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NETWORK HPN
H U M A N I T A R I A N P R A C T I C E N E T W O R K
paperThe role of education in protecting children in conflictby
Susan Nicolai and Carl Triplehorn
42
Wars deprive millions of children of an education, yeteducation
in emergencies has not traditionally occu-pied a prominent place in
humanitarian thinking. Noone dies from not going to school, and
other life-threatening needs – for food, water, shelter or
health-care – can at first glance seem more pressing. Amidconflict
and crisis, education programming has beenviewed as a luxury, and a
task best left to the devel-opment community.
This paper argues for a reappraisal of the position ofeducation
in emergency programming. It explores thelinks between education
and the wider protectionneeds of the children it assists. It
suggests that, as pro-tection in conflict emerges more clearly as a
legiti-mate humanitarian concern, so the role of educationas a tool
of protection must be more clearly under-stood. How does conflict
affect a child’s education,
and what impact does this have on an affected indi-vidual’s
social or cognitive development? In whatways can education enhance
the physical and psy-chosocial protection of children in
war-affected or dis-placed communities? What risks does education
pro-gramming in these contested environments present,for children
and for agencies themselves? What is cur-rently being done, and how
could it be done better?
This paper does not offer definitive answers to thesequestions.
Education in emergencies is a young area;the evidence of its impact
is often anecdotal, andalthough its status as a humanitarian
concern hasgained legitimacy in recent years, it has yet to
beaccepted across the humanitarian community. Muchmore needs to be
done to enhance our understandingof the links between education and
child protectionin emergency situations.
March 2003
ABSTRACT
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Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN)Overseas Development
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researchor programme design, implementation or evaluation.
About the authorsSusan Nicolai is Emergency Education Officer
with the Save the Children Alliance, based with SC UK.
Carl Triplehorn is a consultant in emergency education.
The lead editor in SC UK was Anna Jefferys, Emergency Policy
Officer with Save the Children UK. BrigidBroomfield-Hall was the
supporting editor.
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Table of contentsChapter 1 The impact of conflict on children’s
education 1
Education for all 1
Measuring conflict’s impact on education 2
Risks in education 3
Chapter 2 Intersections between protection and education 7
Protecting children 7
Child protection in practice 8
The role of education in protecting children 9
Chapter 3 Humanitarian programming in education: an overview
13
The birth of a sector 13
Agency efforts in emergency education 14
Operational frameworks 17
Chapter 4 Strengthening the links between education and
protection 19
Maximising the opportunities 19
Minimising the risks 23
Conclusions and recommendations 25
References 27
List of interviewees 29
Annex 1 30
Annex 2 32
List of boxesBox 1:The role of communities in providing
education 5
Box 2:The impact of war on education: testimony from Liberia
5
Box 3:Addressing the manipulation of education: Palestinian
summer camps 6
Box 4: Protection: the ICRC definition 7
Box 5: UN Security Council resolutions on children in
emergencies 8
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Box 6: Factors protecting children 9
Box 7: Sida’s guidelines on humanitarian assistance in education
16
Box 8: Education in emergencies: resource implications 16
Box 9:The phased approach in West Timor 17
Box 10:‘Child-Friendly Spaces’ 20
Box 11:Assessment questions which link education and protection
22
List of tables and figuresTable 1: Education in
conflict-affected countries: a comparison 4
Table 2:The potential protective elements of education in
emergencies 10
Figure 1:A ‘continuum’ of child protection 9
Figure 2: The ‘Circle of Learning’ 18
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1
It is difficult to measure the impact ofconflict on children and
their educa-tion. One can attach numbers tosome aspects of
suffering – twomillion children dead in the pastdecade, six million
seriously injured,one million orphaned or separatedfrom their
families, and twelve millionleft homeless (UNICEF, 1999). Forother
less physical aspects, numbersdo not come as easily. Terror
andviolence cause psychological damage,the extent of which varies
from childto child, with potentially seriouseffects on social and
emotional devel-opment. The cognitive developmentof children is
also harmed during war,as skills such as literacy, numeracy
andcritical thinking are delayed. In herlandmark study of the
impact ofarmed conflict on children, Graça Machel describeshow
conflict harms children not just physically, butsocially and
emotionally:
Not only are large numbers of children killed andinjured, but
countless others grow up deprived oftheir material and emotional
needs, including thestructures that give meaning to social and
culturallife.The entire fabric of their societies – their
homes,schools, health systems and religious institutions –are torn
to pieces (Machel, 1996).
Education for allA child’s right to education is enshrined in a
numberof declarations and conventions. The UniversalDeclaration of
Human Rights of 1948 outlines theright to free, compulsory
elementary education, andstates that education should work to
strengthen
respect for human rights and promote peace. Parentshave the
right to choose the kind of educationprovided to their child. The
Fourth GenevaConvention of 1949 states that, in situations
ofmilitary occupation, the occupying power must facil-itate
institutions devoted to the care and education ofchildren. Protocol
I (1977) states that schools andother buildings used for civil
purposes are guaranteedprotection from military attacks. Protocol
II statesthat children shall receive an education in keepingwith
the wishes of their parents.The rights of refugeechildren are
protected in the 1951 ConventionRelating to the Status of Refugees,
which guaranteesthe right to elementary education, and states that
theyshould be accorded the same opportunities asnationals from the
host country. Beyond primaryschool, refugee children are treated as
other aliens,allowing for the recognition of foreign school
certifi-cates and the awarding of scholarships.
1
The impact of conflict onchildren’s education
The effect of conflict on children: a drawing by a Kosovar child
in Albania
© Susan N
icolai, 1999
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The Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989calls for
states to make primary education compul-sory and free to all, and
to encourage the develop-ment of accessible secondary and other
forms ofeducation. The Convention mandates an educationthat builds
on a child’s potential and supports theircultural identity. The
Convention emphasisespsychosocial support for conflict-affected
children,and outlines the principle of non-discrimination,including
access for the disabled, gender equity andthe protection of the
linguistic and cultural rights ofethnic minorities. The Convention
also protects achild’s right to recreation and culture.
Finally, the Rome Statute of 1998 outlining the
legaljurisdiction of the International Criminal Court(ICC) includes
protection for educational institutionsunder Article 8, which
covers war crimes. The ICCprotects against ‘intentionally driven
attacks againstbuildings dedicated to religion, education,
art,science, or charitable purposes’.A number of regionalagreements
also address issues of education.References to the right to
education are found in theProtocol to the European Convention for
theProtection of Human Rights and FundamentalFreedoms (1952); the
American Declaration on theRights and Duties of Man (1998); and the
AfricanCharter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child(1999).
Education has also been subject to a series of interna-tional
conferences and agreements. In 1990, theWorld Conference on
Education for All (EFA) inJomtien, Thailand, agreed to universalise
educationand reduce illiteracy. Aggressive targets were setaimed at
achieving universal basic education by theend of the decade.The
global commitment to basiceducation was revisited ten years later,
at the WorldEducation Forum in Dakar, Senegal. When consid-ering
EFA, the Forum’s 1,100 participants clearlymeant education that
went beyond merely formalschooling.Thus, according to the Dakar
Frameworkfor Action, delegates committed themselves and
theirgovernments to:
• ‘expanding and improving comprehensive earlychildhood care and
education, especially for themost vulnerable and disadvantaged
children;
• ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularlygirls,
children in difficult circumstances and thosebelonging to ethnic
minorities, have access to andcomplete free and compulsory primary
educationof good quality;
• ensuring that the learning needs of all youngpeople and adults
are met through equitable accessto appropriate learning and life
skills programmes;
• achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adultliteracy by
2015, especially for women, and equi-table access to basic and
continuing education forall adults;
• eliminating gender disparities in primary andsecondary
education by 2005, and achievinggender equality in education by
2015, with afocus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access toand
achievement in basic education of goodquality; and
• improving all aspects of the quality of educationand ensuring
excellence of all so that recognisedand measurable learning
outcomes are achievedby all, especially in literacy, numeracy and
essentiallife skills’.
The goals of universal primary education and genderparity were
adopted as Millennium DevelopmentGoals by the UN General Assembly
on 6 September2001.
Measuring conflict’s impact oneducationEducation in emergencies
(often used interchangeablywith emergency education) is primarily
carried out insituations where children lack access to their
nationaland community education systems due to the occur-rence of
complex emergencies or natural disasters.Because modern conflicts
are chronic and recurring,the sector tends to use the word
‘emergency’ in itsbroadest sense, encompassing not only the first
days ormonths after an event, but also the effort to deal withthe
on-going effects of the crisis, and reconstruction.Within the
context of EFA, emergency educationdoes not negate states’
responsibility to educate theirpeople; rather, it provides the
space for the interna-tional community to assist where the
government isunable or unwilling to provide education.
