In the News

Ms Tvinnereim today announced an allocation of NOK 500 million to Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, for the period 2023–2026. Ms Tvinnereim is attending ECW’s High-level Financing Conference in Geneva this week.

‘’Finland aims to promote high-quality and inclusive education that is open and equitable to all. The focus is on the most vulnerable girls, people with disabilities and children and young people living in crisis areas. We will promote this objective through multilateral partnerships, such as the Education Cannot Wait fund, and as part of country programmes in our partner countries. Finnish civil society organisations are doing valuable work to achieve this goal’," says Permanent Under-Secretary Pasi Hellman.

"Thank you to the co-hosts and co-conveners of this high-level financing conference – Education Cannot Wait and the governments of Colombia, Germany, Niger, Norway, South Sudan and Switzerland. Thank you also to our esteemed panelists – the youth advocates and Ministers of Education – for your thoughtful discussion and recommendations."

Education Cannot Wait’s Director Yasmine Sherif said that about USD 70 million had gone to education in Afghanistan, and nearly 60 percent of that funding has gone to supporting girls; more funding was on its way. “We have an ongoing program that has continued—it did not stop.”It has been more than 500 days since the Taliban regime in Afghanistan shut down schools and shattered the education dreams of girls and women like Somaya Faruqi, who has been forced to leave her homeland to continue her education.

Today, Administrator Samantha Power announced that the United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of State, is providing an additional $43 million to Education Cannot Wait (ECW), subject to the availability of funds. ECW is the only global fund for education in emergencies. The Administrator made the announcement virtually during ECW’s High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva. 

Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) granted USD 20 million in support of the efforts of the Education Cannot Wait (ECW), a UN's global fund to support education in emergencies and protracted crises, in favor of projects jointly agreed with the Educate A Child (EAC) program of the Education Above All Foundation (EAA), HE Director General of the QFFD Khalifa bin Jassim Al Kuwari announced on Thursday.

Ireland is now committed to providing €4.5 million annually to support the work of Education Cannot Wait, the global fund to support education for emergencies. This support will amount to €18 million in the period to 2026.

Delivering his comments at the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva, the Secretary-General welcomed the fact that since it was founded in 2017, the fund had trained 87,000 teachers and given seven million children in crisis “the education they deserve”.

Brown stressed the need to speak up for children in Afghanistan, Chad, Ethiopia, Yemen, Ukraine, and many more, for they are the most neglected, forgotten, and isolated, and they need and deserve support. Brown was speaking during the opening session of the first Education Cannot Wait (ECW) high-level financing conference underway in Geneva, Switzerland.

ECW, the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, convened a two-day conference to marshal support to raise $1.5 billion to roll out its four-year strategic plan to support children and adolescents affected by crises to learn in safety and without fear. The conference seeks to mobilize the resources to meet the educational needs of the 222 million children and adolescents in crisis.

Con motivo de esta urgencia, la ONU celebra esta semana, los días 16 y 17 de febrero, una Conferencia de alto nivel que tiene por título : ¨La educación no puede esperar¨. El evento reunirá en Ginebra, Suiza, a líderes llegados de todo el mundo. El principal objetivo es conseguir que se asuman los compromisos necesarios para garantizar que todos los niños y niñas, sin importar su origen, accedan a una educación de calidad.

As the global humanitarian capital, Geneva has become a global hub for Education in Emergencies, bringing together many actors to take joint action, work more closely and strengthen their commitment. So here and now, I call on you – governments, foundations, the private sector, philanthropists and civil society – to join forces and pledge our support to Education Cannot Wait.