G7 Call for International Cooperation to Protect Children’s Right to Education in Emergencies and Crises

COVID-19, climate-induced disasters, the Afghanistan crisis, the Ukraine conflict, and other forgotten crises – threats against global stability and security are at extraordinary highs and projected to worsen.

Communities, families, and children are suffering at unprecedented levels, with basic securities being stripped from them, often in the blink of an eye. Essential services like education, health, and child protection are deteriorating, or sometimes abruptly disappearing, only further exacerbating related refugee crises and challenging recovery efforts.

G7 members must urgently invest in better futures and SDG 4 by increasing international cooperation to protect the right to education of all children and learners from being disrupted by crisis and establish safe, inclusive, gender-responsive, quality education and lifelong learning systems that are resilient to emergencies and crises like COVID-19, climate change, and conflict.

Resilient education systems

G7 members must support the strengthening and transformation of quality education systems to be resilient against emergencies and crises like COVID-19, climate change, and conflict.

• Anticipatory and adaptive education: Integrate disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness measures into education sector  planning, including climate change learning and adaptation, and prioritise education in emergency  planning and response in consultation with children, youth, and communities to build resilient education systems.
• Child safety and wellbeing: Increase support to early childhood education and  development programmes, mental health and psychosocial support, social and emotional learning, and uninterrupted school meal programmes, and strengthen prevention, reporting, and referral mechanisms to mitigate sexual and gender-based violence, early pregnancy, and harmful practices against girls, particularly child marriage and FGM, especially in areas at risk of conflict or insecurity.
• Learning recovery and acceleration: Prioritise the retention and remuneration of teachers and their safe and healthy working conditions, and increase equitable access to high, low-, and no-tech remote learning solutions, non-formal and community-based education, and accelerated learning and catch-up programmes, particularly for foundational literacy and numeracy.

Gender equality and marginalised groups

G7 members must support the establishment of gender- responsive, crisis-resilient education systems with and for all children – with a focus on the most marginalised groups, particularly girls and children with disabilities.

• Child participation: Consult children, youth, teacher organisations, organisations of persons with disabilities, parents, communities, and other organisations that can bring children’s perspectives into education and emergency response planning to ensure that design and implementation meet the needs of all children.
• Marginalised groups:  Strengthen  data  systems and approaches to more successfully identify and ensure the targeted inclusion of marginalised children and youth – including girls, children and youth with disabilities, pregnant girls and young mothers, refugees and forcibly displaced children and youth, and indigenous groups – in education, health, and child protection systems and services, particularly during times of crisis and conflict and in response plans and interventions.
• Girls’ education: Fulfill G7 commitments to support 40 million more girls in school by 2026 in low and lower-middle-income countries and 20 million more girls reading by age 10 or the end of primary school in low and lower-middle-income countries by 2026, including by recruiting and training an additional 1.8 million teachers.

Accountability and financing

G7 members must mobilise public and private investments to increase predictable yet flexible multi-year funding for education with an aim to strengthen the humanitarian-development nexus and harmonise acute emergency response with longer-term education system resilience.

• Continuity of G7 education commitments: Ensure continued progress, financing, and accountability to the G7 2018 Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education for Girls, G7 2021 Declaration on Girls’ Education, and the COP26 Glasgow Climate Pact.
• Protection of education budgets: Protect education and lifelong learning systems from budget cuts during times of crisis and emergency, and ensure resources are allocated equitably, effectively, and efficiently.
• ODA to education: Increase G7 ODA to education and allocate a minimum of 10 percent of humanitarian funding to education in order to fulfill G7 education commitments, including by committing a minimum  of  $1.5  billion  to  Education Cannot Wait’s new strategic plan and filling the unmet $1.2 billion  resource  needs  of  the Global Partnership for Education. Ensure education foreign assistance reaches communities abroad, is protected from diversion to domestic assistance, and increases proportionally alongside defence spending.

Endorsed by:

1. 100 Million Campaign
2. ActionAid International
3. Action for Development
4. Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)
5. All-Africa Students Union (AASU)
6. Amal Alliance
7. Amnesty International
8. Association d’Aide à l’Éducation de l’Enfant Handicapé (AAEEH)
9. AVSI Foundation
10. BRAC
11. Canadian International Education Policy Working Group (CIEPWG)
12. Canadian Luthern World Relief
13. Campagna Globale per la Educazione (Italy)
14. Christoffel-Blindenmission /Christian Blind Mission (CBM)
15. Coalition Éducation (France)
16. Code (Canada)
17. Education Cannot Wait
18. Education for All Coalition
19. Education for All Somalia Coalition (EFASOM)
20. Education International (EI)
21. FHI 360
22. Finn Church Aid
23. Fondation Paul Gérin-Lajoie
24. Frontline AIDS
25. Gewerkschaft Erziehung une Wissenschaft (GEW)
26. Globale Bildungskampagne (Germany)
27. Global Campaign for Education
28. Global Campaign for Education – The Netherlands
29. Global Campaign for Education – United States (US)
30. Global Citizen
31. Global Partnership for Education (GPE)
32. Global Student Forum (GSF)
33. Helpcode Switzerland
34. Humanitarian Development Partnerships
35. Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)
36. International Parliamentary Network for Education (IPNEd)
37. International Rescue Committee (IRC)
38. Japan NGO Network for Education (JNNE)
39. Kindernothilfe
40. LEGO Foundation
41. Light for the World
42. Malala Fund
43. Oxfam
44. Plan International
45. RESULTS UK
46. Right to Education Initiative
47. Right to Play International
48. Save the Children
49. Send My Friend to School (UK)
50. Sesame Workshop
51. She’s the First
52. Sightsavers
53. Street Child
54. UNESCO
55. UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report
56. UNICEF
57. United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI)
58. University of Virginia Humanitarian Collaborative
59. VSO International
60. War Child
61. Wellspring Foundation (Canada)
62. WeWorld (Italy)
63. World Food Programme (WFP)
64. World Vision
65. ZOA

This Call to Action is available in English, Arabic, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.