Attacks on schools are one of the most easily quan-tifiable ways
of gauging the effect of a conflict oneducation. During 2001, for
instance, Israeli soldiersshot at nearly 100 schools in the
OccupiedTerritories, using rubber bullets, live ammunition andtear
gas. Another 71 schools came under attackthrough tank shelling or
rockets fired from heli-copters (DCI, 2002). In East Timor, the
violence ofSeptember 1999 destroyed between 80% and 90% ofschool
buildings and related infrastructure (UNDP,2002). Iain Levine,
Chief of Humanitarian Policy atUNICEF, suggests that such attacks
can occurbecause education represents state authority; in
somecircumstances, such as in southern Sudan, schoolsalong with
health centres may be the only publicbuildings in rural areas which
can be targeted.
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The impact of conflict on education may also be feltmore
indirectly, as part of a wider pattern of disruptionand dislocation
and the effects of state collapse. TheMachel study notes that
formal education is at riskduring war ‘because it relies on
consistent funding andadministrative support that is difficult to
sustain duringpolitical turmoil. During the fighting in Somalia
andunder the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, publicexpenditure on
education was reduced to nearlynothing’ (Machel, 1996). In
Mozambique, wartimedamage to schools left two-thirds of the
country’s twomillion primary-school children with no access
toeducation (UNICEF, 1996).
Children’s reduced enrolment and attendance atschools is another
potential measure of conflict’simpact on education. Emily
Vargas-Baron of theRISE Institute claims that, of the
approximately115m children worldwide who are out of school, alarge
majority are living in nations affected bycomplex crises
(Vargas-Baron, 2001). The OxfamEducation Report states that
two-thirds of countriesin Africa that are experiencing or
recovering fromconflict have enrolment rates of less than
50%(Watkins, 2000). Just 3% of refugee adolescents –some 50,000
children – attend anything beyondprimary school (Refugee Education
Trust, 2002). Forinternally-displaced children, the prospects can
oftenbe worse; access to education in parts of Angola,
theDemocratic Republic of Congo, Somalia andsouthern Sudan are
minimal. In Somalia, it is esti-mated that only 9% of school-age
children (and only6% of school-age girls) are attending
school(UNESCO, 1999).
Detailed information in areas ofconflict is rarely available,
and thesefigures should be treated withcaution. Enrolment ratios
are basedon comparisons of registered childrenagainst often
inaccurate figures of thenumbers eligible for schooling.Moreover,
they give a poor reflectionof actual attendance patterns.
Existingmeasures of the impact of conflict oneducation also say
nothing aboutquality. Where children in areas ofconflict are lucky
enough to go toschool, their learning is oftenhindered by trauma or
hunger,untrained or ill-prepared teachers, orthe lack of sufficient
learning mate-rials and infrastructure. Even whenofficially open,
schools can be closeddown periodically, and days and termscan be
shortened. In a reviewexploring wars’ effect on global
attempts to achieve EFA, Marc Sommers, a researchfellow at
Boston University, concludes that imprecisedata ‘presents a serious
constraint on the ability toaccurately estimate war’s impact on
educationsystems, administrators, teachers and students’(Sommers,
2002).
Despite these weaknesses, it is clear that childrenliving in
conflict are systematically denied the rightto education: as
Vargas-Baron puts it, ‘in every failedstate there is a failed
education system’. Table 1(overleaf) sets out the state of
education in a numberof conflict-affected countries against goals
establishedin the EFA, and gives estimates for the number
ofchildren out of school.
Risks in educationWhile education is generally considered a
force forgood, conflict can distort its benefits and
introduceadditional risks. Schools may not always be safe:
forexample, Chechen schools have been bombed duringclass hours
because they were deemed to be shel-tering military targets, and
grenades have beenthrown into classrooms (Peterson, 2001).Teachers
toomay be at risk; in Colombia and Sudan, teachers havebeen
threatened and killed (McCallin, 2001).
Education may be connected to recruitment by facil-itating
access to children; in southern Sudan, forinstance, schools have
been used as a convenient wayof assembling young men for military
service(Sesnan, 1998). In the Democratic Republic ofCongo (DRC),
schools have been a common site of
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A classroom in East Timor
© Susan N
icolai, 2000
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Universal primary Gender parity Children out of education by
2015 in primary education school in 1999
by 2005
Angola Data unavailable Serious risk of not achieving
1,130,000
Burundi Serious risk of not achieving Serious risk of not
achieving 631,700
Colombia Data unavailable Data unavailable 543,900
DRC of Congo Low chance of achieving Data unavailable No
estimate
Somalia Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate
Sudan Data unavailable Low chance of achieving No estimate
Palestinian Data unavailable Data unavailable 3,100
AutonomousTerritories
Armenia Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate
Azerbaijan High chance of achieving Achieved No estimate
Georgia At risk of not achieving Achieved No estimate
Indonesia At risk of not achieving At risk of not achieving
2,267,900
Kyrgyzstan At risk of not achieving Achieved 82,300
Nepal Data unavailable Low chance of achieving No estimate
Philippines Achieved Achieved No estimate
Russia Data unavailable Achieved No estimate
Sri Lanka High chance of achieving Data unavailable No
estimate
Tajikistan High chance of achieving At risk of not achieving
89,000
Turkey At risk of not achieving At risk of not achieving No
estimate
Uganda High chance of achieving High chance of achieving No
estimate
Uzbekistan At risk of not achieving Achieved No estimate
Afghanistan Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate
Bosnia- Data unavailable Achieved No estimateHerzegovina
East Timor Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate
Eritrea Low chance of achieving Data unavailable 288,400
Ethiopia Low chance of achieving Serious risk of not achieving
No estimate
El Salvador Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate
Guatemala High chance of achieving Low chance of achieving
348,400
Iraq High chance of achieving Serious risk of not achieving
248,700
Liberia Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate
Rwanda Data unavailable Achieved 31,600
Sierra Leone Data unavailable High chance of achieving
236,200
Federal Serious risk of not achieving Achieved No
estimateRepublicof Yugoslavia
Countries orterritorieswith major current conflicts
Countrieswith isolatedconflictor rebellion
Countriesemergingfromconflict
Table 1: Education in conflict-affected countries: a
comparison
Note: This table has been developed by cross-referencing
conflict-affected countries identified in Sommers (2002); analysis
regarding the
projected achievement of EFA goals and numbers of out-of-school
children are from (UNESCO, 2002). Where estimates are lacking,
this
is due either to inconsistencies between enrolments and UN
population data, or a lack of UN population data by age.
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child recruitment by Rwandan-backed rebel groups.Propaganda
teams from the Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka
have positionedrecruitment booths near schools, and used
streettheatre to induce children into joining the military.
Innorthern Uganda, fighting forces have kidnappedschoolchildren
directly from classrooms. One rebelgroup in Burundi abducted more
than 150 studentsfrom two schools in November 2001, setting fire
toseveral classrooms as they did so (HRW, 2002). Theprospect of
education may itself serve as a rationalefor joining an armed
group. In southern Sudanduring the 1980s, boys were lured hundreds
of kilo-metres from their homes by promises of education,only to
find that the ‘schools’ promised to them werealso military training
camps (HRW, 1995).
The stress that conflict places on communities canmake the
school environment itself more threatening.Corporal punishment, for
instance, seems to becomemore common in schools during times of
conflict.While teachers in many countries may see caning
andslapping as an appropriate disciplinary tool, war canexacerbate
its use as teachers take out their frustra-tions and stress on
their pupils. In conflict areas of
West Timor, Buton and Ambon, for example,teachers’ use of
physical punishment, ridicule andhumiliation to control and
discipline children appearsto be connected to the stresses they
themselves expe-rience (Van der Wijk, personal
communication).Therisk of violence or abuse in an educational
contextmay be particularly acute for girls; in West Africanrefugee
camps, teachers regularly ask female studentsfor sexual favours in
exchange for good grades(UNHCR and SC UK, 2002). In Kosovo after
1999,fear of rape or abduction kept many Kosovarminority children,
especially girls, away from school.
The broader economic pressures people affected byconflict face
may also inhibit schooling.War-affectedchildren from the most
economically disadvantagedbackgrounds are discouraged from
attending schooldue to the expense. In extreme cases, such as
theexploitation found in West Africa, young people maydeliberately
put themselves at risk, for example
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Box 1: The role of communities in providingeducation
Education programming in areas of conflict isimpossible without
the creativity and resourceful-ness of communities. In Guatemala,
so-calledCommunities of Populations in Resistance(Communidades de
Poblaciones en Resistencia orCPRs) kept schooling going during the
civil war.Often this meant holding lessons in the open air,or
beneath a tree for cover, with procedures inplace for hiding
children in the event of bombard-ment (Vrolijk, 1998). Similarly,
the Albanian-ledschool system in Kosovo during the period of
Serboppression is a dramatic example of the capacityof local
communities.
