Education Cannot Wait Announces Partnership With Profuturo to Deploy Digital Education Solutions for Children Caught Up in Conflict and Crises

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Initial support being deployed for refugee and displaced children in Ethiopia
 

New York

Today, on World Refugee Day, Education Cannot Wait announces a new partnership with ProFuturo to improve access to quality education and learning opportunities for children uprooted by conflict and crises through digital education and teacher training solutions.


Through this partnership, ProFuturo – an education initiative by Spanish Telefónica Foundation and “La Caixa” Foundation – will support digital education solutions in a number of Education Cannot Wait’s multi-year education programmes, with a focus on providing education to refugee children, internally displaced children and their host communities.
 
“The partnership with Education Cannot Wait will allow ProFuturo to extend the scope of its work and adapt its innovative educational program to address the needs of children caught in areas of conflict and crises” said ProFuturo Director General, Sofía Fernández de Mesa. “No child should be deprieved of quality education, regardless of the situation they are going through. Education is their gateway to a better future.”
 
Work is already underway in Ethiopia, where Profuturo is participating in defining the multi-year programme being developed by Education Cannot Wait in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children, Plan International, other international organizations and donors, and national civil society partners.
 
The three-year programme addresses the needs of refugee out-of-school children and those deprived of education due to the internal displacement of populations fuelled by insecurity and climate change related emergencies, such as drought and floods. ProFuturo is integrating digital education solutions in the programme – which will be implemented and financed by ProFuturo and its partners – to  complement more traditional learning approaches.
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“Education Cannot Wait welcomes this ground-breaking partnership with ProFuturo. For girls and boys in crisis situations,  such as refugees and internally displaced, technology can be a powerful enabler for learning,” said Education Cannot Wait Director, Yasmine Sherif. “By working together, we leverage each organization’s strengths and expertise to deliver more impactful results for these children and youth,” she said.

Both partners are committed to collaborating in countries that represent a shared priority and where ProFuturo’s innovative education program may be scaled up to benefit more children, working in partnership with Ministries of Education and other international and national organizations to ensure more effective and sustainable interventions.

ProFuturo has adapted its digital education programme to refugee contexts with a holistic approach aligned with the principles of the International Network of Education in Emergencies (INEE), with the goal of ensuring, in both formal and non-formal education contexts, three fundamental pillars: access to education, quality of learning, and resilience of refugee children. ProFuturo trains teachers and deploys equipment and/or software to provide digital learning experiences for elementary-school aged children and support teachers’ professional development.
 
Working with a wide range of international and national partners, Education Cannot Wait – the first global fund dedicated to education in emergencies – is reaching 1.4 million children and youth in some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. This includes close to half a million refugees and 200,000 internally displaced children – half of the total children reached by the Fund are girls.
 
“Strong and innovative partnerships like the one we announce today are essential for the global community to deliver on the promise of Sustainable Development Goal 4. Only through  collaborative partnerships can we deliver quality education for every single girl and boy on the planet by 2030 – and not leave behind the millions of children and youth in conflicts and displacement,” said Yasmine Sherif. 

Education Cannot Wait and its partners just launched a $1.8 billion call to action for governments, private sector companies, philanthropic foundations and global leaders to rise and support the Fund’s efforts in mobilizing resources to fill the funding gap for education in emergencies and protracted crises.
 

Key Facts and Figures
 

  • More than half of the world’s refugee children – 4 million – are not in school. They face the double jeopardy of losing both their homes and their education. Without an education, these children do not have a future.
     
  • Refugee children are 5 times more likely to be out of school than other children in the countries in which they are displaced.
     
  • Refugee girls are more likely to be out of school than boys.
     
  • Only 61% of refugee children have access to primary education, compared to a global level of more than 90%.
     
  • Only 22% of refugee adolescents attend secondary, compared to a global level of 84%.
     
  • Of the world’s refugees, 85% live in low-income and middle-income countries whose education systems already struggle to meet the needs of the marginalised.

Notes to Editors:

About Education Cannot Wait (ECW):

ECW is the first global fund dedicated to education in emergencies. It was launched by international humanitarian and development aid actors, along with public and private donors, to address the urgent education needs of 75 million children and youth in conflict and crisis settings.
Since it became operational in 2017, ECW has invested US$139.5 million and committed an additional $85 million in 25 crisis-affected countries. To date, the Fund is reaching more than 1.4 million children.
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. Education Cannot Wait is hosted by UNICEF. The Fund is administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations, while operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure.

Additional information is available at www.educationcannotwait.org

For press enquiries, contact: Anouk Desgroseilliers, adesgroseilliers@educationcannotwait.org , +1 917 640-6820

For any other enquiries, contact: info@educationcannotwait.org   


About ProFuturo

ProFuturo is a digital education program launched by Fundación Telefónica and “La Caixa” Foundation,  whose mission is to reduce the educational gap in the world by providing quality digital education to children in vulnerable environments in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Its aim is to provide the best education to 10 million children in vulnerable environments in 2020 and to 25 million in 2030.
The educational proposal incorporates professional teacher development through training, digital resources and new teaching-learning methodologies.
In addition, the program aims to welcome and promote the participation of other companies and institutions and aims to create a large international network of teachers who teach, learn and share knowledge to achieve, among all, a better education in the world.
Since its birth in 2016 ProFuturo has reached 28 countries, benefited 8 million children and trained almost 300,000 teachers.

E-mail contact: etorresv@llorenteycuenca.com Mobile: 669326271

For Press Inquiries:

Anouk Desgroseilliers:
adesgroseilliers@un-ecw.org
+1-917-640-6820

Kent Page:
kpage@unicef.org
+1-917-302-1735