In the News

From Pakistan to Ukraine to Venezuela to vast stretches of sub-Saharan Africa, rising crises and climate disasters are taking an added toll on the most vulnerable — children deprived of school. Since 2016, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) has raised more than $1 billion to build schools and buy educational materials as well as provide daily meals and offer psychological services. But head of ECW Yasmine Sherif says that the urgency of the situation requires much bigger efforts. 

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) called on world leaders to provide US$1.5 billion in urgent funding to support the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies and its strategic partners in reaching 20 million crisis-impacted children in the next four years. 

ECW’s new Case for Investment and 2023-2026 Strategic Plan set out a bold new ambition for the UN’s breakthrough global fund, which has mobilized over US$1 billion and directly supported nearly 7 million children since its inception in 2016, and an additional 31.2 million with its COVID-19 response.

Khurram, a youth advocate from Afghanistan, shared her experiences at the Transforming Education Summit (TES) session on “Education and learning in periods of emergencies and protracted crises.” The session was hosted by UNICEF, UNESCO, UNHCR, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), Global Partnership for Education, and member states South Sudan and Ecuador. It took place at the UN Headquarters in New York on the second day of the summit, dubbed “Solutions Day”.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivers a message for an event on transforming the financing of education, urging for all governments to make education a priority across departments and for international financial institutions to double their education portfolios. These investments, he argues, will complement existing funds and initiatives including the Global Partnership on Education and Education Cannot Wait.

Despite global challenges, Education Cannot Wait found many successes in 2021, from increased funding to the number of children it was able to serve with its programs. Titled “We Have Promises to Keep,” the 2021 report highlights the fund’s record highs in education grants and mobilization as well as improved gender parity in its educational programs.

On September 16, dubbed "Mobilization Day" for the Transforming Education Summit, a "Youth Declaration on Transforming Education" was delivered to Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the UN. Over the past few days, international partners have rallied support for beginning or growing initiatives related to the summit's themes, with a particular emphasis on how the financial crisis is affecting education.

As we mobilize financial resources, listen to the world’s youth, identify needs and solutions, and work collectively to elevate education to the top of the global political agenda, we must not forget the 222 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents worldwide. They are left furthest behind and they urgently need our support. Education Cannot Wait’s ground-breaking analysis highlights that about 78 million of these crisis-impacted children are out of school, and close to 120 million are in school but not learning. These shocking figures cannot be allowed to represent the 21^st century.

The influential Mexican-American actress, Salma Hayek, and Queen Rania of Jordan took the podium together at Global Citizen Festival 2016 to support the launch of the Education Cannot Wait (ECW) fund and speak out not only for education but also for refugees. Hayek pointed out that while there are 50 million children in the US going to school, there are 80 million more around the world denied that same access due to the refugee crisis. 

According to Yasmine Sherif, director of Education Cannot Wait, “educating girls, especially those left behind in crises, is critical to the COVID-19 recovery plan, to mitigating climate change, and to ensuring equal and prosperous societies”. For refugee children, especially girls, school is not just a place where they go to learn, it also provides structure and a refuge from the harshness of life outside.

With funding from Education Cannot Wait, a boy with a vision impairment is realizing his dream of an education through an innovative multi-year program delivered by UNICEF in Syria.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, announced in December 2021, US$12 million in catalytic seed funding to roll out the first Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Burundi. Delivered in coordination with the Government of Burundi by consortia led by World Vision International and UNICEF, the three-year program seeks to mobilize an additional US$18 million from public and private donors.

Selon l’organisation Éducation sans délai (Education Cannot Wait en anglais, ou ECW), le nombre d’établissements d’enseignement fermés de force ou qui n’offrent plus de cours a augmenté d’un tiers en deux ans. À la fin de l’année scolaire 2021-22, plus de 12.400 écoles ont été fermées au Burkina Faso, au Cameroun, en République centrafricaine (RCA), en République démocratique du Congo (RDC), au Mali, au Niger et au Tchad.