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A CREEPING CRISIS

The neglect of education in

slow-onset emergencies

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Save the Children works in more than 120 countries.We save children’s lives. We ght for their rights.We help them full their potential.

Published bySave the Children1 St John’s LaneLondon EC1M 4ARUK+44 (0)20 7012 6400savethechildren.org.uk

First published 2012

© The Save the Children Fund 2012

The Save the Children Fund is a charity registered in England and Wales (213890)and Scotland (SC039570). Registered Company No. 178159

This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee orprior permission for teaching purposes, but not for resale. For copying in any othercircumstances, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher, and afee may be payable.

Cover photo: A session for pre-school children in a temporary tented classroomset up by Save the Children in Dollo Ado camp, Ethiopia. (Photo: Ingrid Lund/Savethe Children)

Typeset by Grasshopper Design Company

AcknowledgementsThis report was written by Elin Martinez and Amanda Lundy. We would like tothank all Save the Children and Education Cluster colleagues involved in thedrafting of the report, in particular, Charlotte Balfour-Poole, Rachel McKinney,Caroline Keenan, Katie Seaborne, Kitty Arie, Arlo Kitchingman, Annelies Ollieuzand colleagues in Save the Children’s ofces in countries in the Sahel andeast Africa.

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“We have food, water, shelter. Now we neededucation.”

A resident of the Dollo Ado camps, Ethiopia 1

The lives of millions of children in many countriesare blighted by recurrent, slow-onset emergencies.In two current chronic crises – the food crisis in eastAfrica that began in 2011, and the 2012 crisis in the

Sahel region of west Africa – children’s well-beinghas plummeted.

Food scarcity and malnutrition jeopardise thesurvival and health of the youngest children. And theknock-on effects of these crises permeate all aspectsof children’s lives. That includes, of course, theireducation: many children are forced to drop outof school in slow-onset emergencies – eitherto migrate, or to support their families by doinghousehold work or income-generating activities.

Yet education has a key role to play in helping childrensurvive and progress in slow-onset emergencies. Itprovides a platform for an integrated emergencyresponse. And, in the longer term, through disasterpreparedness and adaptation, education builds the

resilience of children and their communities to copewith future droughts, and secures learning that isrelevant to children’s needs.

Given this, it is alarming that discussions about howto mitigate the impact of drought in east Africa and inthe Sahel have failed to incorporate education as partof the key interventions and strategies. The failure of

donors and governments to prioritise education fromthe outset threatens to:• exacerbate the impact of the crises on children• over-stretch education systems• affect the implementation of good-quality

education interventions – both immediately andin the long term.

Even before these crises, high numbers of childrenwere out of school, and there are large and growingyoung populations in these areas.

This report focuses on the role and importance ofeducation in mitigating the impact of droughts ineast Africa and west Africa. Its recommendations arerelevant both to those crises and to other countrieslikely to face slow-onset emergencies in the future.

Hani, 13, and her brother,Abdi, at a child-friendly spacerun by Save the Children at

the Dadaab refugee camp inKenya. With their motherand three siblings, Hani andAbdi had to ee Somaliaduring the drought becausethey had no food.

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INTRODUCTION

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In 2011 in the Horn of Africa, droughtexacerbated a malnutrition and hunger crisisspanning Somalia, a number of dry areas inEthiopia, and northern regions of Kenya.In the same year, Niger was also hit bydrought. 2012 has seen an increase in thenumber of west African states experiencingfood insecurity, drought and displacement.Insecurity in Mali and Somalia has exacerbatedthe crisis, causing higher levels of displacement.

Staggeringly, 8.5 million children are missing out onprimary school across the crisis-affected countries. 2 In the coming school year, families’ increasedvulnerability due to the crises will contribute to evenhigher drop-out rates and lower levels of enrolment.

Towards the end of the 2011/12 school year largenumbers of children dropped out of school early totake part in income-generating or household activitiesor to migrate with their families in search of work,food, or water. In addition to losing out on schooling,trekking long distances to collect water exposes thesechildren to risks including assault, kidnapping andforced recruitment into armed groups.

