Education Cannot Wait Announces US$2 Million First Emergency Response Grant in Chad: Total ECW Funding Tops US$38 Million

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) announced today a new fast-acting US$2 million First Emergency Response Grant that will reach 47,000 girls and boys impacted by the massive floods in Chad, bringing ECW funding to Chad to over US$38 million so far, including ECW’s multi-year humanitarian-development investments.

Almost 1.5 million people across 19 of Chad’s 23 provinces were impacted by devastating flooding in late 2022. In all, over 1,200 schools were affected, with 4,200 classrooms damaged or destroyed. Significant damage to water posts and school latrines worsened the impact of the flood. Thousands of children didn’t return to school in October 2022, raising concerns of child protection issues, gender-based violence, forced labour and other grave violations of their human rights.

“The climate crisis is an education crisis. It requires speedy action when it occurs and humanitarian-development coherence to rebuild. In Chad and across the Sahel, children’s futures are being ripped from their hands. With floods, droughts and other climate-related crises impacting the educational trajectories of 40 million children worldwide, we must move faster to respond to the immediate impact and ensure we provide girls and boys with access to safe and protective learning environments, while also continuing multi-year investments towards sustainable mitigation of the risks. We call on leaders to urgently mobilize more funding to support ECW’s education emergency and multi-year responses in Chad to ensure that no child is left behind,” said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. 

Girls are especially at risk. In Chad, only 40% of girls complete a primary education, compared to 54% of boys. The impacts of climate change, forced displacement, instability, endemic poverty and other factors continue to derail efforts to ensure universal access to education for refugee, displaced persons, and host-community children.

To respond to the challenge, ECW’s new grant will ensure access to inclusive and protective education environments for girls and boys including children with disabilities. Girls and boys impacted by the floods will receive appropriate academic and psychosocial support, including access to distance learning.

‘’This ECW grant will allow children, both girls and boys, to return to school and benefit from quality education in a safe, protective and inclusive environment after the worst floods in Chad's recent history," said Jacques Boyer, UNICEF Representative in Chad.

The funding builds on the impact of ECW’s ongoing Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Chad, which has already reached over 800,000 children through US$38 million in total funding to date. Approximately 10% of ECW investments in Chad are delivered through national and local partners.

The 12-month ECW grant will be delivered by UNICEF in a consortium with Humanity and Inclusion and TECHNIDEV (a national NGO in Chad that specializes in the use of information technologies in development).