While communities may rapidly organise educa-tional activities
in emergencies, this is not alwaysthe case. Moreover, communities
are frequentlyunable to sustain these efforts, and their
organisa-tion is not truly participatory. In these cases,
theinternational community can assist by developingand training
local educational committees.Specifically, interventions may
include matchingsupport for the building of schools and
schoolincome-generation activities. The participation ofwomen and
minorities in such schemes may set aprecedent for more inclusive
schooling.
Box 2: The impact of war on education: testimony from
Liberia
In 2000, the NGO Don Bosco undertook participa-tory research
with children in Liberia. Educationwas highlighted as a major area
of concern:
Children say that they are not in school becauseof high school
costs, increased poverty and theneed to work and contribute to the
household. Itis clear that everyone believes that the quality
ofteaching has become worse since the war. Fewteachers have proper
qualifications and they arevery badly paid. Teachers in state-run
schoolsoften go for months without pay and even thoseworking in
private and church schools are badlypaid. Many teachers have
several jobs. Schoolsare described variously as ‘a market’, a
‘street’and a ‘kitchen’ because children go to school totalk and
meet friends, but not to learn.
Attitudes to education itself have changed. Mostbelieve that the
quality of teaching and learningwas higher before the war. Children
and youngpeople were motivated to learn. Now it wouldseem few place
any real value on education,which does not, of itself, lead to
improved jobopportunities later on. One youth states, ‘educa-tion
means nothing and we are going to schooljust for the name and to
graduate, but not to learn.Before, school was interesting because
we weregoing to build the future. (McCauley, 2001)
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through prostitution, to pay school fees. Even whenofficially
‘free’, hidden costs remain, such as foruniforms, books and
transport. Survival pressures maycause children to be removed from
school and set toproductive work; girls may be married off earlier
thanusual, or parents may be forced to exclude one childfrom school
for the sake of the education of otherfamily members. Bedreldin
Shutta of Save theChildren recounts one instance in Sri Lanka where
amother reported that she would not hesitate toencourage her elder
child to join an armed group if itmeant money to pay for the
education of her tworemaining children.
In societies in conflict, education systems may them-selves be
politicised. A UNICEF study highlights avariety of ways in which
education can be manipu-lated to the detriment of children:
• the uneven distribution of education as a means ofcreating or
preserving positions of economic,social and political
privilege;
• education as a weapon in cultural repression;• the denial of
education as a weapon of war;• education as a means of manipulating
history for
political purposes;
• education as a means of diminishing self-worthand encouraging
hate;
• segregation in education as a means of ensuringinequality and
inferiority; and
• using textbooks to inhibit children from dealingwith conflict
constructively (Bush and Saltarelli,2000).
Thus, during the crisis in Rwanda and Burundieducation was used
to heighten ethnic tensionsbetween Hutu and Tutsi, conditioning the
populationto accept ethnic discrimination and propagating aculture
of mutual fear and pre-emptive self-defence(Degni-Ségui, 1997). In
Serbia, the education systemwas used to subjugate the Kosovar
Albanians; in SriLanka in the 1970s and 1980s, government
textbookspresented Tamils as the historical enemy of theSinhalese
(Bush and Saltarelli, 2000). Governmentsmay deliberately block
access to education for certaingroups. In the mid-1990s, for
example, the Zaireangovernment sought to prevent Rwandan
refugeesfrom having access to schooling (UNESCO, 1999).Many young
Palestinians in schools in Lebanon havea ‘distorted and unclear
perception’ of their ownhistory because curricula are required to
teach from aLebanese perspective (Chatty, 2002).
Box 3: Addressing the manipulation of education: Palestinian
summer camps
In the Occupied Territories, summer camps have a long tradition.
They are also suspected of being used tomilitarise the children
that attend them. In response, the Palestinian Ministry of Youth
and Sports andUNICEF organised two national workshops in spring
2001, one in Gaza, the other on the West Bank. A setof principles
for the organisers was established, which were then used to guide
and monitor activities:
• equity, equal opportunities and impartiality;• a sense of
belonging among the children;• participation;• self-respect;•
tolerance and dialogue;• non-exploitation;• consideration of
individual variations among participants;• consideration of the
needs of different age groups;• a child-focused approach;•
non-violence (physical and psychological);• the inclusion of
children with special needs and disabilities; and• freedom of
expression.
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This paper understands the relationship betweenprotection and
education in conflict as two-fold,involving both protecting a
child’s access to educa-tion amid conflict and displacement, and
usingeducation to protect a child from the risks that
suchsituations present. In recent years, protection hasoccupied an
increasingly important position on thehumanitarian agenda, with
agencies going ‘beyondthe conventional view of how people are
dying, toembrace … how people are living’ (Martone, 2002).This
humanitarian concern for protection arose outof the horrors of the
1990s: ethnic cleansing inBosnia, the Rwandan genocide, atrocities
in SierraLeone. Since then, humanitarians have begun toexplore what
kinds of practical actions can be takento protect civilians both
from physical harm, andfrom wider violations of their human rights
(IASC,2002a).
Protecting childrenChildren constitute a particularly vulnerable
group intimes of war by virtue of their dependence on adultcare
(OHCHR,2001).Conflict and displacement canpresent particular
threats, such as separation fromfamily, abduction or recruitment by
fighting forces, orexposure to targeted violence or landmines. At
thesame time, pre-existing threats, such as sexual orgender-based
violence, labour exploitation or malnu-trition and disease, may
increase.
Efforts to protect children in times of war date back tothe
early years of the twentieth century; in 1924, forinstance, the
League of Nations adopted the GenevaDeclaration on the Rights of
the Child. Today, thestandards for child protection during times of
conflictare largely based on the Convention on the Rights ofthe
Child (1989) and its Optional Protocols (2000);
the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees(1951) and its
Protocols (1967); and the GenevaConventions (1949) and Additional
Protocols (1977).Another important source is the
UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights (1948) and the subse-quent
International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights and the
International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights
(1966). Regional instru-ments such as the European Convention on
HumanRights (1950) also make specific reference to children.
Following Machel’s landmark UN study in 1996, anumber of key
initiatives have been taken.
• The appointment in 1997 of a SpecialRepresentative of the UN
Secretary-General forChildren and Armed Conflict.
• The UN’s adoption of the CRC’s OptionalProtocol prohibiting
the participation in hostili-ties of those below 18 years of
age.This was spear-headed by the Coalition to Stop the Use of
ChildSoldiers, a network of humanitarian agencies.
• High-level meetings to focus attention on the plightof
children in war, such as the Oslo/Hadeland
2
Intersections between protection and education
Box 4: Protection: the ICRC definition
The concept of protection encompasses all activi-ties aimed at
obtaining full respect for the rights ofthe individual in
accordance with the letter andspirit of relevant bodies of law
(i.e., human rights,humanitarian and refugee law). Human rights
andhumanitarian actors shall conduct these activitiesimpartially
and not on the basis of race, nationalor ethnic origin, language or
gender (ICRC, 2001).
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Conference ‘Protection of Children andAdolescents in Complex
Emergencies’ in 1998 andthe ‘International Conference on
War-AffectedChildren’, held in Winnipeg, Canada, in 2000.
• Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC), arights-based
training initiative by UNHCR, Savethe Children, the UN High
Commissioner forHuman Rights (OHCHR) and UNICEF, whichhas developed
a series of resource packs onconflict-affected children’s rights
and needs.
• The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict,an NGO initiative
that prepares reports on thesituation of children in specific
conflicts, andmakes recommendations to UN and internationalactors
to improve child protection.
• A set of Inter-agency Guiding Principles onSeparated Children
developed by the WorkingGroup on Separated Children, as a means
tostrengthen the tracing and reuniting of separatedchildren.
• The Sphere Project, which has establishedminimum standards in
disaster response as a wayto improve the quality and accountability
ofhumanitarian action. The particular needs ofchildren are being
incorporated as a cross-cuttingsector in current revisions.
• A number of innovative agency-based initiatives,including the
Emergency Stand-by Teams of Savethe Children Sweden and Norway, and
theNorwegian Refugee Council (NRC); UNICEF’sChild Friendly Spaces
initiative; and the series ofparticipatory adolescent field studies
led by theWomen’s Commission for Refugee Women andChildren.