The following section provides country-specic

evidence of the impact of the crises on children andtheir education.

EAST AFRICA

In Somalia in 2011, school enrolment ratesplummeted due to the food crisis and large-scaledisplacement. The Education Cluster estimates thatmore than 1.8 million children aged 5–17 are outof school in South and Central Somalia alone 3 – the

worst-affected region, due to persistent and ongoingconict and drought. The current education coverageand response supports only 20% of the school-agepopulation in this zone. 4 The availability of education

for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and localhost communities has not been sufcient to meetthe need.

Challenges to effectively delivering education inSomalia include:• the lack of an appropriate curriculum• inadequate learning spaces• a lack of trained teachers from affected

communities• insuf cient teacher remuneration and incentives

for teaching• the underlying challenge of the absence of a

governance structure.

Scarce teaching and learning materials are not enoughto cover even the current low enrolment rates, madeworse by the continued lack of funding for educationin emergencies.

In the Dollo Ado camp in Ethiopia and the Dadaabcamp in Kenya , resident populations increasedsignicantly during the 2011 crises – from alreadyhigh levels. More than a quarter of a million Somalirefugees arrived at the two camps in 2011 alone. 5 The camps now host more than 600,000 Somalirefugees, approximately 60% of whom are children. 6

Providing education in the camps is particularlychallenging given the chronic lack of services for thehost populations in marginalised, drought-affectedareas, where many refugees have settled. Manyrefugee children have had little or no previousaccess to formal education in Somalia, making iteven more difcult to integrate them into thelimited formal schooling in host communities. InDollo Ado, only an estimated 15–20% of childrenare currently accessing education services. 7 In 2011,UNHCR, UNICEF and Save the Children reported

an urgent need for temporary learning spaces andfor teaching and learning materials, especially foryounger children. 8 And in late 2011 UNHCRreported that, with one teacher for every 100 pupils

1 THE IMPACT OF THE EASTAND WEST AFRICA CRISES

ON CHILDREN’S EDUCATION

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1 T HE I MP A CT OF T HE E A S T A ND WE S T A F R I CA CR I S E S ON CHI L DR E N’ S E D U CA T I ON

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in Dadaab, more teachers and teacher training weredesperately needed. 9

Figure 1 shows the number of out-of-school childrenin Dadaab, at primary and secondary level respectively.In particular, urgent attention is needed to ensuremore girls are able to access school, at primary leveland also at secondary level.

Recurrent drought across east Africa is having aparticularly severe effect on girls. UN agencies reportthat more girls are getting married early to offset

costs for families experiencing hardship. 10 It is likelythat these girls will never go back to school. Theyare at risk from early pregnancy – even in normalcircumstances in this region, girls under 15 are vetimes as likely to die in pregnancy as women in their20s, and approximately one in ve is out of school. 11

WEST AFRICA

Drought, rising food prices, and displacement of

parts of the population, combined with chronicpoverty and vulnerability, have created a situationof food insecurity for more than 18 million peoplein the Sahel, more than 9 million of them children. 12

The situation is compounded by ongoing insecurityin Mali, causing the displacement of an estimated330,000 people as of June 2012, 60% of whom arechildren.13 Even before the crisis, some countriesin the Sahel had some of the weakest educationindicators on the continent, with 25–41% ofprimary-age children out of school in Burkina Faso,Mali and Mauritania.14

Many of the issues facing children in Mauritania ,Burkina Faso , and Niger today are structuralproblems – such as absenteeism of schoolchildrenduring the agricultural season, poor quality ofteaching, and absenteeism of teachers in rural areas

– which have been exacerbated by the current crisis.Furthermore, high rates of early marriage, especiallyin rural areas, mean that many girls are taken out ofschool and do not attend secondary schools. As ofMay 2012, the Education Cluster in Niger estimatedthat in the areas that are worst-affected by the foodcrisis one in ve primary students had dropped outof school. 15 The Nigerien Ministry of Education and

