee boys and girls spend out of education”.
However, more than half of the world’s refugee children – 3.7 million – remain out of school.
Despite this we believe that progress is possible and that having agreed our aims we must act to deliver them.
The High-Level Meeting on Action for Refugee Education will bring together refugee hosting states, donor governments, multilateral institutions, the private sector and civil society to agree how to accelerate and improve efforts to deliver these commitments.
The Meeting will explore efforts to:
• include refugee populations in national education systems
• improve learning outcomes for refugee and host communities
• and support greater responsibility sharing, especially via more and better financing.

Learn more: https://www.actionforrefugeeeducation.net/