Child protection in practiceIn practice, children’s protection
is variously seen as alegal, social and physical concern (IASC,
2002b).Defining its scope beyond the legal framework is,however,
difficult. In an external evaluation ofUNHCR’s efforts to protect
refugee children, forinstance, there was confusion among staff as
to whatchild protection meant, and what the agency’s policyactually
entailed (Valid International, 2002). Fewwritten definitions of
child protection exist. TheOslo/Hadeland Conference described the
interna-tional protection of children and adolescents as ‘thegamut
of activities through which … rights aresecured by the
international community’ (NRC et al,1999). Save the Children has
developed a draft defini-tion of child protection as ‘action to
prevent oraddress harm caused to children because their rightsto
security, survival or development are threatened –directly or
indirectly – by the acts of third parties,including armed
groups’.
This paper sees child protection as a ‘continuum’. Atone end lie
efforts to address violations of a child’srights, such as tracing
and reuniting separatedchildren, demobilising child soldiers and
ensuringthat schools are safe zones for children. Other protec-tion
activities focus on securing governmental andcommunity respect for
children’s rights throughtraining, advocacy and strengthening local
mecha-nisms of enforcement and dissemination.These activ-ities are
often combined with the delivery ofassistance and services to
address gaps in the rights ofspecific groups, such as girls,
minorities and childrenwith disabilities. Protection-related
elements areoften included in these activities, but not as
theirprimary aim.
Box 5: UN Security Council resolutions onchildren in
emergencies
A number of UN resolutions refer to the securityand protection
of children during emergencies.Resolutions 1261, 1314 and 1379 on
childrenand armed conflict mandate international actionto protect
the security and rights of children insituations of armed conflict.
Education is a part ofeach of these resolutions.
Resolution 1379 (2001) requests the agencies,funds and
programmes of the UN to:
• devote particular attention and adequateresources to the
rehabilitation of childrenaffected by armed conflict, particularly
theircounselling, education and appropriate voca-tional
opportunities, as a preventive measureand as a means of
reintegrating them intosociety; and
• promote a culture of peace, including throughsupport for peace
education programmes andother non-violent approaches to
conflictprevention and resolution.
Resolution 1314 (2000) reiterates the importanceof ensuring that
children continue to have accessto basic services, including
education, during theconflict and post-conflict periods.
Resolution 1261 (1999) stipulates ‘the provisionand
rehabilitation of medical and educationalservices to respond to the
needs of children, therehabilitation of children who have been
maimedor psychologically traumatised and
child-focusedmine-clearance and mine-awareness programmes’.
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The role of education inprotecting childrenWithin the
international humanitarian community,there are increasing calls for
education to play a role inenhancing child protection, both as a
service to besupported and delivered, and as an ‘enabling
right’which assists children in accessing their other
rights(Pigozzi, 1999). The Oslo/Hadeland conference onchild
protection in November 1998 claimed that‘Experience shows that
education has a preventiveeffect on recruitment, abduction and
gender basedviolence, and thereby serves as an important
protec-tion tool’ (NRC et al, 1998). In UNHCR’s GlobalConsultations
on International Protection, education
is similarly described as ‘an important protection
tool’.Materials produced by the ARC declare that educa-tion has a
‘direct protection function in monitoringthe development and
progress of children’ (UNHCRand Save the Children, 2000).
Certain aspects of education can inherently protectchildren: the
sense of self-worth that comes frombeing identified as a student
and a learner; the growthand development of social networks; the
provision ofadult supervision and access to a structured,
orderedschedule. Maintaining education and its ‘built-in’protective
components can thus provide vital conti-nuity and support for
children living through crisis.At the same time, education can
offer an adaptive
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Box 6: Factors protecting children
Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC) lists the following set
of protective factors that shield parents andchildren from the
worst effects of conflict and displacement (UNHCR and Save the
Children, 2000).
Characteristics, assets or resources of the individual•
cognitive competence – a reasonable level of intelligence, skills
in communication, or realistic
planning;• a positive sense of self-esteem, self-confidence and
self-control;• an active coping style rather than a passive
approach – a tendency to look to the future rather than to
the past; and• a sense of structure and meaning in the
individual’s life, often informed by religious or political
beliefs
or a sense of coherence.
The child’s immediate social environment • good and consistent
support and guidance from parents or other care-givers;• support
from extended family and friendship/community networks and teachers
and the re-establish-
ment of a normal pattern of daily life;• an educational climate
which is emotionally positive, open and supportive; and•
appropriate role models which encourage constructive coping.
Activities focused on addressingrights violations (primary
objective is providing protection)
Mixed activities aimed at respect for rights
Activities focused on fulfillingrights (aimed at need, but
includes protection-relatedobjectives)
Figure 1: A ‘continuum’ of child protection
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response, addressing some of the particular conditionsthat arise
from conflict.Thus, teaching in a conflict-affected environment can
pass on potentially life-saving information, or impart basic skills
in literacyand numeracy that may be crucial to a child’ssurvival.
Table 2 summarises some of the ways inwhich education may enhance
child protection.Theright-hand column in the table refers to the
relevantarticles in the Convention on the Rights of theChild.
Child-focused humanitarian activity in conflict situa-tions
tends to assist a relatively limited number ofchildren most
affected by the crisis.Vulnerable groupsmight include child
soldiers, separated children,
children living on the streets, the sick or malnour-ished, those
with a disability and child-headed house-holds.The urgency of their
predicament, along withtheir high profile and discrete numbers,
makes theman appealing focus. However, efforts that
targetvulnerable groups without taking into account theneeds of
their peers tend to create inequity and fosterresentment. Jane
Lowicki of the Women’sCommission for Refugee Women and
Childrenpoints out, for example, that in Sierra Leone anumber of
demobilisation projects have provided freeeducation to former child
soldiers. Non-combatantyoung people who are not able to attend
school seemto resent this; they see themselves as the real
victimsand as more deserving.
Physical protectionProvides a safe, structured places for learn
and play Articles 31, 38Reaches out to all children, without
discrimination Article 2Offers means to identify children with
special needs, such as experience of trauma Article 19or family
separationEngages children in positive alternatives to military
recruitment, gangs and drugs Articles 33, 38Care and supervision
can be provided by teachers, in consultation with the parent
Article 18or guardianOffers children basic knowledge of health and
hygiene Article 24Can improve children’s nutrition by the provision
of nutritious daily meals as part Article 27of school
feeding;Prepares children for appropriate work which is not harmful
or threatening their Articles 32, 34health or securityPsychosocial
protectionGives children an identity as students, averts inadequacy
felt by children out of school Article 28Provides a venue for
expression through play and cultural activities such as sports,
Article 13, 31music, drama, and artFacilitates social integration
of vulnerable children such as separated children and Article 20,
39former combatantsSupports social networks and community
interaction for children and their families Article 15Provides a
daily routine and offers a sense of the future beyond the immediacy
Article 38of war or conflictCognitive protectionHelps children to
develop and retain the academic skills of basic education, Article
28i.e. literacy and numeracy;Offers means for children to access
urgent life-saving health and security information; Article
17Furnishes children with knowledge of human rights and skills for
citizenship and Article 29living in times of peace;Strengthens
children’s evaluative skills in responding to propaganda and
disparate Article 14sources of information;Encourages young people
to analyse information, express opinions, and take Article 13action
on chosen issues
Table 2: The potential protective elements of education in
emergencies
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The international community isincreasingly aware that all
childrenliving in the midst of war arevulnerable and need
protection(Kastberg, 2002). Schools andrecreational activities can
bringsome elements of physical protec-tion to the majority of
children –providing a safe place to play,offering an alternative to
destruc-tive behaviour, giving access tonutritious meals or
providingregular adult supervision. Forchildren who have been
especiallyvictimised by the conflict, comingtogether for
educational activitiesmay make it easier to identifythose needing
special help, andprogrammes can be tailored totheir specific needs.
Follow-upwork to find children who do notattend school will further
aid inidentifying the at-risk, while education staff from
thecommunity can be invaluable in identifying childrenfacing
threats due to separation from their families,susceptibility to
military recruitment or experienceof sexual exploitation.They will
also understand theimpact of gender, ethnicity or disability on
childrenin their own community.
In terms of a child’s psychosocial health, educationoffers a
regular routine, opportunities for self-expres-sion and the chance
to engage with peers.The verystatus of ‘student’ can be valuable,
protecting a childfrom forced recruitment, or bolstering a sense
ofidentity and inclusion; in Liberia, for instance,
formercombatants sought to attend school to redefine them-selves as
something other than soldiers (HRW, 1994).By gathering children
together, educationprogrammes can support socialisation, establish
peernetworks and encourage children to understand andaccept views
other than their own (Tomas̆evski,2001). Regular routines enhance
children’s develop-ment and assist in their recovery from
conflict.Education activities are important in establishingdaily
schedules that create a familiar and comfortablerhythm and
establish a sense of structure and purpose(McCallin, 1999). For
families, schooling provides aschedule for the week, while also
marking specialtimes such as weekends, holidays and school
breaks.Achild’s attendance at school also grants parents thetime
and space to rebuild their livelihoods, re-estab-lish sources of
income, or simply come to terms withtheir experiences.