Education Cluster estimated that at least 47,000children had dropped out of school as a result ofthe food crisis in the worst-affected regions byMay 2012.16

FIGURE 1. STATUS OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN IN DADAAB CAMP, NORTH-EASTERN KENYAAS OF MARCH 2012

Secondary school age populationPrimary school age population

Out of school

In school

Out of school

In school

45,000

40,000

35,000

30,000

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0

20,000

18,000

16,000

14,000

12,000

10,000

8,000

6,000

4,000

2,000

0 Boys Girls Boys Girls

31,868

18,218

33,304

2,437

40,426

16,054

20,076

754

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C R E E P I N G C R I S I S

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Even before the crises in Mali , UNESCO estimatedthat more than 800,000 children were out of school.The conict and drought have compounded theproblem with hundreds of thousands of children atrisk of failing to complete the 2011–12 academicyear. 17 An inter-agency assessment in four provinces ofsouthern Mali 18 indicates that the food and nutritioncrisis is putting children at further risk of familyseparation, neglect, violence, and abuse. Children areat higher risk of leaving school to engage in workopportunities, and more girls are exposed to sexual

exploitation and sexual violence.The insecurity in the north of Mali has had adevastating impact on children. UNOCHA hasreported six incidents involving unexploded ordnance,killing four children.19 Human Rights Watch reportsan estimated 1,000 children have been recruited byrebel groups, and girls as young as 12 have reported

incidents of sexual assault by members of armedgroups in the north. 20 In July 2012, UNICEF estimatedthat more than 300,000 students were unable toreturn to vandalised and closed schools in the northdue to insecurity. 21

In June 2012, there were more than 202,700refugees from Mali in Mauritania, Burkina Faso,and Niger, with many refugee children not enrolledin formal education programmes. 22 The EducationCluster estimates that 80% of Malian refugee childrenof primary school age do not have access to school. 23 Although some schools have been built around thecamps, they are insufcient, and government schoolsin the neighbouring villages are often more than 10kmaway. Communities are nding ways to set up theirown education activities – demonstrating how, intimes of crisis, families see education as crucial.

Many children affected by drought in east and westAfrica live in pastoralist communities. Extremedrought can challenge or destroy these communities’

livelihoods as the need to travel further for waterand pastures changes migration patterns. Theseconditions increase the barriers to education incommunities that already have low school enrolmentrates and low learning outcomes.

Nomadic and pastoralist families may perceiveeducation as a danger to their livelihoods,

undermining social institutions and altering sociallearning. This is particularly the case in areas whereenrolment in permanent schools has been part

of a national strategy to promote an alternativelivelihood for pastoralist families, moving themtowards more sedentary communities. Pastoralistchildren face additional barriers in accessing andcontinuing education programmes, as there is oftena misalignment between the formal academiccalendar and their migratory lifestyles.

PASTORALIST AND NOMADIC CHILDREN

Yarba is about ten years old.He lives in a village in the

west of Mali, near the townof Diema in the region ofKayes. “I like to learn so Ican get a proper job in thefuture. That is the mostimportant thing to me,”he says.

But Yarba’s schooling isbeing affected by the crisis.“Sometimes I don’t go toschool because there isn’tanything to eat,” he says.

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– distribution of water containers inschools – implemented through school-basedchild-led water management committees.

• Cash transfers : parents receive cash as acondition of their children’s attendance in

school.31

This can be linked to existing safety netprogrammes implemented in communities.

HOW EDUCATION PROMOTESRESILIENCE

Access to good quality education is not onlyevery child’s right; it is vital to bringing an end togenerational cycles of poverty, and to encouragingeconomic growth and stability.

