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Global Education Cluster Newsletter
Special Issue on Chad
Issue N° 34
Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to share the 34th issue of the Global Education Cluster (GEC) newsletter. The GEC newsletters are issued on a quarterly basis to allow for a strong focus on the work, challenges and successes of country clusters with a feature on one country cluster in each edition. In this edition we highlight a brief recently published by the Education Cluster in Chad. In the remainder of the newsletter, you will find an update on the GEC work, including Rapid Response Team (RRT) members' deployments, global events and the latest resources related to education in emergencies. Please share this newsletter with colleagues, partners, country-level Education Cluster members and other colleagues who might find the information and contacts useful.
CHAD: Rethinking Education in Emergencies Interventions to Break the Vicious Cycle of Underdevelopment and Humanitarian Crisis
 Chad is a landlocked country sharing a border with the Central African Republic (CAR), Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger; humanitarian crises in these neighbouring countries have impacted Chad. Since 2013, more than 140,000 refugees and Chadian returnees from CAR have settled in refugee camps, returnee sites and in local villages in the south of Chad. Continuous instability and occasional outbreaks of violence in north western CAR created additional influx of more than 6,000 CAR refugees since 2016. Classrooms are overcrowded and teachers and students attend classes without any adequate teaching and learning materials. In the Lake Chad Basin, instability caused by violent Boko Haram attacks displaced thousands of Nigerians. Military operations in response to the attacks further forced the local population to flee their homes and become IDPs. Even before the crisis, the region was known for harsh living conditions and the absence of infrastructure and basic social services including education. Lack of access to education and high illiteracy rates prepared the ground for recruitment of new extremists and amplified the effects of the crisis. Moreover, Sudanese refugees from Darfur are living in eastern regions of Chad since the beginning of the Darfur conflict in 2003. As the crisis continues for more than a decade, the Chadian government has made efforts to integrate refugee children in the national school curriculum. Despite these efforts, schools in the refugee camps still face many challenges due to the lack of resources in the context where the local population and the government are struggling with problems of their own.
Structural weaknesses, underdevelopment and the lack of infrastructure and basic social services significantly worsen the impacts of the crises, the complex nature of the problem is especially visible in the education sector. Following the sharp fall of oil prices, the government suspended payment of subsidies for community teachers. This led to teachers going on strike for more than two years, resulting in the shutdown of more than 20% of primary schools located in crisis zones in 2015-2016. In the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year, civil servant teachers also went on strike against new government measures cutting bonus payouts and called for payment of salary arrears. As a result, public schools in the crisis zones remained closed for the first four months of the school year preventing both displaced and host community children from accessing education and causing a major setback to emergency education activities planned for these children.
Analyses show that the situation in Chad should be addressed as part of a broader effort to overcome the traditional divide between humanitarian and development interventions. Actions should optimize available resources to respond to the immediate and long-term needs of the affected population. Given the complex nature of humanitarian crises in Chad intensified by existing vulnerabilities of the local population, the Chad Education Cluster is focusing its strategy on responding to the immediate needs of the affected population (host communities, refugees, returnees and IDPs), whilst laying the foundation for longer term actions, by putting the affected communities at the centre of interventions. To find out more on the education situation and the Education Cluster response in Chad, read the thematic paper Rethinking Education in Emergencies Interventions to Break the Vicious Cycle of Underdevelopment and Humanitarian Crisis. Additional information on the work of the Education Cluster can be found on HR.info.
RAPID RESPONSE TEAM
Afghanistan
 In May, it was decided by the Humanitarian Coordinator to Afghanistan, Toby Lanzer, and the Humanitarian Country Team that the EiE Working Group would be given – in all but name – the status of an activated cluster. The Working Group will no longer be a sub-working group under the Child Protection sub-cluster. The EiEWG will now be represented as an independent entity at the Inter-Cluster Coordination Team meetings and other coordination fora. Furthermore, education will be fully integrated in the Humanitarian Needs Overview and the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2018. This breakthrough came after intense advocacy efforts by numerous engaged individuals and organisations including the 2 Rapid Response deployed to the country, IM Specialist Dominik Koeppl and Coordinator Karina Kleivan. From January-May, the RRTs supported EiE Coordination and Information Management. Another breakthrough has been Save the Children International Afghanistan creating a new EiEWG Coordinator position for initially one year to secure strong coordination as part of their dedication and commitment as a Cluster Lead Agency.
RRT Coordinator Kaisa-Leena Juvonen spent 8 weeks in Sudan with the initial plan to support the Education Sector through the Cluster Coordination Performance Monitoring (CCPM) process, starting the development of a sector strategy development and strengthening the coordination capacity at sub-national level.