School attendance also encourages children to regainsome hope in
the prospect of a better future. Goals
such as completing homework, preparing for examsor completing a
school certificate, regular assign-ments and tests and rewards such
as gold stars andcelebrations at the end of term provide children
withachievable short-term and long-term objectives.These can be
essential when finding a reason tocontinue the struggle to live in
a conflict-affectedsociety. This sense of hope can extend into a
child’srelationship to the community. During conflicts,children
lose the sense of what it means to be a goodcitizen and how to live
in a non-confrontational way.In places where war has lasted for
years, somechildren will never have seen how a stable family
orcommunity functions. Education can respond to thisneed through
building children’s skills in listening,problem-solving and
conflict resolution (Baxter,2000).
Instruction also transmits vital basic skills, such asliteracy
and numeracy and the capacity for criticalthinking, as well as
imparting important information.In circumstances of crisis,
academic learning is not aluxury. Knowing how to read, write and do
basicmaths is essential for children in protecting them-selves.
Reading skills enable children to gather infor-mation about their
environment – whether fromsigns, newspapers, health brochures or
medicinebottles. Writing skills enable children to sign forservices
and write letters seeking assistance. Childrenmay need basic
mathematical skills to manage theirhousehold’s flow of money.
Research shows that children and adolescents in wardo not see
themselves as passive victims, but as ‘activesurvivors of
experience’ (Boyden and Levinson, 2001).
t h e r o l e o f e d u c a t i o n i n p r o t e c t i n g c h
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Classroom for displaced children in Burundi
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Every day, children make decisions about what is intheir best
interests based upon their knowledge andlife experience. Deciding
to volunteer for themilitary or to venture into a heavily landmined
areamay be logical decisions, based on need.
Children’sresponsibilities can also extend to caring for
youngersiblings, especially when separated from their
parents.Providing children with accurate information fromsources
that they can trust strengthens their ability tocope with conflict
at a practical level, to analyse situ-ations and make decisions. In
crisis situations, thou-
sands of children fall victim to dangers which simplehealth and
hygiene education could have prevented.In most cases, these
children are living in a new envi-ronment; they do not know the
location of land-mines, the importance of immunisation or hygiene
orhow to minimise the risk of a disease like HIV/AIDSand cholera.
They might not understand the conse-quences of sexual activity or
drug use. Education inschools is one of the most practical means
ofconveying the kind of messages that enable childrento make safe
decisions.
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Although education has long been an importantcomponent in
development work, its appearance onthe humanitarian agenda is
relatively recent; even adecade ago, few humanitarians considered
educationwithin their scope of action.Education had been seenas
neither indispensable to human survival norrequired for
subsistence. In recent years, however,attitudes have started to
change and education hasbegun to emerge as an issue of
humanitarianconcern.Thus, Machel called for ‘educational activityto
be established as a priority component of allhumanitarian
assistance’ (Machel, 1996).The absenceof education for children
dooms them to remainrecipients of assistance; the Humanitarian
Charterand its call for the right to life with dignity serves
tosupport the inclusion of education in humanitarianresponse
(Sphere Project, 2000).
Emergency education seeks to give shape and struc-ture to
children’s lives, preparing them with skills tosurvive conflict,
and promoting justice, stability andrespect for human rights. Its
aims tend to be three-fold: fulfilling a child’s right to education
in theimmediate response phase, mitigating the psychoso-cial
effects of conflict and achieving protection-related
objectives.
An increasing number of assistance agencies haveincluded
education as an emergency response.There is,however, no standard
definition of ‘education in emer-gencies’ at the inter-agency
level. In a 2002 review ofthe sector by Margaret Sinclair, a
long-time leader inthe field, emergency education was defined as
‘educa-tion specifically organised for emergency-affectedchildren
and young people … where children lack [orhave restricted] access
to their national educationsystems’. Its scope is not exclusive to
school systems;rather, emergency education can be seen as a
‘short-hand for schooling and other organised studies,together with
structured activities arranged for and
with children, young people, and adults’ (Sinclair,2002).These
other activities might include recreationaland cultural programmes,
human rights and peaceeducation, landmine awareness, HIV/AIDS
preven-tion, out-of-school literacy classes and skills
training.
The birth of a sectorEducation began to gain recognition in
humanitarianterms in the early 1990s, with initiatives such
as‘RAPID ED’, a working group which hosted a seriesof meetings on
emergency response; the NRC’scampaign to include education as the
‘fourth pillar’ ofhumanitarian response, in addition to food,
shelterand health care; a ‘Declaration on Principles ofEducation in
Emergencies and DifficultCircumstances’, proposed at the
Oslo/HadelandConference; and the Global Information Networksin
Education (GINIE), which serves as a ‘virtuallearning community’
for education innovation incountries in crisis and transition
(www.ginie.org).
Agencies continue to show a strong commitment toworking together
and developing the emergencyeducation sector. Two more recent
initiatives – theInteragency Network on Education in
Emergencies(INEE) and the Working Group on Standards forEducation
in Emergencies – facilitate information-sharing between
organisations and the establishmentof consensual standards for
education response.
The INEE was established at the InteragencyConsultation on
Education in Situations ofEmergency and Crisis, held in Geneva in
November2000.Against the backdrop of the Convention on theRights of
the Child, the EFA Declaration and theDakar Framework, the INEE
aims to ‘promote accessto and completion of education of high
quality for allpersons affected by emergencies, crises or
chronicinstability’. Its objectives are:
3
Humanitarian programming ineducation: an overview
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• to share knowledge and experience;• to promote greater donor
understanding of
education in emergencies;• to advocate for education to be
included in emer-
gency response;• to make teaching and learning responses
available
as widely as possible;• to ensure attention is paid to gender
issues in
emergency education initiatives;• to document and disseminate
best practices in the
field; and• to move towards consensual guidelines on educa-
tion in emergencies.
INEE’s members include UN organisations, interna-tional
agencies, national NGOs, research institutesand universities,
advocacy organisations, bilateralfunding agencies and national
governments. It is ledby a steering group comprising UNESCO,UNHCR,
UNICEF, CARE US, IRC, NRC and theSave the Children Alliance. It
operates four task teamscovering networking, materials, monitoring
and eval-uation, and post-primary education. The
website(www.ineesite.org) includes a set of guides for
goodpractice. INEE’s secretariat is based at UNESCO inParis.
From 2003, the INEE is to host the Working Groupon Standards for
Education in Emergencies. Thisgroup emerged from a meeting in March
2002organised by key NGOs – CARE, IRC, SC UK, SCUS, NRC and
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) – andinvolving a broad range of
non-governmental andUN agencies.The meeting identified a
commitmentto ensuring a level of quality and accountabilityamong
education programmes serving children andadolescents in situations
of crisis; and a belief thateducation in emergencies could not
remain outsidethe mainstream of humanitarian programming, butmust
be seen as a priority response. Inspired by theSphere model, the
Working Group on Standardsfollowed in January 2003, with
representatives fromten NGOs and three UN agencies. Developing
stan-dards is expected to take two years.
Agency efforts in emergencyeducationThis section offers an
overview of the main agenciesworking in the sector, and some of
their central activities.
UN agenciesThe main UN agencies involved in education
inemergencies are UNICEF, UNHCR and UNESCO(including its
institutes).WFP also plays an important
role in emergency education through its schoolfeeding
programme.
UNICEF protects the rights and best interests ofchildren living
in poverty in developing countries,including children affected by
armed conflict, whoare identified as a vulnerable group in need of
specialprotection. According to Pilar Aguilar, head of
theorganisation’s education responses in emergencies,UNICEF is
‘moving more towards working inter-sectorally’; to this end, it has
developed an integratedservices model in the form of
‘child-friendly spaces’.There is also a focus on rapid educational
response, asdemonstrated by UNICEF’s commitment to shipemergency
education and recreation kits within 72hours of an emergency. The
‘School-in-a-Box’supplies materials for up to 80 students and a
teacher.Contents include pens, pencils, chalkboards, chalkand
paints. Using a locally developed teaching guideand curriculum,
teachers can establish makeshiftclassrooms almost anywhere. In
2001, 19,000 kitswere delivered to over 30 countries. UNHCR
andUNICEF have a Memorandum of Understanding,which assigns UNICEF
the primary role for in-country situations, and UNHCR in refugee
situa-tions (Sinclair, 2002). This has helped to organiseoverall
response in recent emergencies.
