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Report
UN mission calls for funding amid Ethiopia education disruption
FRANCE 24 English
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12/10/2024
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00:00
We're going to turn our focus to Ethiopia now, where climate change, civil conflict
00:05
and forced displacement are all contributing to an alarming education crisis for children
00:10
in the country.
00:11
Authorities from the Education Cannot Stop, a global fund for education in emergencies
00:17
and protracted crises, are calling on the world to find innovative financing solutions
00:23
to deliver quality education for millions of children in Ethiopia.
00:27
An estimated nine million children are out of schools across Ethiopia.
00:32
That's three times the number from 2022.
00:35
Let's talk to Education Cannot Wait's Executive Director Yasmin Sharif now, who joins us from
00:41
New York.
00:42
Thank you so much for joining us on the programme, Yasmin.
00:45
So you've just come back from a mission to the Tigray region in Ethiopia.
00:50
Tell us what you saw while you were there.
00:52
Thank you very much, Inka, for having me here.
00:54
We just returned after a week in the Tigray region.
00:59
And as you know, it has previously been subjected to a conflict and there has been destruction
01:07
of schools, damage of schools, internally displaced.
01:11
However, returning now and seeing the conflict coming to an end and the early recovery was
01:20
quite a hopeful experience.
01:22
We visited five different schools where Education Cannot Wait, a global fund for education in
01:28
the UN system, has made investments in UN agencies, local organisations, together with
01:35
the government, and we see schools up and running again.
01:38
Well, tell us the work that your organisation is doing to get children back into schools
01:43
there.
01:44
Well, basically, as a UN entity, we work with agencies such as UNICEF and organisations
01:54
such as Save the Children and local organisations such as Imagine One World, together with the
01:59
government and local administration and communities, to create a holistic approach to education
02:06
so that every child can go to a school that has been repaired or rehabilitated, infrastructure
02:13
that has trained teachers, that has academic training, that has water and sanitation, mental
02:19
health and psychosocial services, arts and sports.
02:23
And by having several actors working together, our job is to invest funding and finance these
02:31
investments and make sure that they are learning outcomes, they actually learn something while
02:37
they also heal. And it also serves as a protection mechanism for these young children.
02:42
Well, Yasmin, let's focus on the funds that you are calling on the world to provide now.
02:47
You're calling for massive cash infusions to help children in Ethiopia get back into
02:53
school. Tell us how these funds will help the crisis in Ethiopia.
02:59
Thank you. It's a very important question because we are a global fund, so financing
03:05
education is our top priority and being a catalyst so our colleagues on the ground can do
03:10
the work together with the government.
03:12
In Ethiopia alone, there are nine million children out of school and we have reached
03:20
already over half a million children and we made an investment of an additional five
03:28
million dollars to the previous 93 million that will add an extra 50,000.
03:33
But you can see it's very small steps forward.
03:37
If we want to reach nine million children and return them back to school, we are speaking
03:43
about hundreds of millions of dollars and that's for Ethiopia alone.
03:48
All over the world, there are 224 million children not experiencing or accessing a
03:54
quality education in crisis.
03:56
Yeah, that's quite a shocking statistic, Yasmin.
03:59
Tell us about the wider obstacles for children, you know, away from the funds that are
04:06
needed. What are the wider obstacles for children in Ethiopia to get back into schools?
04:13
I mean, now in Ethiopia, we see recovery and we see Tigray region has calmed down and
04:20
allowing the children to return to school.
04:22
But you still have conflict areas going on, impacted by conflict in Oromia and the Afar
04:29
region. And that's where we just put in five million dollars in emergency funding.
04:35
And then you have climate disasters.
04:38
You have flooding.
04:39
You have drought.
04:40
There's an extreme poverty and economic strain.
04:43
And Ethiopia is also the third largest refugee hosting country in Africa after Uganda and
04:50
Kenya, with one million refugees.
04:53
And the majority of the refugees are children in school age or in preschool age.
04:59
You have 200,000 new refugees arriving from Somalia and Sudan that need to access the
05:05
public school system and which the government, of course, offers.
05:10
But it's an enormous strain on a country that already has nine million out of school and
05:15
every refugee has a right to an education.
05:17
So these are some of the challenges.
05:20
And if they don't go to school, they will be drafted into militia groups.
05:25
The girls will be married away before the age of 18, unwanted pregnancies, sexual
05:31
violence. So we are exposing them to severe risks unless we can get them back to school.
05:37
Yeah, those are very heartbreaking scenarios you described there.
05:41
Yasmeen, it's great to get your insights on what is a very pressing issue.
05:45
Thanks so much for joining us on the programme.
05:47
That's Yasmeen Sharif, who is Education Cannot Stop, Cannot Wait, excuse me, the
05:53
executive director from that organisation speaking to us there.
05:58
Well, it's time for our daily focus report.
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