The Sudan Education Sector organized a two-day workshop for sector partners at national level in Khartoum and at sub-national level for the five Darfur States in El Geneina, West Darfur in May 2017. 49 participants from 31 organizations, including 2 UN organizations, 9 international NGOs, 17 national NGOs, representatives from Federal and State Ministries of Education and a donor, actively participated in the workshops. During the first day, partners focused on validating and contextualizing the preliminary results of the Education Sector CCPM survey to identify strengths in sector coordination as well as suggest improvements and ways forward in coordination. The final CCPM report with an action plan was compiled based on the feedback from two validation sessions. The second day of the workshop focused on partner consultation on the sector response framework, one of the first steps in the development of the Education Sector Strategy.
During the RRT deployment, the sector compiled Flood Response Contingency Plan in preparation for the upcoming rainy season, and the HRP 2017 was finalized to have focused, cost effective and coordinated EiE response. In addition, a multi-sector response plan for nutritional crisis in Jebel Marra region was completed in consultative manner with the Education Sector partners.
GLOBAL EDUCATION CLUSTER
Core Skills training
 Blending theory with practice, the Global Education Cluster Core Skills Training (CST), helps participants understand the fundamentals of cluster coordination and develop competencies in order to become more effective cluster coordination staff and cluster partners. The CST, which seeks to blur the line between traditional “Coordinator” and “Information Manager” roles and responsibilities, aims to equip all cluster coordination staff and partners with the required knowledge, skills and attitudes to establish and effectively run an Education Cluster. By the end of the training, participants are able to:
- Describe the role of the cluster and its key functions
- State principles of coordination and apply them to develop a Cluster Strategy
- Adopt an evidence-based approach when designing a Cluster Strategy
- Align the Cluster Strategy with existing strategic humanitarian and development documents
- Write strategic objectives, activities, indicators and standards for the Response Plan Framework
- Design a Monitoring Plan that uses the Education Cluster Monitoring tool
- Demonstrate a range of skills and techniques to plan and facilitate meetings and present
The 5th Core Skills Training started on May 15 with an online, pre-training course containing 4 modules and focused on both theory-based readings and quizzes as well as practical Information Management (IM) focused exercises. The distance learning was followed by face-to-face, residential training that took place from June 19 to 24 in Cyprus. This part of the training was based on an intense simulation scenario of a first phase, rapid onset emergency. 22 Participants (from 8 different organisations and working in 16 countries) were continuously provided with various simulation-related documents and asked to complete assignments around the development of a cluster strategy
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The training was co-organized by the GEC and World Vision International (WVI). It was facilitated by RRT members Luca Fraschini and Michael Wilkins, and IM consultant Sadig Elamin. Guest facilitators included GEC Coordinator Tyler Arnot, RRT member Karina Kleivan, Peter Hyll-Larsen, co-chair of the INEE Working Group on Standards and Practices, and Marion Orchison, UNICEF capacity development specialist.
UPDATE ON GLOBAL PROCESSES
Education Cannot Wait: one year on and first response window
 The Education Cannot Wait Fund: A Fund for Education in Emergencies (ECW) was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016. An initial investment of USD $10 million has been allocated to Chad, USD $15 million to Syria, USD $15 million to Ethiopia and USD $15 million to Yemen to fund education for 2 million children caught in these 4 crises. Funding was disbursed in 2017 to Syria, Chad and Ethiopia. More on ECW’s structure, indicators and results framework can be found here.
In addition, ECW recently launched the First Response Window by announcing a USD $20 million investment in 7 crisis affected countries: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Madagascar, Peru, Uganda, Ukraine and Somalia. This mechanism will fund a variety of activities and partners in crisis affected countries for 12 months. The USD $20 million investment will support learning opportunities for crisis affected children and youth in the aforementioned 7 countries through a range of activities such as new school facilities, teacher training, and psycho-social support and enhanced access to quality learning. For further information on how to engage in country allocations for the First Response Window, please visit the ECW website.
The First Response Window aims to immediately respond to education needs arising from the escalation or onset of emergency through the rapid deployment of funds. It will also match funding with coordinated Humanitarian or Refugee Response Plans, use need assessments to provide support to individual countries, and in emergency situations without coordinated Humanitarian Response Plans, this mechanism will provide funding to pre-accredited organisations. More on the First Response Window and ECW’s 2 other funding windows can be found in their roadmap. A webinar on the First Response Window was held on 24 May 24, recording can be found here.