UNHCR coordinates international action for theprotection of
refugees, part of which includesensuring primary education for all
refugee children(UNHCR, 2000). UNHCR’s Department forInternational
Protection (DIP) has included educa-tion in its recently-adopted
Agenda for Protection.UNHCR’s education work has included
developingcurricula initiatives in the areas of education forpeace,
conflict resolution and human rights, andenvironmental awareness.
However, the review ofUNHCR’s child-related efforts in 2002,
whileseeing education as one of the keys to ‘operational-ising’ the
protection function, warned that budgetreductions threatened this
capacity (ValidInternational, 2002).
UNESCO’s emergency education work emphasisesthe need to extend
support beyond the short term.The Programme for Education in
Emergencies andReconstruction (UNESCO PEER), based inNairobi, has
developed a set of mobile teaching-learning materials called the
Teacher EmergencyPackage (TEP). First established in Mogadishu
in1993, UNESCO PEER has expanded to the rest ofSomalia and
Somaliland, and the refugee camps inKenya, Djibouti, Yemen and
Ethiopia. It played aprincipal role in education response for the
Rwandancrisis (Devadoss et al, 1996).
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In 2002–2003, the UNESCO International Institutefor Educational
Planning (IIEP) and Section forSupport to Countries in Crisis and
Reconstructionare developing a joint programme to ‘build
govern-ments’ capacity to plan and manage education inemergencies’.
Beginning with the documentation ofcase studies that illustrate
different emergencyprofiles, researchers will review education
responsesin East Timor, Honduras, Kosovo, Palestine andRwanda. In
addition to drawing out lessons learnedand producing a series of
policy studies, materials willbe developed to conduct training with
ministries ofeducation (Talbot, 2002). Concurrently, theUNESCO
International Bureau of Education(UNESCO IBE) is undertaking a
study oncurriculum change and social cohesion in conflict-affected
societies (Tawil and Harley, 2002). Researchwill take place in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guatemala,Lebanon, Mozambique, Northern
Ireland, Rwandaand Sri Lanka.
The World Food Programme is the largest organiserof school
feeding programmes throughout the devel-oping world. In 2001, 15m
children were fed inschools in over 57 countries (WFP, 2003).
WFPprovides food for students and teachers, usually in theform of
school meals, as part of its emergencyresponse.WFP focuses on
increasing girls’ enrolment;in Pakistan, for instance, a programme
providingedible oil to girls was credited with increasing theschool
attendance of Afghan refugee girls (IASC,2002a).
The ICRCThe ICRC’s work in education ispart of its mandate under
theGeneva Conventions.The ExploringHumanitarian Law project
designscurriculum materials on interna-tional humanitarian law for
adoles-cents (Tawil, 2000). In selectedcrises, ICRC provides
assistance forschools, such as in the Mindanaoregion of the
Philippines, inChechnya and in Bosnia.
NGOsInternational NGOs working in theemergency education
sectorinclude the Academy for EducationDevelopment (AED),
CAREInternational, CRS, the ChristianChildren’s Fund (CCF), IRC,NRC
and the Save the ChildrenAlliance. A number of regional andlocal
NGOs also play a lead role inimplementing education response
in their areas of operation. As this group is vast, thissection
looks at the work of some of the more promi-nent agencies engaged
internationally.
IRC set up a Children and Armed Conflict Unit inthe wake of the
Machel Report of 1996. In 1999, thepost of education technical
advisor was established,and the scope of IRC’s work in this area
hascontinued to expand.With a focus on rapid responseand displaced
populations, IRC operates educationprojects in nearly 20 countries.
In Africa, it hasformed a protection consortium, which
includeseducation, along with CCF and Save the ChildrenUS. IRC will
host the focal point for the WorkingGroup on Standards.
The NRC includes education as one of its ‘fourpillars’ of
humanitarian response. It operatesNorwegian and African Standby
Forces, ready fordeployment in 72 hours, many of whom areseconded
to UN agencies. The NRC is operationalin 11 countries around the
globe, and has developedTeacher Education Packages and human
rightseducation programmes. NRC has been a majoradvocate of the
sector, and currently chairs the INEEsteering group.
In 2001, the International Save the Children Alliancebegan to
work closely together on strengtheningtheir education response.
Since then, a joint set oftraining materials has been prepared, and
shared prin-ciples for programming developed. Of the national
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A makeshift school in East Timor
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member organisations, Canada, Denmark, Norway,Sweden, the UK and
the US actively support educa-tion in emergencies. Save the
Children Sweden andNorway each maintain an Emergency Stand-by
Teamthat seconds community services officers, who lookinto
education as part of other social service-relatedneeds, to UNHCR
for three to six months. Save theChildren UK supports education in
around 30 coun-tries affected by emergencies, and has produced
aguide drawing on its experiences (Nicolai, 2003). In2002, the
agency hosted an emergency educationofficer for the Alliance. Save
the Children US imple-ments emergency education in some 24
crisis-affected countries. The agency has also produced afield
guide on education as part of a series onchildren in crisis
(Triplehorn, 2001).
Refugees represent a particular area of emergencyeducation
programming. Organisations with thisfocus include the Jesuit
Refugee Service (JRS),which works with refugees and displaced
people inover 40 countries, with special strength in Africa.
InNairobi, the JRS has what is probably the world’sonly resource
centre for education in emergencies,with material specifically
related to populations incrisis. The Refugee Education Trust,
established byUNHCR but now operating independently and
re-examining its role, was originally conceived as amajor refugee
education fund, channelling resourcesto those in the field engaged
in secondary and voca-
tional education. Finally, the Women’s Commissionfor Refugee
Women and Children advocates foreducation as essential to the
protection of childrenand adolescents affected by armed conflict.
It hasconducted participatory field studies among adoles-cents in
Kosovo, Uganda and Sierra Leone. It has alsoundertaken a global
survey on education in emergen-cies in an effort to build a
database detailing thesector’s scope of work.
DonorsBecause education has traditionally been seen as partof
development work, not humanitarian relief,humanitarian donors have
generally been reluctant tofund emergency education responses.
Moreover, fewbilateral donors have a policy specifically on
educa-tion in countries in, or emerging from, conflict. Anotable
exception is the Swedish agency Sida, whichhas produced guidelines
for humanitarian assistancein the education sector.These list the
right to educa-tion as the basis of grants, and highlight that
protec-tion can serve as a further justification for
educationprogrammes in humanitarian situations (Sida, 2002).
Other bilateral agencies have shown interest in thesector, and
have funded emergency educationprojects.The Norwegian aid
organisation NORAD,for example, has supported the sector through
itspartnership with the NRC emergency team. The
Box 7: Sida’s guidelines on humanitarian assistance in
education
Sida’s guidelines, Education in Situations ofEmergency, Conflict
and Post-conflict, state thatthe agency will consider:
1. Supporting countries in situations of emer-gency, conflict
and post-conflict to meet theeducation needs of children, young
peopleand adults.
2. Supporting and assisting Swedish, internationalor local NGOs
to build up capacity to inter-vene in the education sector.
3. Supporting various international networks andparticipating in
them in order to advocate theimportance of education.
4. Supporting UN agencies and other organisa-tions to deliver
education services andpromote long-term sectoral development.
5. Promoting and supporting research in this area.6. In
exceptional cases, supporting individual
scholarship funds/programmes.
Box 8: Education in emergencies: resource implications
Implementing successful educational programmesin poor areas is
expensive. Calculating these costs isnot, however, straightforward
at country level, letalone globally. According to the EFA
monitoringreport in 2002, Afghanistan’s projected educationsupport
requirements for 2002–2003 ranged from$70m to $437.5m. The report
estimated that, ifman-made crises or natural disasters caused a
25%increase in the annual costs of primary education injust four or
five countries, an extra half a billiondollars would be necessary
globally (UNESCO,2002).
Education programmes require continual support;in some cases,
they become more, rather thanless, expensive over time. Effective
educationprogrammes should give more children access toeducation,
and greater numbers of childrenshould be retained in the education
system. Thisrequires additional school staff, space, furnitureand
learning materials.
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UK’s Department for International Development(DFID) has explored
the impact of conflicts oneducation in a study partly meant to
inform internalpolicies on the subject. The US Agency
forInternational Development (USAID) and theBureau for Population,
Refugees and Migration(BPRM) have both shown signs of interest;
they aremajor funding sources especially for US NGOs, as isthe
Canadian International Development Agency(CIDA) for Canadian
agencies. ECHO has alsoshown a new openness to including this
sector in itswork.
