Director's Corner

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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

Girls at school interacting with an iPad
Statements
International Girls in Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) Day Statement by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif There is a global digital divide, threatening to leave entire generations of women and girls behind. Today, we place them at the centre of our shared massive action as we commemorate International Girls...
Boy smiling drawing on the floor
Statements
World Creativity & Innovation Day Statement by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif Creativity and innovation are essential to finding extraordinary solutions to abnormal problems.Now more than ever we must continue finding creative solutions to protect the world’s most vulnerable children from the excruciating pain of war, dispossession and destruction...
Sudanese girl attending class
Statements
As the world marks the second anniversary of the brutal armed conflict, Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif highlights the value of aligning humanitarian funding to ensure children can access life-saving quality education. The devastating and protracted armed conflict in Sudan is causing untold suffering for millions of children. This...
Yasmine Sherif with children at a school in Ethiopia
Director's Corner
Our conscience is not tested in the comfort zone. Our conscience reveals itself amidst crisis, and leadership of conscience makes the seemingly impossible possible in such abnormal times. With 234 million children and adolescents suffering in conflicts, disasters and forced displacement, and denied a quality education, such leadership is urgently...
Girl smiling and washing her hands in a school in Africa
Statements
World Health Day Statement by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif Education is an essential investment in providing health to those left furthest behind. On World Health Day, we must connect the dots between education and health in humanitarian crisis settings. A child attending school gets vaccinations and healthcare, a...
Statements
Statement of International School Meals Day by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif Millions of children worldwide are going hungry, and we all know that hungry children cannot learn. On International School Meals Day, we are calling on donors to significantly scale-up funding for school feeding to ensure every child...
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Statements
The most effective and efficient way of shackling young crisis-affected girls and boys for life is to deprive them of quality education. Instead of financial empowerment and productivity, these girls and boys will be chained to aid dependency and a life in destitution. Without an education, they lose their last...
Women's Day
Statements
International Women’s Day Statement by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif 8 March 2025, New York – On International Women’s Day, Education Cannot Wait joins our partners worldwide in calling for human rights and empowerment for women and girls everywhere. Empowerment starts with an education. Worldwide, women still account for...
Girls attending class
Statements
The central theme of this year’s World Day of Social Justice is to “strengthen a just transition for a sustainable future.” Education is the very foundation for achieving social justice. Without an education we cannot end extreme poverty and advance economic growth. Without an education we cannot empower young girls...
Somaya Faruqi and members of the Afghan robotics team
Statements
International Day of Women and Girls in Science Statement by Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif The future of the human race hangs in the balance. With science and technology far outpacing the capacity of most humans to keep up, we must arm our future scientists and future leaders...
school girl in a classroom
Director's Corner
A global alert is not an option. It requires global action. Over the past three years, the number of crisis-impacted school-aged children in need of urgent quality education support has grown by an alarming 35 million, according to Education Cannot Wait’s new Global Estimates Report. The recently published report offers...
Yasmine Sherif interacting with a child in Ethiopia
Statements
International Day of Education Statement by Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif To mark the International Day of Education, Education Cannot Wait ( ECW) and our strategic partners urgently call on world leaders to accelerate funding for education in emergencies and protracted crises, as we race to deliver on...

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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