Advancing children's continued education through sustainable scaling in conflicted-affected Central African Republic, South Sudan and Yemen

 

Situations of protracted wars between countries and violent internal conflicts create terrible human suffering. In addition to the loss of many lives, these situations create major disruptions in basic social services provided by governments, such as health, food and water provision and education. These services are interrupted due to damage to state infrastructure, insecurity and the forced displacement of populations, both internally and across borders. The displaced populations, mostly organized in refugee camps, usually end up relying on humanitarian aid from non-governmental organizations, a few resilient state actors and other charitable bodies.

This project will test and explore how to scale an innovative approach developed in Uganda that was proven successful in promoting school access and retention of out-of-school children and youth. It relies heavily on community members and school staff taking on implementation responsibilities of schools and learning centres. This addresses workforce shortages and system financial constraints in fragile, conflict-affected and violent contexts. However, little research has been done on how to mobilize this workforce sustainably and fairly to meet the challenges of program sustainability and scale-up, and in line with commitments to localization — a growing focus in development and humanitarian settings aiming to promote local stakeholder-generated solutions.

The research will explore what adaptations are needed to ensure the innovation is contextually appropriate, gender-responsive and inclusive as well as sustainable. It will produce a scaling toolkit for the innovations and establish support mechanisms such as technical and community advisory groups as permanent features of school organization and administration during the post-conflict period. The project will be undertaken in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Yemen, producing generalizable findings across these diverse contexts.

This project is funded through the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange’s Emerging Priorities initiative, a joint endeavour with IDRC.