Operational frameworksAs collaborative initiatives between
agencies advance,the best practices necessary to provide quality
educa-tion in times of crisis will become increasingly clear.Even
so, the diversity of crisis, agency mandates andfunding mean that
it will be impossible to putforward a generic approach to education
in emergen-cies. Factors such as the capacity and priorities of
thelocal or host government, the availability of facilitiesand the
presence or otherwise of pre-existing educa-tion systems and staff
will all influence implementa-tion decisions, as will the level of
distress and violencethe affected population has experienced. That
said,general frameworks have begun to emerge.
The phased approachThe phased approach to education in
emergenciesseeks to develop programming through the differentphases
of a crisis. The three-phase model of RapidEducational Response was
first proposed in a jointpublication by UNESCO, UNHCR and
UNICEF(Aguilar and Retamal, 1998). Suggested for use in the
initial months following large-scale displacement, thismodel
proposes that education in emergencies shouldfocus initially on
establishing recreationalprogrammes, which then move into
non-formaleducation and eventually the establishment of
formaleducation.This model includes the caveat that phasesmay be
implemented simultaneously, and implies thatat some point no
educational services exist forrefugee and displaced children.
The ‘Immediately, Sooner, Later’ matrix, a moredetailed model of
phased response developed bySinclair and Triplehorn, was proposed
as a flexibleguide for humanitarian actors’ educational
activities.This matrix includes the overarching themes ofprotection
and psychosocial support that were notaddressed in the earlier
model. Additionally, it positsthat, within emergency education,
there are certaincore areas – including academic subjects, life
skillsand capacity-building – all of which must beincluded
regardless of the context. Implementationfollows a general
progression, but is not bound to aspecific timeframe. (The
‘Immediately, Sooner, Later’matrix of response is in Annex 1, page
30.)
The child-centred approachWhile useful in articulating how
educationprogrammes can be rapidly implemented and howthey can
change over time, the phased models used inisolation focus on the
operations of the humanitarianagency, rather than the children and
their communi-ties. The ‘Circle of Learning’, proposed in work
forSave the Children, provides an alternative that putschildren at
the centre of the decisions determiningthe response (Nicolai,
2003). The accompanyingdiagram (Figure 2) provides an overview of
four
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Box 9: The phased approach in West Timor
At the height of the violence in East Timor in September 1999,
over 250,000 refugees poured over theborder into West Timor. Many
children were living in crowded camp environments, and few had
access tolocal schools which were already under-resourced. UNICEF,
along with its implementing partner theAtambua diocese of the
Catholic Church, began setting up ‘tent schools’ in camps.
The programme initially aimed at recreation and psychosocial
support. A modified Indonesian curriculumwas introduced, which
focused on literacy, mathematics and life skills. By mid-2000, when
over two-thirdsof the refugees had returned to East Timor, UNICEF
began negotiating with the district education authori-ties to enrol
refugee students within local schools, and for the local
authorities to take over managing someof the ‘tent schools’
(Jiyono, 2000). However, the murder of three UNHCR workers in
September 2000 andthe subsequent UN evacuation meant that no
support could be given to this process. As the ‘tent schools’had no
links to the formal system, most were soon closed. Six months
later, SC UK returned to West Timor,and found local schools
stretched far beyond their capacities. As it was no longer safe to
work within thecamps, the organisation focused on building capacity
within local schools to integrate refugee children.
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education approaches, which could potentially beimplemented
simultaneously:
• Support for existing governmental and commu-nity educational
systems and initiatives.
• Special measures to return children to school,such as
sensitisation and community-awarenesscampaigns for girls,
minorities and returningrefugees and IDPs and accelerated
learningprogrammes for young people and demobilised
child soldiers to help them achieve a recognisedlevel of
education, and where possible return tothe classroom.
• Out-of-school alternatives, like literacy and lifeskills
education for displaced children who do notplan to return to
school.
• Coordinating non-school-age programmes foryoung children and
adolescents, such as early child-hood education provided within
refugee camps, orvocational skills’ training for young
refugees.
Well-being ofthe child
• Cognitive• Psychosocial
Out-of-school alternatives
• Structured learning• Child-led initiatives
Non-school age programmes
• Adolescent education• Early childhood development
Measures toreturn childrento school• Advocacy for
access• Accelerated
learning programmes
• Short term relief
Existing education• State
structures• Community
board• School
committees
Figure 2: The ‘Circle of Learning’
This circle is geared to the provision of basic education, with
an emphasis on primary schooling. In many emergencies, there is an
overlap
between these interventions, for instance between ‘out of school
alternatives’ and ‘adolescent education and support’. Basic
education is
now often conceived of as primary and lower secondary, or about
ten years of schooling. With unclear age-group distinctions in
many
countries, it is not uncommon for adolescents to attend lower
grades than would normally be expected.
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Education programmes can protect children, butthey can also put
them at risk. While this paperargues that the protective benefits
of educationoutweigh the negatives, this is not proven andcannot be
applied to all situations. Recent humani-tarian interventions, in
West Africa, Guinea or SierraLeone, for example, have shown that
educationactivities may subject children to abuse, or makethem more
vulnerable to military recruitment.These risks deserve serious
attention, but theyshould not cause education to be discounted as
atool of protection. Programmes should be designedto enhance
education’s inherent protective aspects,while frankly and
simultaneously addressing thepotential risks.
Maximising the opportunitiesProtection is a developing field,
and humanitarianagencies have few frameworks to guide them in
integrating protection into their activities.The recentIASC
publication Growing the Sheltering Tree: ProtectingRights through
Humanitarian Action provides a possibleframework through a series
of practical field-basedexamples (IASC, 2002a). In encouraging an
inte-grated approach, the suggestions are structuredaround ‘four
pillars’ of protection based on sugges-tions first made by Diane
Paul (Paul, 1999).The fourareas identified as central to putting
protection intopractice are: leadership and collaborative work
inprotection; negotiating access to people under threatand ensuring
the right to humanitarian assistance;‘conscious’ presence (the
strategic implementation ofprogrammes to promote protection and
preventviolations); and programme process (assessment,planning and
evaluation).
Applying these areas specifically to education inemergencies and
its potential to enhance childprotection, this chapter
considers:
• the leadership potential within the educationstructures of
conflict-affected communities;
• education’s role in enhancing access for
vulnerablechildren;
• the importance of visible presence as a deterrentto violence
against children; and
• the role of teachers and schools in implementingeducation
efforts and gathering and giving outprotection-related
information.
Community leadershipA community’s concern for its children can
be one ofthe best protection resources, and can be reachedthrough
schools. Diane Paul, editor of Growing theSheltering Tree, suggests
that school representativescould act as a ‘protection liaison’,
providing a centralpoint for sharing information. Education
committeeswould make ideal allies in such a protection role;indeed,
they may themselves become an importantpsychosocial tool. In some
situations, such as theCommunity Education Committees in the
BeletWayne district of Somalia, committees have
receivedpsychosocial training to enable them to enhance
theirparenting skills to deal with traumatised childrenwithin their
community.
Education committees are likely to comprisecommunity leaders
with an interest in child protec-tion, as these are the same issues
that affect their ownchildren. The first role of the group should
be toencourage children to attend school, and parents toparticipate
in education activities. While they maynot initially be familiar
with the idea of protection,individuals from the committee could be
trained, inturn training others, on children’s rights, local laws
orthe identification of vulnerable children.
Education committees can potentially play a largerrole in
protection. As an example, humanitarianorganisations typically
include child rights in their
4
Strengthening the links betweeneducation and protection
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training of education committees; what is lacking,however, is
follow-up to make protection manifest.This lack of follow-up can
make school educationcommittees believe that their purpose is to
mobiliseresources to build the school or raise money, ratherthan
taking a more comprehensive view of providingfor the welfare of
their children. In Liberia, IRC-trained Parent Teacher Associations
(PTAs) identifiedstudents not attending school, and teachers
followedup with the individual families. For girls, this
wascommonly due to pregnancy; in some instances,PTAs were
instrumental in young mothers returningto school.
By their nature, education committees are well-placed to
identify allies and extend local networksconcerned with protection.
In Kosovo, where PTAswere poorly developed, the IRC supported
localwomen’s groups to conduct house-by-house surveysof the
educational needs of all the girls and women intheir villages. This
identified girls who had nevergone to school, as well as those
being prevented fromattending. In both instances, the women’s
groupsworked with local schools to develop appropriateprogrammes
and advocacy. In Rwanda, UNICEFdeveloped partnerships with
education committeesto identify at-risk children, as well as
potential inter-ventions. The Committees then developed
projectswhich linked education and protection. Examplesinclude
support for the education of orphans,domestic workers and
child-headed households, andaccelerated learning for children who
had droppedout of school or who had missed their first chance
ofenrolment (Baldah, personal communication).
