Education Cannot Wait Expands With a $20 Million Investment & Private Sector Support

Education Cannot Wait: A Fund for Education in Emergencies announced today a US$20 million investment to support learning opportunities for children and youth in seven crisis-affected countries. Children caught in crises in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Madagascar, Peru, Uganda, Ukraine and Somalia will benefit from improved access to quality learning, teacher training, psycho-social support and new school facilities.

Launched less than 12 months ago at the World Humanitarian Summit, ECW is already delivering a step-change in the coordination of humanitarian and development funding and planning. With an initial investment of US$55 million, ECW is funding quality education for an estimated 2 million vulnerable children in Chad, Ethiopia, Syria and Yemen, over half of whom are girls.

This US$20 million investment marks the launch of ‘First Response Window’ – a unique mechanism to fund immediate education needs, either at the onset or escalation of a crisis. This mechanism funds a range of partners and activities on the ground for 12 months and serves as a catalyst for improved coordination and education response plans. It will crowd in further investment, in particular from non-traditional donors and the private sector, to increase overall funding for education in emergencies.

Today, in the margins of the 2017 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, leading political champions and members of the ECW High Level Steering Group gathered for the fund’s second face-to-face meeting and welcomed Ms. Annemiek Hoogenboom of Novamedia, as the first business representative to join the fund.

In her role as the Managing Director of the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie and Country Director of the People’s Postcode Lottery, Ms. Hoogenboom has pioneered a sustainable approach to philanthropy with Novamedia, raising over €7.9 billion to date. Ms. Hoogenboom brings her expertise, along with her passion for education, to expand the fund’s engagement with the business community.

The High-Level Steering Group was also joined by the new Director Designate of Education Cannot Wait, Ms. Yasmine Sherif.  Ms. Sherif brings over 25 years of professional experience in international, humanitarian and refugee law to the role and her appointment is a critical milestone for the ECW Secretariat.

ECW is continuing to mobilize the public and political commitments needed to get every crisis-affected child into school and learning by 2030. The investments already made and the ongoing advocacy and operations are the basis of an extraordinary global effort to transform the system.