In the News

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) - the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises - is proud to support and participate in the 2022 Global Citizen Festival. Participants will call on world leaders at the UN General Assembly to step up and invest $600 million into the future of women and girls, close the annual $10 billion climate financing shortfall, deliver $500 million to help African farmers respond to the global food crisis, and provide relief from crushing debts to End Extreme Poverty Now.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) - the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises - is proud to support and participate in the 2022 Global Citizen Festival.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) - the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises - is proud to support and participate in the 2022 Global Citizen Festival.

Since 2012, Global Citizens have taken 1.6 million actions towards achieving quality education for all children. These actions, combined with our high-level advocacy, and the efforts of partners, saw 57 new commitments and announcements in support of quality education. Together, these announcements and commitments are valued at $2.4 billion US dollars, and are set to affect the lives of 60 million children by 2030.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) announced today US$25 million in catalytic seed funding to roll out a first-ever Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Cameroon. The new allocation brings ECW's total investments in Cameroon to over US$30 million to date to reach crisis-affected girls and boys with quality education.

NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Education Cannot Wait (ECW) announced today US$25 million in catalytic seed funding to roll out a first-ever Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Cameroon. The new allocation brings ECW's total investments in Cameroon to over US$30 million to date to reach crisis-affected girls and boys with quality education.

Ce nouvel investissement, d’un montant de 25 millions de dollars É.-U. et réalisé conjointement avec le gouvernement du Cameroun, des agences des Nations Unies et la société civile, vise à mobiliser un financement supplémentaire de 50 millions de dollars É.-U. pour venir en aide à 227 000 filles et garçons touchés par les crises.

The new allocation brings ECW’s total investments in Cameroon to over US$30 million to date to reach crisis-affected girls and boys with quality education.

The multi-year investment will be delivered by a consortium of grantees, including the Norwegian Refugee Council (US$3 million), Plan International (US$3.2 million), UNESCO (US$3.5 million), UNICEF (US$6.8 million), UNHCR ($5.6 million) and the World Food Programme ($2.9 million) in alignment with the Government of Cameroon’s plans for education in the crisis-affected parts of the country.

1 August 2022, New York – Education Cannot Wait (ECW) announced today US$25 million in catalytic seed funding to roll out a first-ever Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Cameroon. The new allocation brings ECW’s total investments in Cameroon to over US$30 million to date to reach crisis-affected girls and boys with quality education.

With ECW support, the Ministry of Education & UNICEF provide trainings for parents & school management committees in Chad.

Educating children in crisis situations was an acute enough problem before COVID that the U.N. dedicated its first global breakout fund to finding solutions. Five years on, a global pandemic — and protracted conflicts that have produced 100 million refugees and counting — has exacerbated the crisis, while limiting humanity’s capacity to respond.

The fund, Education Cannot Wait, or ECW, was established by the U.N. following the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit led by former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and became fully operational in 2017. The goal was simple: to provide all crisis-affected children and youth with the “safe, free and quality” education promised by Sustainable Development Goal 4. But marshaling resources was far from meeting the need. Education typically draws only around 2% of all humanitarian funding.

Temporary school closures during the COVID-19 crisis left 1.6 billion children unable to learn — 91 per cent of students worldwide — including nearly 369 million who rely on school meals for daily nutrition, speakers in the high-level political forum on sustainable development stressed today, as they called for the wholesale transformation of education systems towards those that place student needs at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.