Education and Humanitarian-Development Coherence
In line with the humanitarian-development coherence priority, this white paper provides a conceptual framework for the education sector to support resilience efforts.
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Coherent approaches to international aid are particularly important for the education sector in crisis-affected contexts because a quality, equitable education delivers essential learning outcomes, while also having the potential to provide emotional and physical protection, support individual and community resilience, and contribute to stabilization. This white paper provides an overview of humanitarian-development coherence efforts within the education sector globally, with a focus on the U.S. government. It presents a conceptual framework that outlines both the drivers of the humanitarian-development divide and the opportunities for coherence, and then uses this framework to structure the mapping and analysis of U.S. government efforts on education and humanitarian-development coherence.
A Conceptual Framework for Mapping U.S. Government Efforts on Education Coherence
The framework has three layers:
- Norms: This layer looks at what guides education responses in crisis contexts. It shapes and defines humanitarian and development assistance and may include elements such as principles, goals, standards, mandates, strategies, and expected outcomes.
- Capacities: This layer focuses on who leads and coordinates support to education, which might include key actors, coordination groups, and staff knowledge and skills.
- Operations: This layer considers how education programs are planned and provided. It includes delivery of aid and the functions that make these education programs possible, including approaches to education, assessment processes, planning, finance and monitoring.
Recommendations to the U.S. Government
Based on the findings presented above, the paper makes the following recommendations to the U.S. government:
- Strengthen high-level U.S. government support for education in emergencies and protracted crises.
- Ensure that the new (2018) government-wide U.S. Strategy on International Basic Education and the USAID Education Policy include coherent approaches across humanitarian and development contexts.
- Champion education’s contributions to collective outcomes.
- Leverage the USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Learning Agenda.
- Invest in understanding and defining links between education and resilience.
- Develop tools, capacity and processes to address U.S. government humanitarian-development coherence related to:
- Strengthening knowledge management.
- Building in specialized education surge capacity before and during crises.
- Ensuring education sector assessments have approaches to coherence in the collection and analysis of primary and secondary data.
- Funding mechanisms that offer flexibility, pivoting and contingencies.
- Provide interagency leadership for the education sector in strengthening humanitarian-development coherence.