The fifth objective adopted by the Dakar World Education Forum in 2000 focuses on the rights of children in emergencies. Dakar participants called on national Education for All (EFA) plans to include provision for education in emergency situations. Achieving this goal, however, is complicated by the lack of clarity concerning the responsibilities of international and local stakeholders during emergencies and the early stages of reconstruction.

A book from UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning examines the co-ordination – or lack of it – of education in emergencies and early reconstruction. Examples of good practice show how properly organised educational provision can bind together fractured states and limit the chances that trauma, abduction or forced labour will dominate the lives of children affected by war. Educational planning during emergencies and early reconstruction periods still needs to be organised into a manageable and well-documented discipline.

Education is rarely given a high priority during emergencies – even when vast numbers of children seek to receive schooling. Curriculum and accreditation issues which require liaison between ministries of education and aid agencies may be significantly delayed for years.

In a country emerging from conflict, well-resourced international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies may assume, for a time, the effective responsibility for educational management. The capacity and morale of weakened local education authorities may be further reduced by the departure of better qualified civil servants to better-paid jobs with international organisations.

The author describes how:

• Overlapping mandates of UN agencies can lead to tensions even before humanitarian relief workers arrive in a country, as UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP and sometimes even UNHCR compete to be recognised as the lead agency for education.
• NGOs may operate in a fairly independent fashion, with their own funding systems, mandates and relationships.
• During high profile emergencies, the scramble for favourable media attention – and the funding it helps secure – may undermine cooperation among implementing agencies.
• While relations between communities affected by war and the relief agencies trying to help them may improve over time, power relations are often unbalanced: teachers, children and their families are often seen as beneficiaries or recipients rather than as partners.

In addition to detailed recommendations to assist local education authorities, there are calls for international agencies and donors to:

• acknowledge that a co-ordination framework that does not feature the role of the national government is incomplete
• start training national and international counterparts and develop long-term solutions as soon as possible to avoid the chances that misunderstandings and resentments will threaten relations between international and local educators
• start working early with national local counterparts to develop joint policies on paying teachers and implementing, recognising, validating and accepting teacher training activities, student achievement and national examinations among war-affected populations
• be prepared for local education authorities to decline aid that does not help fulfil the objectives of agreed and publicised plans. This was found to be the only likely method for insuring international donor co-ordination
• clarify the role of UNESCO in relation to UNHCR and UNICEF.

Source(s):
‘Co-ordinating education during emergencies and reconstruction: challenges and responsibilities’, International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO, by Marc Sommers 2004 Full document.

Funded by: UK Department for International Development and UNESCO

id21 Research Highlight: 6 April 2005

Further Information:
Marc Sommers
African Studies Center
Boston University
270 Bay State Road
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
USA

Contact the contributor: msommers@bu.edu

African Studies Center, Boston University, USA

Chris Talbot
International Institute for Educational Planning
7-9 rue Eugène Delacroix
75116 Paris
France

Tel: +33 1.45 03 77 00
Fax: +33 1.40 72 83 66
Contact the contributor: c.talbot@iiep.unesco.org

International Institute for Educational Planning

Other related links:
'Re-conceiving war-affected children: from passive victims to active survivors'

'Emergency tactics: education in crisis situations'

'Peace by piece: NGOs and peace building in Liberia'

'Home-based teachers and schooling for girls in Afghanistan'

'The role of peace education in refugee communities'

Education in Emergencies and Reconstruction - Resources from Forced Migration Online

'Education in Emergencies: Afghanistan and other hotspots' from the Basic Education Coalition