Putting plans in place to secure children’s right toeducation is one of the most valuable actions a

government can take before a disaster strikes. 32 Disaster risk reduction is a key component of allsustainable humanitarian responses and is absolutelycrucial in the context of slow-onset, recurringemergencies. 33 Education that incorporates disaster

risk reduction and awareness reduces children’svulnerability to crisis. Children who are taughtenvironmental education, information on betterand more sustainable farming practices, and otherrelevant disaster risk reduction subjects will bebetter equipped to cope with current crises andto support innovative solutions for their familiesand communities in future crises. 34 Good-qualityeducation can therefore mitigate the impact ofcurrent and future droughts by building children’sresilience and, through them, the resilience oftheir communities. 35

Primary-school childrenin Habaswein, Kenya testout the new clean drinking

water facility provided bySave the Children. Thegirls also learned how touse tablets to purify waterfor drinking.

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Education continues to be grossly underfundedin all UN Humanitarian Consolidated AppealsProcesses (CAP) in comparison to othersectors; it is consistently among the leastfunded sectors in all relevant CAPs.

Slow-onset emergency interventions often lackadequate, timely funding, and education needs in thiscontext are acutely underfunded. 36 This exempli esone of the biggest challenges in enabling EducationCluster agencies and partners to deliver education tothe most vulnerable children. For example, educationwas not included in the original CAPs for eitherNiger or Mali and, as of July 2012, was still absentin the Burkina Faso CAP. 37

As the gures on pages 8 and 9 show (based onupdated UN Financial Tracking Service (FTS) datafrom June 2012), a comparison of funding needs

versus needs met in Somalia and Mali illustrates thedisparities in overall humanitarian funding and thealignment of funding according to children’s needs.

In both cases, education and protection remain theleast funded sectors, in stark contrast with sectorssuch as food security and food aid, which arewell funded.

Overall, a comparison of funding needs versus needsmet in east Africa, Niger and Mali shows a trend ininconsistent levels of funding for education, with

education’s highest level of funding met reaching13% in Somalia (amounting to $5.5 million). Kenya’s2012 Emergency Humanitarian Response Plan CAPreects the lowest allocation for education in 2012,reporting only 2% of its overall needs met (amountingto $148,000).

Such a bleak funding picture for education is evenmore worrying, given that humanitarian aid requestsfor education, as reected in CAPs, do not alwaysreect the education needs in their entirety. 38 In this

limited context, it is even more important to seean increase in funding to guarantee that even theminimum of education programmes can run.

3 INADEQUATE FUNDINGFOR EDUCATION

After eeing their homein Mali, Oumou and herfamily are now living in arefugee camp in BurkinaFaso. Restricted education

resources in the camps onlyprovide limited learningopportunities, and only asmall number of childrenare able to go to localschools outside the camp.

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FIGURE 2. SOMALIA CONSOLIDATED APPEAL

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

$ m

i l l i o n

W a t e r , s a

n i t a t i o n

a n d h y g i e n e

S h e l t e r a n

d n o n -

f o o d i t e m

s

P r o t e c

t i o n

N u t r i t i o n

L o g i s t i c s H e

a l t h

F o o d s e

c u r i t y

E n a b l i n g p r o

g r a m m e

s

E d u c a t

i o n

Funding requirements by cluster

Water, sanitation and hygiene

Shelter and non-food items

Protection

Nutrition

Logistics

Health

Education

Enabling programmes

Food security

Proportion of funding requirements met, by cluster, in US$

6 (18%) 14 (56%)

360 (55%)

11 (20%)26 (58%)

64 (42%)

12 (21%) 16 (24%) 20 (23%)

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3 I NA DE Q UA T E

F UNDI N GF OR E D U CA T I ON

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FIGURE 3. MALI CONSOLIDATED APPEAL 2012

Funding requirements by cluster

Water, sanitation and hygiene

Telecommunications

Protection

Nutrition

Logistics

Health

Food security

Enabling programmes

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

$ m

i l l i o n

W a t e r , s a

n i t a t i o n

a n d h y g i e n e

T e l e c o m m

u n i c a t

i o n s

P r o t e c

t i o n

N u t r i t i o n

L o g i s t i c s H e

a l t h

F o o d s e

c u r i t y

E n a b l i n g p r o

g r a m m e

s

Education

E d u c a t

i o n

Proportion of funding requirements met, by cluster, in US$

0.3 (4%) 1 (27%)

59.2 (56%)

1 (43%)

19.6 (50%)

7.3 (41%)

0 (0%)1.2 (5%)

0 (0%)

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In the crisis-hit countries of east Africaand the Sahel, it is crucial to implement animmediate humanitarian education response.This should address priority educationalneeds and restore or set-up learning spacesfor children affected.

