UN mission calls for funding amid Ethiopia education disruption

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00:00We're going to turn our focus to Ethiopia now, where climate change, civil conflict

00:05and forced displacement are all contributing to an alarming education crisis for children

00:10in the country.

00:11Authorities from the Education Cannot Stop, a global fund for education in emergencies

00:17and protracted crises, are calling on the world to find innovative financing solutions

00:23to deliver quality education for millions of children in Ethiopia.

00:27An estimated nine million children are out of schools across Ethiopia.

00:32That's three times the number from 2022.

00:35Let's talk to Education Cannot Wait's Executive Director Yasmin Sharif now, who joins us from

00:41New York.

00:42Thank you so much for joining us on the programme, Yasmin.

00:45So you've just come back from a mission to the Tigray region in Ethiopia.

00:50Tell us what you saw while you were there.

00:52Thank you very much, Inka, for having me here.

00:54We just returned after a week in the Tigray region.

00:59And as you know, it has previously been subjected to a conflict and there has been destruction

01:07of schools, damage of schools, internally displaced.

01:11However, returning now and seeing the conflict coming to an end and the early recovery was

01:20quite a hopeful experience.

01:22We visited five different schools where Education Cannot Wait, a global fund for education in

01:28the UN system, has made investments in UN agencies, local organisations, together with

01:35the government, and we see schools up and running again.

01:38Well, tell us the work that your organisation is doing to get children back into schools

01:43there.

01:44Well, basically, as a UN entity, we work with agencies such as UNICEF and organisations

01:54such as Save the Children and local organisations such as Imagine One World, together with the

01:59government and local administration and communities, to create a holistic approach to education

02:06so that every child can go to a school that has been repaired or rehabilitated, infrastructure

02:13that has trained teachers, that has academic training, that has water and sanitation, mental

02:19health and psychosocial services, arts and sports.

02:23And by having several actors working together, our job is to invest funding and finance these

02:31investments and make sure that they are learning outcomes, they actually learn something while

02:37they also heal. And it also serves as a protection mechanism for these young children.

02:42Well, Yasmin, let's focus on the funds that you are calling on the world to provide now.

02:47You're calling for massive cash infusions to help children in Ethiopia get back into

02:53school. Tell us how these funds will help the crisis in Ethiopia.

02:59Thank you. It's a very important question because we are a global fund, so financing

03:05education is our top priority and being a catalyst so our colleagues on the ground can do

03:10the work together with the government.

03:12In Ethiopia alone, there are nine million children out of school and we have reached

03:20already over half a million children and we made an investment of an additional five

03:28million dollars to the previous 93 million that will add an extra 50,000.

03:33But you can see it's very small steps forward.

03:37If we want to reach nine million children and return them back to school, we are speaking

03:43about hundreds of millions of dollars and that's for Ethiopia alone.

03:48All over the world, there are 224 million children not experiencing or accessing a

03:54quality education in crisis.

03:56Yeah, that's quite a shocking statistic, Yasmin.

03:59Tell us about the wider obstacles for children, you know, away from the funds that are

04:06needed. What are the wider obstacles for children in Ethiopia to get back into schools?

04:13I mean, now in Ethiopia, we see recovery and we see Tigray region has calmed down and

04:20allowing the children to return to school.

04:22But you still have conflict areas going on, impacted by conflict in Oromia and the Afar

04:29region. And that's where we just put in five million dollars in emergency funding.

04:35And then you have climate disasters.

04:38You have flooding.

04:39You have drought.

04:40There's an extreme poverty and economic strain.

04:43And Ethiopia is also the third largest refugee hosting country in Africa after Uganda and

04:50Kenya, with one million refugees.

04:53And the majority of the refugees are children in school age or in preschool age.

04:59You have 200,000 new refugees arriving from Somalia and Sudan that need to access the

05:05public school system and which the government, of course, offers.

05:10But it's an enormous strain on a country that already has nine million out of school and

05:15every refugee has a right to an education.

05:17So these are some of the challenges.

05:20And if they don't go to school, they will be drafted into militia groups.

05:25The girls will be married away before the age of 18, unwanted pregnancies, sexual

05:31violence. So we are exposing them to severe risks unless we can get them back to school.

05:37Yeah, those are very heartbreaking scenarios you described there.

05:41Yasmeen, it's great to get your insights on what is a very pressing issue.

05:45Thanks so much for joining us on the programme.

05:47That's Yasmeen Sharif, who is Education Cannot Stop, Cannot Wait, excuse me, the

05:53executive director from that organisation speaking to us there.

05:58Well, it's time for our daily focus report.

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