With nearly 8 million children out of school due to emergencies alone, ECW calls of donors to urgently increase funding for life-saving quality education in Ethiopia. Save the Children and a consortium of international and local partners will deliver the three-year programme in coordination with the Government of Ethiopia.
Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and its strategic partners announced today a US$24 million catalytic grant to scale-up the impact of the Fund’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Ethiopia, which has already reached close to half a million children.
Total ECW funding in Ethiopia now tops US$88 million, and ECW called on donors to significantly expand funding for education in Ethiopia and across the Horn of Africa.
“Ethiopia is facing a humanitarian crisis caused by conflict, climate change, forced displacement and economic stresses. The humanitarian funding gap for education is significant and, as a result, 8 million children are out of school. Without access to an education, they risk child marriage, forced recruitment, killing and maiming. This is the very reason we today announce an additional $24 million catalytic investment. However, our investment alone does not meet the needs of 8 million crisis-affected girls and boys and thus we call for the public sector and private sector to contribute with financial resources to this well-coordinated and holistic multi-year education programmme,” said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait, the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations.
These compounding challenges are deepening the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia and across the Horn of Africa. In all, approximately 21.4 million people urgently need humanitarian support in Ethiopia alone.
Prior to this most-recent contribution by ECW and its strategic donor partners, only 12% of the US$101 million required for the education response was funded, according to the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan.
The three-year ECW grant seeks to crowd-in more resources from donors, the private sector and philanthropic foundations to reach over 170,000 crisis-impacted girls and boys in Ethiopia’s hard-hit Amhara, Somali and Tigray regions.
Built in coordination with the Government of Ethiopia, the grant will be led by Save the Children with a consortium of international and local partners, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Humanity and Inclusion, Development Expertise Committee, OWS-DF, Tigray Development Association, and Forum for African Women Educationalist. In building on the commitments outlined in the Grand Bargain Agreement, local organizations will receive approximately 50% of the total budget.
“Save the Children is committed to working with the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia, our partners and other stakeholders to address both conflict and climate-induced challenges and other stressors, which are disrupting access to education for millions of girls and boys. We are jointly working to strengthen coordination and collaboration at all levels and ensure coherent, aligned responses for children that get them back to learning in flexible, appropriate, and safe learning environments. Closing gaps in financing of education is a matter of urgency, and we strongly call upon the support of all stakeholders,” said Dragana Strinic, Country Director at Save the Children Ethiopia.
The grant will increase access and retention of out-of-school girls and boys – including internally displaced people, returnees, host community, refugee, and children with disabilities – into non-formal education, improve the quality of foundational learning, support girls and boys to transition from non-formal accelerated programmes to formal education, and improve coordination mechanisms across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.
ECW and its strategic partners are racing to mobilize US$600 million in additional resources to reach the targets outlined in the Fund’s four-year strategic plan. By crowding-in resources, this continued support will accelerate the United Nations’ efforts to deliver on the promise of universal, equitable education as outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