Education is the cornerstone of a holistic,sustainable response that secures the protectionand development of all children. In slow-onsetemergencies, education is vital to improve theresilience of children and their communities throughdisaster preparedness lessons and to preventcurrent and future generations from losing out onopportunities for growth and development.

In order to protect development gains and to achieveprogress towards the Millennium Development Goalsand on other key agendas, 39 it is equally important tothink long term and to take big steps to tackle theunderlying, chronic situation. That includes giving manychildren their rst opportunity to go to school.

STRENGTHENING EDUCATIONSYSTEMS

Education in slow-onset emergencies must begeared towards securing access and good-qualitylearning for all children – in particular, reducing thebarriers to education that affect the most vulnerablechildren. It must also meet the physical, cognitive, andpsychosocial needs of children through safe learningspaces and through the content that is relevantto the context, with safety and survival messages.In some contexts, scaling up support to existingeducation programmes and ensuring social protectionprogrammes target the most vulnerable families willenable children to stay in school during crises.

In slow-onset emergencies, education systems need tobe strengthened to ensure:• schools are able to absorb and accommodate new

children who have become displaced, as well asrefugees who are joining education systems in adifferent language

• schools and temporary learning spaces promotea resumption of good-quality learning – withadditional training for teachers and school managers;provision of teaching materials; and key lessons tobuild resilience and increase preparedness

• back-to-school campaigns, timed for the summerrecess, target the most vulnerable families – whomay not prioritise sending their children to school

– through raising awareness to mobilise parentsand communities

• schools stay open during school breaks whenappropriate to continue feeding programmes and

to provide ‘catch-up’ opportunities for those whohave missed school and/or exams they need topass to progress.

Overall, exibility and creativity are needed torespond to slow-onset emergencies. The reasons whychildren or teachers are out of school and schoolsclose are varied, complex, and interrelated – takingin issues around mobility, resource scarcity, endemicpoverty, and conict. As a result, making a responseis conceptually as well as operationally challenging.

Education practitioners and donors should considerimplementing and supporting creative initiatives,particularly those that will target the most marginalisedchildren, such as those from pastoralist communities.Examples include:• Early childhood initiatives – the youngest

children, from zero to eight years, participate inplay, education, care and development programmes,ensuring they are stimulated and engaged.

• Term-time exibility – advocating for localauthorities in drought-affected areas to be ableto set context-speci c term times, so that theyavoid the worst drought months, and to introduce

4 SECURING AN EDUCATIONFOR ALL CHILDREN

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school hours that are exible, so that schools areaccessible to children supporting family livelihoodsthrough work and domestic tasks.

• Accelerated learning programmes – analternative, exible education programme targetingolder children who have missed out on basic

education and who would otherwise be unlikelyto attend formal schooling.• School networking and mobile school cards

– a exible scheme to ensure that children whomigrate with their families are able to continueeducation in other areas, with some consistencyin curriculum and knowledge of their progress.

• Portable student learning kits – kits withportable independent self-study materials (linkedto the curriculum) are provided to children whomigrate and are unable to access other forms ofeducation during drought periods, so that they cancontinue to learn.

• Education courses delivered by radio –course content for many subjects and years can bedelivered via radio, allowing continuity for childrenon the move.

• Child-to-child learning models – olderchildren can become valuable peer tutors toyounger children, while at the same time solidifyingtheir own learning – thus permitting a smallernumber of quali ed teachers to reach a largernumber of children.

