In the News

Over 748,000 refugees and asylum-seekers are registered with UNHCR Egypt, a majority of whom are women and children who have recently arrived in Egypt fleeing the brutal conflict that started in Sudan in April 2023. Since the conflict broke, the registered Sudanese refugee population has grown almost sevenfold and numbers are expected to keep rising.

With needs growing exponentially, resources are running thin for the Government of Egypt, UN agencies and other strategic partners to provide refugee and host community children with safe, protective quality learning spaces. 

The 2024 Sudan Regional Refugee Response plan calls for $109 million to respond to refugee education needs across the region. To date, only 20% of this amount has been mobilized, including $4.3 million – or 40% of the requirement for Egypt. 

On a high-level UN mission to Egypt this week, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), UNHCR and UNICEF stressed the funding shortfall and called for urgent increased international support for children forcibly displaced by the armed conflict, both inside Sudan itself and in neighboring countries. 

"Courageous Afghan girls, with support from the groundbreaking #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign of Education Cannot Wait, which I chair, are stepping up to demand an end to the Taliban’s gender discrimination.

Underground schools, local home schooling, and remote learning are all playing their part in ensuring schooling can continue. In 2023, Education Cannot Wait’s investments in Afghanistan reached nearly 200,000 girls and boys through community-based education programmes."

In war-torn regions, the classroom often becomes a distant dream rather than a reality, and the sounds of learning are replaced by the seemingly unending sounds of conflict. Children, who should be developing their minds and dreams, are instead forced into displacement, fear, and uncertainty. Schools are destroyed, teachers are scattered, and the promise of education fades.

Global education initiatives (such as Education Cannot Wait) aim to address the educational needs of children in conflict zones by providing funding, resources, and support to ensure continued learning.

Violent criminal groups limit basic government services and deepen poverty while the state education system faces a $23 million deficit.

Yasmine Sherif is the executive director of the U.N. organization Education Cannot Wait. “The country needs help,” Sherif said during her three-day visit to the Caribbean country in July.

Sherif said the organization provided $2.5 million to help nearly 75,000 children in Haiti with money, food and other programs. 

Tres años después del regreso de los talibán al poder, y con el mundo distraído por otras crisis, Afganistán rara vez llega a los titulares globales. Pero a no equivocarse: las condiciones en el país siguen deteriorándose, con consecuencias devastadoras para los afganos de a pie, especialmente las niñas y las mujeres.

Afganistán salió de décadas de guerras por poderes como uno de los países más pobres del mundo, situación que el régimen talibán no ha hecho más que exacerbar: millones de afganos no saben dónde obtendrán su próxima comida y la economía prácticamente ha colapsado. Asimismo, los líderes religiosos de los talibán siguen violando los derechos humanos a través de lo que las Naciones Unidas describe como un “sistema institucionalizado de opresión basada en el género”

Desde hace tres años, desde la vuelta de los talibanes al poder, las niñas de Afganistán no pueden asistir a la educación secundaria. Pese a que necesitan desesperadamente una educación básica, sus derechos han sido sistemáticamente cercenados bajo el régimen de ‘apartheid de género’ de los talibanes.

A principios de julio en Qatar, Naciones Unidas y representantes de otros países lograron sentarse con los talibanes para hablar de los diferentes problemas que vive Afganistán, pero los derechos de las niñas (y mujeres) no figuraron en el orden del día de las conversaciones (tampoco hubo participación de las organizaciones de mujeres afganas y en general de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil).

Los talibanes insistieron (e insisten) en que no aceptarán el asesoramiento internacional sobre esta cuestión. En una flagrante violación del derecho internacional (y despreciando nuestra humanidad común), los talibanes han dejado de lado la Carta de las Naciones Unidas, la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos y la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño.

Am diesjährigen Welttag der humanitären Hilfe rufen wir die Menschen überall dazu auf, für die Menschheit zu handeln: #ActForHumanity.

Wir müssen uns für die Menschlichkeit im Gazastreifen einsetzen, denn nach Angaben des palästinensischen Gesundheitsministeriums sind dort bereits 40.000 Menschen ums Leben gekommen – darunter mindestens 10.627 Kinder. Wir müssen für die unschuldigen Opfer, die bei den Angriffen der Hamas getötet und als Geiseln genommen wurden, im Namen der Menschlichkeit handeln. Wir müssen für die 270 Mitarbeitenden von Hilfsorganisationen, die nach Angaben der Vereinten Nationen bisher im Gazastreifen getötet wurden, darunter 207 UNRWA-Mitarbeitende, im Namen der Menschlichkeit handeln. Jedes menschliche Leben ist wertvoll – egal wer, wann oder wo.

On this year's World Humanitarian Day, we are calling on people everywhere to #ActForHumanity.

We must act for humanity in Gaza for the 40,000 fatalities – including at least 10,627 children killed – according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. We must act for humanity for the innocent victims killed and the hostages taken in the attacks by Hamas. We must act for humanity for the 270 aid workers killed so far in Gaza, including 207 UNRWA staff, according to the United Nations. Every human life is precious – not matter who, when or where.

In 2023, tens of thousands of civilians were killed or injured in armed conflict, with fatalities among humanitarian workers doubling compared to the previous year.

The toll in 2024—the number of deaths, injuries, detentions and kidnappings—is already staggering. The overwhelming majority of recorded attacks on aid workers are inflicted on national staff. Women-led organizations and female humanitarian staff face unique and often increased risks, just because they are women. The impact on the mental health of civilians and humanitarian workers has reached unprecedented levels.

And yet parties to conflict continue to flout laws meant to protect civilians, including humanitarian workers, and civilian objects.

This year, on World Humanitarian Day, we appeal to all States, parties to armed conflict, and the wider international community to:

Plan International, a humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls in over 80 countries, has enrolled 7,000 out-of-school children in schools in three North Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

The Project Coordinator of Plan International, Mr Gambo Daniel, disclosed this to newsmen at the end of a workshop organised by Plan International in collaboration with Save the Children and Education Cannot Wait held in Damaturu, Yobe State.

"No matter what the clerics in Kandahar say, Afghans across the country want their sons and daughters to receive an education. A fiercely independent people, Afghans care deeply about the welfare of their families, their communities, and their country. Tellingly, the organizations delivering education and remote-learning services in Afghanistan are struggling to keep up with demand. And the powerful testimonies of Afghan girls affected by the ban, shared as part of Education Cannot Wait’s #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign, demonstrate their desire to study."

“Education is key,” said Yasmine Sherif, executive director for Education Cannot Wait, a UN entity that partners closely with Unicef, the World Food Program and the Haitian Ministry of Education to fund programs in the country to help standardize curriculums and scale up public education. To increase professionalism in the education sector, this coalition is using international aid to train 2,000 teachers to enable tutoring and recovery classes before schools begin this fall.