Children can also take the lead in their own protec-tion, and
often address a wide range of education-focused goals through their
activities. At an Afghanrefugee camp in Bajaur Agency, Pakistan,
forexample, Save the Children supports groups ofchildren to
participate in ‘reflect-action’ circles toidentify their protection
concerns. Important issuestypically span a range of topics, from
latrines toearly marriages, but many centre around schooling.Thus,
the group brought its concerns aboutteaching aids being resold by
school staff in themarket to the attention of community leaders,
whohave since taken action (Save the Children, 2002).In Liberia,
Don Bosco facilitated the formation of achild protection network
through elections ofschool representatives, called junior
counsellors.This group prepared a detailed report of abuse
inschools, such as money or sexual favours beingexchanged for good
grades. The report led to thedismissal of many teachers and the
introduction ofcodes of conduct for teachers and students(McCauley,
undated).
Facilitating accessWhen providing protection, access to
vulnerablechildren is vital.This is usually thought of in terms
ofhumanitarian space: the use of aid to reach vulnerablepeople and
so increase a sphere of influence.UNICEF, for example, has promoted
the concept ofchildren as ‘zones of peace’ and facilitated
ceasefiresor ‘days of tranquillity’ that enable the provision
ofservices to children. In the DRC, initiatives such asthese have
enabled students in rebel-held areas to sitfor state exams
(Kastberg, 2002).
In education, access also means such issues as schoolenrolment
and attendance. In conflict areas, this maybe acutely difficult as
‘many children who should bein school are hard to find, hard to get
into school, andit is hard to make sure they remain there
untilcompleting, at the very least, their primary
education’(Sommers, 2002). Whatever their source, barriers
tochildren attending school are indicative of largerprotection
issues – discrimination, security, poverty orgeographic isolation.
Education programmes need tobe aware of obstacles to access, and
incorporatestrategies to overcome them. Thus, emergencysupport may
seek to eliminate barriers such as schoolfees or difficulties
around non-payment of teachers orlack of equipment, for example,
thus facilitatingaccess for children who might not otherwise be
ableto fully participate. The concentration of peoplewithin refugee
camps may offer an opportunity toexpand educational access to
children who previously
Box 10: ‘Child-Friendly Spaces’
Developing designated safe areas in the aftermathof acute crisis
can be an important mechanism ofprotection for children. In refugee
camps, forexample, the simple demarcation of an area withrope,
plastic tape or stones can preserve a spacefor children that can
later be developed into aschool or a playing area. UNICEF’s ‘Child
FriendlySpaces’ provide integrated educational, healthand social
support services for conflict-affectedfamilies. The concept was
first used in 1999 in theKosovar refugee camps in Albania
andMacedonia. While school classes and recreationserved as core
activities, the model offered astructure for ensuring that other
children’sservices, such as early childhood care, psychoso-cial
counselling, infant feeding, nutritionalsupport, basic health care
and hygiene, wereavailable. The concept has subsequently
beenadapted for use in Afghanistan, Angola, EastTimor, El Salvador,
Guinea, Kosovo, Liberia andTurkey (Siegrist 2002, personal
communication).
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did not have it due to poverty or a lack of schools intheir
areas. Sometimes, the challenge can be as basicas a failure to
recognise a school as a school. InTanzania, for instance, it took
two years for thegovernment to permit refugees from Burundi
toreceive ‘formal’ primary education. Previously,schools in the
refugee camps had been referred to asChild Activity Centres, which
were not able toprovide children with the same certification as
formalschooling. The government still does not allowrefugee
children to receive formal secondary educa-tion (Eversmann,
undated).
Presence as preventionPresence, most commonly understood as
thepresence of outside observers, can offer a sort of‘protecting
witness’ for civilian populations. In theprotection lexicon, this
means that internationalwitnesses are on the scene (IASC, 2002a).
Thus,visible support of schools and safe areas places
theparticipating children under the protective umbrellaof the
supporting organisations.This presence, shownthrough agency
stickers and flags and by monitoringin marked humanitarian
vehicles, may be a deterrentfor individuals or parties wanting to
harm children.
Local groups or communities may play this rolethemselves. In Sri
Lanka, for example, the LTTE wasless likely to conscript children
from areas whereinternational organisations were involved with
localpartners (Shutta, personal communication, 2002).Although
international actors were not physicallypresent at all times, it
was clear that local groups werein easy contact with them.
Similarly, in Kosovo IRC
and CCF sought to generatecommunity support for the educa-tion
of Roma children. This tookmany forms: in some communi-ties, Roma
children were escortedto school by other children; inmore hostile
areas they wereescorted by parents. Both organisa-tions also sought
to include theRoma in wider community activi-ties, such as sport or
cultural activ-ities like dance.
Assessment, dissemination,reporting and monitoringMulti-sectoral
assessment shouldinclude an effort to understand thecapacities of
existing communityservices, such as schools.This helpsto identify
where the internationalcommunity is not needed, andareas where
support can be offeredfor a limited period of time. As a
means of identifying potential violations and threats,OHCHR’s
training manual on human rights moni-toring states that the
assessment of children’s rightsshould include reference to the role
of ‘structures’,including ‘access to schools and health care;
thestrength of immediate and extended family struc-tures; and the
effectiveness of government ministrieswith responsibility for
issues affecting children.Analyses should be aware of both modern
and tradi-tional structures’ (OHCHR, 2001). Humanitarianactors
should also survey beneficiary communities todetermine protection
concerns.
Educational activities can ensure daily attention ispaid to
children. In this respect, education differsfrom health programmes
that monitor only the sick,and from food-distribution programmes
with theirperiodic character. Teachers at schools are aware
ofchildren’s needs and can facilitate screening forchildren who
require special assistance. If children donot come to school,
teachers should be asking wherethey are – and following up.Teachers
can also provideinformation about:
• where families can be registered, or where a childtracing form
can be submitted;
• how to obtain medical and social services, andinformation on
food distributions;
• where to report crimes, including general
securityinformation;
• news from home, such as the current status ofpeace
negotiations;
• announcements from community groups, such aswomen’s group
meetings; and
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Literacy classes in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan
© Jam
es Barabazon, 2001
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• human rights education, on such instruments asthe Convention
on the Rights of the Child or theRefugee Convention, translated and
explained.
If the proper mechanisms exist, teachers and studentscan report
abuses, rights violations or generalconcerns. Essential to any such
process is trust, confi-dentiality and follow through on the part
of theagency. Because this could potentially become toopolitical or
unsafe, proper oversight is important. InPakistan, IRC’s protection
unit learned of domesticviolence from the agency’s extensive
teachernetwork. Teachers knew that the abuse washappening, but did
not know where to go or what todo with the information. Women’s
centres wereeventually created to help deal with this issue
(Smith,2002, personal communication). In early 2003, the
IRC piloted a protection reporting form for teachers(see Annex
2).
Monitoring educational activities can provide abarometer of
children’s protection needs in the largercommunity. For example,
marked drops in the atten-dance of girls could be an indicator of
stress, if scarcefinancial resources lead families to invest in
boys overgirls. In some countries, UNICEF maintainsdatabases of
children enrolled in school to provideinformation to monitor and
prevent recruitment(Mahalingam, 2002). This kind of monitoring
needsto happen at the local level; collecting national orregional
statistics has limited direct effect on childprotection.The value
of monitoring lies in empow-ering local communities to identify
issues and themeans to address them. If the government or an
Box 11: Assessment questions which link education and
protection
Protecting children is often guided by knowing what to look for
and what questions to ask. The followingare a series of questions
that may be asked of children, parents, education officials and
leaders to identifylinks between protection and education.
Education and protection needs• How has the conflict affected
education? Where are children presently learning? Have school
opera-
tions been affected by the conflict, by closures, double shifts
or home schooling, for example? Can theinternational community
reach all of these sites?
• Do education activities exist? Who does and does not attend
them? Why? Is it because of the languageof instruction,
discriminatory messages by teachers or textbooks, a lack of
accreditation, the need towork, discrimination, disability?
• Do children urgently need vital information to protect
themselves, for instance on HIV/AIDS, familyplanning or landmine
awareness?
• Do children have access to opportunities to earn a living
through vocational education and apprentice-ships?
• Is the area safe? Is it cleared of landmines or unexploded
ordnance? Does learning occur in a struc-turally-sound building
with sufficient sanitation facilities?
Educational and protection capacity• Does attendance protect or
endanger children? Are children at risk when they are in or
travelling to
educational activities?• Are teachers and facilitators trained?
Who monitors their work? Would they be interested in further
training?• Is the community involved in providing education?
What is their role in child protection? What types of
cases have they dealt with? How inclusive is the participation?
Which sections of the community areinvolved, and which are not?
What groups work with children, aside from those associated
withschools? Can activities be linked?
• What systems are in place to monitor child protection issues,
such as student attendance and matricu-lation data? Who interprets
and