SECURING ESSENTIAL FUNDING

Given the national and regional impact of the crisison the provision of education, long-term developmentdonors and UN humanitarian decision-makers andhumanitarian agencies should ensure education isfactored into all planning processes that have an impact

on children’s lives. To resolve immediate education andlearning needs, they should ensure that the EducationCluster and partners, including governments, localcivil society organisations, and NGOs, have adequatefunding to plan, coordinate, and implement educationin emergencies interventions, and in back-to-schoolcampaigns that provide a sustainable entry into school.This requires an immediate increase in funding ofeducation needs in the CAPs and the inclusion ofeducation in all CAPs, in particular those countriesexperiencing high numbers of out-of-school children.

Donors should also consider supporting creativeapproaches to slow-onset emergencies, such as an

NGO-managed crisis modier fund for NGO Clustermembers. This would allow development programmesto modify and expand their normal activities toreect the changing needs of their beneciariesduring the emergency, following the patterns of theprotracted emergency rather than funding patterns.

Additionally, the Global Partnership on Education,the World Bank and the African Development Bank,among key regional education and developmentdonors, should devote attention to the impact of theenvironment on education systems. They shouldsupport adequate, long-term funding mechanisms forexible approaches to education in the most-affectedregions. In particular, interventions that are known towork well with the most vulnerable communitiesshould be supported.

Isina at a centre for early childhood care and developmentestablished by Save the Children in a refugee camp in Dollo,south-west Ethiopia. She came here with her familyfrom Somalia.

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Education in slow-onset emergencies helpsmeet children’s immediate humanitarianneeds and build resilience in the longer term.Save the Children has identied four keyareas for action – both in the current crisesin east Africa and the Sahel, and beyond:

Make education a key part of an integratedapproach focused on meeting children’s needs.• IASC Clusters, humanitarian agencies and

governments should develop joint interventionsthat cover children’s needs holistically andinnovatively, ensuring education is factored intoresilience-building approaches.

• Humanitarian agencies and ministries in chargeof disaster risk reduction management musteffectively integrate approaches that use the fullpotential of schools as key learning centres for

preparedness and resilience-building.• Education and nutrition experts within ministriesand humanitarian agencies should adopt jointinterventions to ensure that nutrition andeducation needs are equally met and resources areavailable, and that school-centred interventions areused more effectively.

Secure essential humanitarian fundingfor education interventions in slow-onsetemergencies.• Donors and multilateral agencies must recognise

education as an essential part of humanitarianresponses.

• Humanitarian decision makers – in particular, UNhumanitarian coordinators and UN humanitariancountry teams – must guarantee a space foreducation in decisions that will shape the commonhumanitarian plan and support other interventionsin countries affected by drought.

• UN Humanitarian Coordinators should ensureeducation needs are reected in all relevant

Consolidated Appeals Processes (CAPs) fromthe outset.

• Donors should provide immediate funding foreducation needs in CAPs in all countries affected.

Close the gap between humanitarian anddevelopment planning and funding foreducation.• Governments and donors, in particular the World

Bank, the Global Partnership on Education, localeducation groups (LEGs) and national donorcommittees, should ensure education sector plansand other education planning processes factor incontingency plans for an education emergencyresponse, and prioritise disaster risk reduction andresilience programmes.

• Education development partners should workclosely with Education Cluster working groups,where established, to ensure there is a joined-upapproach to education needs.

Ensure the most vulnerable children –including children from pastoralistcommunities – do not miss out on education.• Education Cluster partners, working with

governments and donors, should begin to planahead for back-to-school and enrolment campaignsfrom August–October, in order to seize this keyopportunity. They should ensure the necessaryresources are available to guarantee that allaffected children are able to re-enter or startschool after the summer recess.

• Donors should provide full support for nationalcampaigns that tackle enrolment and qualityobjectives.

• Governments in countries with high levels ofpastoralist children should adopt commonmeasures with neighbouring countries, takinginto account especially high levels of displacementand migration.

• Governments and ministries of education shouldadopt exible approaches that cater to pastoralistchildren and teachers, and ensure the educationcurriculum responds to their needs.

RECOMMENDATIONS

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