Over US$400mil pledged to UN fund for education in crises

Countries announced US$405.8 million in new pledges Thursday towards supporting schooling for millions of crisis-affected children, the UN fund for education in emergencies said.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) hailed the “remarkable start” towards its goal of raising US$600 million for its work over the next four years, at a time when global aid funding faces dramatic cuts.

Together with financial resources secured prior to Thursday’s pledging conference, the fund said US$541.6 million had been promised, securing 90% of its target.

ECW estimates that 258 million school-aged children and teens are affected by conflicts and climate-related disasters around the world, including 93 million who are completely out of school.

“Education is not a privilege. It’s not an act of kindness. It is a fundamental right every child, when born, should have,” Sigrid Kaag, chair of ECW’s high-level steering group, told Thursday’s event.

“Children cannot be asked to wait.”

Germany’s pledge of 100 million euros (US$113 million) was the largest, followed by Britain’s of 80 million pounds (US$108 million), and Norway at 600 million kroner (US$65 million), according to an ECW overview.

ECW builds schools, buys educational materials, provides daily meals and offers psychological support, among other services.

Since its founding a decade ago, it says it has reached more than 16 million crisis-affected children and trained nearly 300,000 teachers.

And it plans to reach another 10 million children during the 2027-2030 period — half of them girls and including one million with disabilities, it said.

For children in crisis situations, education must not be “a luxury”, ECW director Maysa Jalbout told Thursday’s conference.

“It’s oxygen… It bridges from the horrors of today to the promise of tomorrow.”

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