Standard 2: Resources

Community resources include the cultural, intellectual, linguistic, monetary, and material resources in a community. Examples of this are technological infrastructure related to distance education, such as radio or mobile phone coverage, and internet access and connectivity. When designing and planning an education response, education authorities and humanitarian actors should identify and analyze the locally available resources to work out how they can contribute to the response. It is important to recognize a community’s local and indigenous knowledge systems. A social audit or capacity assessment can help identify what local resources are available. It is important not to overwhelm communities, and to provide support as requested to manage incoming financial and material resources so they can provide the maximum benefit to the community. However, community resources are not a replacement for the national authorities’ legal responsibility to protect and fulfill the right to education.

Community resources can contribute to education in several ways, such as providing physical spaces for ECD centers, schools, and other learning environments, and the material and labor needed to build, maintain, and repair them. Communities also play an important role in promoting protection and supporting the emotional, physical, social, and cognitive wellbeing of learners, teachers and other education personnel, and parents and caregivers. This includes providing sufficient compensation to help teachers maintain their practice, motivation, and wellbeing. Although the national authorities have the ultimate responsibility for managing appropriate teacher compensation, in some cases communities can mobilize what resources are available to support teachers, such as in-kind or cash compensation gathered by the community education committee (for more guidance, see INEE Guidance Note on Psychosocial Support; INEE Guidance Note on Teacher Wellbeing in Emergency Settings).

To provide and monitor transparency and accountability, it is essential to keep records of the resources communities mobilize. Monitoring must include mechanisms that safeguard children, such as those that identify and track practices that may harm or exploit children, such as child labor. Other important indicators are those that identify and track instances where women or socially or economically marginalized groups are unfairly relied on to perform tasks or provide resources (for more guidance, see Minimum Standards for Child Protection).

Community resources can improve the safety of, access to, and quality of education. Education authorities, the local community, and humanitarian actors should encourage community members to identify and help vulnerable children and young people gain access to learning opportunities and continue to higher education levels.

Communities and education authorities should work together to make schools, ECD centers, and other learning environments safe and protective places for children and young people. This can include organizing safe access and transportation, and reaching out to those living in isolated and remote areas. Community members can help teachers by serving as classroom assistants or school focal persons, or by taking on non-teaching tasks like preparing resources. Learners will benefit from having community members of all genders serve as ECD caregivers and classroom assistants, or from having them provide security support to ensure that all learners will be safe on the way to and from school. Providing childcare in learning spaces can help caregivers, particularly girls and young women who are mothers or are caring for younger siblings, to continue their education. Young children also benefit from having both female and male early childhood caregivers. Communities and other stakeholders should ensure that strong role models of all genders are involved across the learning continuum (for more guidance, see INEE Guidance Note on Gender).

Where distance education programs are being used, neighbors, extended family, and siblings can help support both teachers and learners. For example, the community can provide homes or community spaces as learning centers. Bringing this about may first require raising community awareness about the benefits of and support needed to provide distance education (for more guidance, see INEE Background Paper on Distance Education in Emergencies).

In areas where formal education opportunities that meet the needs and demands of young people are not available, the community can advocate for non-formal education programs. This might include accelerated education, catch-up classes, lessons in basic literacy and numeracy, TVET, and small business development training. To ensure that non-formal education programs are recognized, the education authorities should lead their design, with support from the community. Where relevant, development and humanitarian partners should also be involved in developing these programs (for more guidance see Minimum Economic Recovery Standards, Enterprise and Market Systems Development Standards).

When education authorities or other stakeholders plan, implement, and report on activities, they should include information on community contributions. Strong community contribution shows a sense of ownership and helps create long-term support. However, contributions from the community should not be a condition for receiving support, as the national authorities have a legal responsibility to fulfill the right to education.

It is important that children and young people, especially those from marginalized groups, participate in the design and needs assessment stages of education planning. Stakeholders should encourage and recognize their participation in and contributions to peer education, community mobilization, and community development initiatives.

National authorities, the local community, and humanitarian actors should use local resources to develop, adapt, and share information on DRR education and community response preparedness. When community resources are used to develop, adapt, and deliver education, it is important to draw from and strengthen positive local coping strategies, technical and scientific knowledge, and capacities for disaster risk management. For example, engaging community members and using local materials to design, rebuild, or retrofit learning environments makes it easier for the community to take responsibility for maintaining these spaces over the long term. Local and indigenous knowledge of the land and how to adapt to environmental changes can support DRR, building resilience, and sustainable development.

When actors mobilize resources in an environment where resources are scarce, they must adhere to conflict sensitive and “do no harm” principles (for more guidance, see INEE Guidance Note on Conflict Sensitive Education). To assess whether resources are being mobilized in conflict sensitive ways, it is important to consider the following:

• Who is providing the resource
• How the resource affects the relationship between the education activity and dynamics of the conflict or crisis
• How the resource will affect the provision of equal and equitable access to education for all learners