Grand Bargain One Year Later
51 donor and humanitarian organisations signed the Grand Bargain at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. Under the Grand Bargain, partners seek to allocate 25 percent of global humanitarian funding to front-line local and national responders, provide more un-earmarked funds, increase multi-year funding and work with new partners, such as the private sector.
Partners anticipate that the implementation of Grand Bargain commitments will lead to better aid, with humanitarian action moving from a supply-driven model dominated by aid providers, to a demand-driven model, that serves affected peoples. Each signatory is developing a plan of action in regards to its commitments. On the basis of collective action or close coordination, work is being done within and across relevant work streams, with the support of work stream(s) co-conveners.
A report conducted by the Global Public Policy Institute provides detailed information on the work being done by conveners on the implementation of work streams, as well as the challenges faced. There is a need to broaden the range of stakeholders, particularly national NGOs in order to trace funds being reached to affected populations. Aid organisations assert that donors must champion the Grand Bargain and work stream leads must bring out tangible field benefits. Localisation has also been a subject on contention, in regards to its categorisation and representation. These were reinforced at a side event dedicated to the Grand Bargain at the 2017 ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment. Panelists spoke of the need for greater action on field level, as well as greater implementation of commitments such as transparency and synergies between work streams.
Signatories have reported action on 40 percent of commitments, within a year of signing up to the Grand Bargain, which is an accomplishment given its scope. However, progress is irregular and political momentum is diminishing. In order to drive the Grand Bargain forward, engagement on commitments from Member States, donor representatives and aid organisations is essential. In order to ensure that commitments are materialised to their full potential, the GPPI’s report recommends retaining structure and joint leadership roles, whilst resuming political engagement, increasing consistency, applying the Grand Bargain to specific emergency operations and lastly, expanding its reach amongst non-signatories.
For further information on the Grand bargain:
LATEST RESOURCES
 • While education is frequently the target of violent extremism, it can also be part of the solution to preventing violent extremism and reducing other forms of violence. The United Nation’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, which aims to tackle the root causes of violent extremism, lists education as a tool against extremism and the violence that can result from it. The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) has developed a whiteboard video to illustrate education’s role in preventing violent extremism (PVE). The 5-minute video -- available with subtitles in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Portuguese -- looks at some definitions of PVE and education’s role in fostering inclusive and equitable environments, encouraging critical thinking, promoting tolerance and respect for diversity, and thereby contributing to wider social cohesion and the reduction of violence in all forms. For further information and resources, please visit INEE webpage on PVE.
• OCHA’s 2016 Annual Report details its efforts in countries that were heavily hit with crises; Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, as well as areas that go unreported, such as CAR, the DRC and the Lake Chad Basin.
 • The Journal on Education in Emergencies, Volume 3, Number 1, has just been released. This issue examines the contributions of education to peacebuilding. The articles in this issue bring a range of analyses to this question, including a focus on social justice, reconciliation, inclusion, gender norms, and the importance of social cohesion.
 • On 4-5 April 2017, delegations from 70 countries, international organisations and civil society gathered in Brussels for the "Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region" conference, to assess where the international community stands in fulfilling commitments made at the London conference in February 2016, and to agree on additional reports. The conference report Preparing for the Future of Children and Youth in Syria and in the Region through Education, London one year on is now also available in Arabic. A pamphlet has also been produced in English and in Arabic.
 • People are affected by crises in different ways. In this short video on gender equality in emergencies, learn steps to equitably address the needs of boys, girls, women, men, and vulnerable groups during emergencies. Please note you will have to log in to DisasterReady.org to watch the video (free log in).
• Recently launched by the Geneva Centre for Education and Research on Humanitarian Action (CERAH), the Humanitarian Encyclopedia offers a conceptual framework for humanitarian action, and provides a dynamic platform for national and international practitioners, community leaders, policy makers and academics to reflect on humanitarian concepts and practice for the 21st century.
• Watch the recording of the two part webinar series, by the Peer 2 Peer Support team, titled “Gender Based Violence: How can Field Leadership Make a Difference?” focused on senior leadership taking responsibility for Gender Based Violence within their operations.
GET INVOLVED
 On 14 September, PHAP and ICVA will organize the fourth online session of their learning stream on humanitarian coordination, focusing on NGO challenges and opportunities to engage with OCHA in an effective and meaningful way. Participants will be provided with an overview of OCHA’s main focus areas, highlighting the differences of NGO engagement with OCHA country offices in different regions, and exploring lessons already learned by NGOs. Read more and register here.
With kind regards,
Global Education Cluster Unit
Global Education Cluster Unit | Save the Children and UNICEF | E-mail: educationclusterunit@gmail.com | Website: http://educationcluster.net | Skype: Education Cluster Helpdesk
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