FOCUS AREA: EDUCATION IN FRAGILE, CONFLICT, & VIOLENCE CONTEXTS




WHEREVER
THEY ARE,
CHILDREN
MUST GO
TO SCHOOL
    Providing quality education and skills for all in countries
    affected by fragility, conflict, or violence is an urgent
    development priority.


    WHY IT MATTERS                                                 OUR APPROACH
    Countries need strong education systems that promote           The transition from the post-crisis humanitarian aid
    learning, life skills, and social cohesion. However, systems   to sustainable development of education services is
    struggle to deliver education services in adverse contexts     a joint effort of governments, development partners,
    such as armed conflict, natural disasters, political crises,   communities, non-governmental organizations, and
    health epidemics, and pervasive violence. Education can        schools. The key areas of focus include building capac-
    help mitigate the risks associated with such adversity         ities, strengthening services, and building resilience
    and help children and youth to succeed despite severe          in contexts of fragility. We need to address different
    challenges. Countries with fragility, conflict, or violence    phases of fragility: crisis and violence prevention, crisis
    contexts represent the biggest challenges to achieving the     response, post-crisis recovery, and addressing the long-
    United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of ensuring       term impact of shocks and conflicts including support-
    inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting        ing development programs for both displaced and host
    lifelong learning for all.                                     populations.
The World Bank’s development approach to education in emergencies
entails close partnerships with governments, humanitarian agencies,
and the international development community.


OUR PRIORITIES:
1 Build inclusive and adaptable education                           2 Strengthen skills and resilience of individuals
systems in fragile and adverse environments                         whose lives and education are affected by adversity
In contexts of fragility or adversity, education service            Millions of young people miss out on education and
must continue. Once children drop out of school or                  acquisition of the skills needed to engage in a productive
are denied opportunities for education, it is difficult to          life because of shocks including displacement, violence,
bring them back. We work closely with governments                   exclusion, or natural disasters. It is imperative that
and humanitarian agencies to bridge education services              education services are provided for all ages. In addition,
in emergencies and to ensure longer-term education                  those who suffered from discrimination, exclusion,
service delivery systems in countries with ongoing                  and violence, including gender-based violence, need
crises. At times of emergency or in contexts of fragility,          additional support and empowerment through coaching,
our priority is to help countries build an inclusive and            mentoring, and psychosocial training. Our multisectoral
adaptable education system—tapping into various                     approach takes into account the need to strengthen
service providers and alternative ways to deliver                   individual resilience amidst fragility, conflict, and violence.
education, developing interventions to stimulate demand
for education, and building curriculum and classroom
practices that help address psychological trauma of
children and prevent conflict and violence in the future.


3 Improve education services for displaced populations and host communities
The forced displacement crisis has worsened over the last decade and the number of refugees around the world has reached
25 million, while that of internally displaced people exceeds 40 million. Many of those displaced are children of school age.
Our efforts to make sure these children can learn include scaling up education for refugees in the world’s poorest countries
and for those hosted by middle-income countries, and looking for innovative approaches to provide education to those who
have been displaced from their homes.




       educationgp@worldbank.org    worldbank.org/education    @WBG_Education Human Capital Project #INVESTinPeople