Risk-Informed Education Programming for Resilience Guidance Note
This United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) guidance note outlines the Child-Centered Risk-Informed Education Programming Process, as well as tools and strategies for implementation.
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Across the continuum of development and humanitarian activities, policies and programs must be informed by risk if they are to help make populations more resilient and social services better equipped to withstand cycles of crisis. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Education Sector will work to ensure that its education, humanitarian and development programs are risk-informed as part of the organization’s commitment to its 2018-2021 Strategic Plan.
This Guidance Note aims to help UNICEF education staff at all levels, who are working in humanitarian, transition and development contexts, analyze risk and adapt education policies and programs to take risk into account so that education populations and systems are more resilient and all children and youth are in school and learning.
UNICEF Child-Centered Risk-Informed Education Programming Process
Step 1: Plan the child-centered risk analysis
- Who will be involved?
- What will be analyzed and where?
- When will the analysis occur?
- Why is the analysis being done?
- How will the analysis be conducted?
Step 2: Analyze the risk
UNICEF defines risk as the degree to which a population is vulnerable and the likelihood that the country will be exposed to a hazard, shock or stress, adjusted for how much capacity exists among national and local actors to cope by themselves. This is referred to as the risk equation, which is composed of five variables:
- Hazards, Shocks and Stresses.
- Exposure.
- Vulnerability.
- Capacity.
- Risk.
Step 3: Use the child-centered risk analysis findings
UNICEF is committed to building the resilience of children, school communities and education systems. One way to achieve this is risk-informed programming. Step 3 is the most critical step in risk-informed programming. This step involves using the findings of the child-centered risk analysis to:
- Plan for the future through building scenarios that take contingencies into account.
- Review and adapt existing education programs.
- Hold actors accountable through monitoring and evaluation.
Six Strategies for UNICEF Risk-Informed Education Programming for Resilience
The guidance note outlines six education strategies that address hazards, shocks and stresses that impact education:
- Disaster risk reduction in education to address natural hazards, shocks and stresses.
- Education to address climate change.
- School health and nutrition to address biological hazards.
- Conflict-sensitive education and peacebuilding to address violent conflict.
- Child protection in education to address school-related, gender-based violence.
- Social protection in education to address economic shocks.
Tools for UNICEF Risk-Informed Education Programming for Resilience
The guidance note also offers tools to support UNICEF Education Staff in analyzing risk and adapting their programs accordingly, including the following:
- The Risk Assessment Checklist, which provides top-line activities for each of the three steps: planning the child-centered risk analysis, analyzing risk and using the findings.
- A proposed index of proxy-indicators, which presents 10 illustrative indicators drawn from existing sources for each of the six risk-informed strategies. For convenience, they are presented in alignment with Results Assessment Module (RAM) Outcome and Output Indicators from the Strategic Plan 2018-2021 RAM Guidelines.
- The Costing Template, which provides a list of line items to consider when budgeting and financing risk-informed education program activities.