Standard 19: Planning and Implementation

Formal and non-formal education programs should be in line with national and international legal frameworks and policies and meet the needs of all learners. Programs should ensure that education access, the curriculum, and teaching and learning are inclusive and non-discriminatory.

ESPs and other national and local education plans should prepare for and respond to future and current emergencies. They should include emergency preparedness plans and contingency plans. Contingency plans should be appropriate to the context and, where possible, include early warning systems for natural hazards and conflicts. Emergency preparedness and contingency planning should be an inclusive process. Policy-makers and education stakeholders must identify the needs of vulnerable and marginalized groups and make sure they are reflected in these plans. Community participation in contingency or response planning is important so that the perspectives and needs of different groups in the community are addressed. This will also strengthen the community’s sense of ownership, awareness, and commitment to EiE activities. Connections should be made with other sectors, including WASH, nutrition, health, child protection, and MHPSS.

Plans should include detailed explanation of how to respond to a crisis, including decision-making, coordination, and providing security and protection mechanisms for inter-sectoral coordination. The roles of key stakeholders, including learners, teachers and other education personnel, parents and caregivers, and the wider community, should be clearly defined. Plans should consider how to continue education if the education facilities are used as shelters, or if they become inaccessible or unusable due to natural hazards or conflict. Safety and security measures should be in place in each education facility, including evacuation plans. Plans need to be reviewed regularly to ensure that they are up to date. They also should be coordinated with longer-term plans to develop the education sector. Stakeholders who support national or local education programs should promote emergency preparedness and contingency planning as part of development activities.

National authorities, humanitarian actors, donors, NGOs, communities, and other stakeholders should work together to ensure that there is adequate funding for EiE. National authorities should lead the coordination of the financial, technical, material, and human resources for a response, in cooperation with the inter-agency coordination mechanism. Meeting immediate resource needs should be a priority. Actors should consider the environmental impact when sourcing these needs and can use an environmental assessment tool, such as the NEAT+, to ensure that a response is sustainable. Education authorities and humanitarian partners should allocate resources for reporting attacks on education in a centralized and systematic way, and for collecting, analyzing, and sharing education data.

The private sector may also be well suited to support tech-enabled interventions and to provide important mobile technologies and other digital learning resources. Education authorities and the relevant partners should decide which digital learning platforms to use to make sure that they are suitable to the context and needs of the people affected. It is also important that resource allocation is balanced between physical resources, such as classrooms, textbooks, and other learning materials, and human resources, such as teachers, MHPSS, and teacher support. Schools, ECD centers, and tertiary institutions also need resources to report attacks on education and the use of learning environments by the military and non-state armed groups.

Transparency and accountability are key when it comes to managing resources effectively. Confidential and culturally appropriate systems should be in place to monitor and manage issues relating to public policy or corruption. These systems should encourage people to report corruption, in both monetary and non-monetary forms, without fear of punishment. Sharing information about resources among the central and local authorities, communities, and other humanitarian stakeholders and having accountability mechanisms in place will make it possible to source and provide resources ethically and safely.

The EiE response for all ages, from early childhood to tertiary, should be connected to activities in other sectors, such as WASH, nutrition, food security, shelter, health, livelihoods, urban planning, shelter, economic recovery, child protection, and MHPSS. This will help ensure that the EiE response addresses the diverse and multi-sectoral needs of crisis-affected learners. A multi-sector assessment is an important starting point for any emergency response. Emergency preparedness and contingency plans should include specific provisions for inter-sectoral coordination at the national and subnational levels. For example, collaboration between education authorities and other sectors or national agencies for disaster management can promote the integration of education into multi-sectoral rapid response efforts, strengthen referral pathways, and avoid the use of schools as temporary shelters.

Advocacy can take place at a local, national, and global level. It targets those in positions of power, frequently governments, donors, and institutions. EiE advocacy focuses on ensuring access to quality, safe, and relevant education for all during a crisis. EiE advocacy can begin before an emergency. It can include, for example, efforts to advance policies that protect the right to education in the event of a crisis. It can also continue after a crisis and into recovery, such as negotiations for a safe return to school for learners affected by an emergency.

EiE advocacy can work toward the following:

• Influencing changes at the policy level to increase the reach and sustainability of education access
• Ensuring that duty bearers are held accountable for fulfilling their responsibilities and their commitment to ensure all individuals’ right to education, as enshrined in international human rights law
• Ensuring that national authorities and humanitarian actors prioritize education in humanitarian responses and mobilize adequate resources
• Ensuring that policy-makers and decision-makers listen to and consider the voices, experiences, perspectives, and priorities of those affected by crises, including children, young people, teachers and other education personnel, and marginalized groups

EiE advocacy should be a key part of planning and implementing education policy. It should be carried out at all levels, but responsibility for advocacy will depend on what issues need attention. Policy-makers should engage communities and other key stakeholders, such as CSOs, in all stages of developing and implementing education policy. Communities may need to advocate for their own involvement, and CSOs can lead advocacy efforts if the policy process is not happening in an inclusive way. To ensure that there is a coherent and relevant approach to EiE advocacy, a strategy is needed to identify what to advocate for, how, and to whom. As highlighted in the introduction to this domain, advocacy can take place through different modalities, including face-to-face interaction or online. The INEE MS are a key tool to use in advocating for the provision of inclusive and equitable quality education for all in times of crisis (for more guidance, see Creating Change: Advocacy Toolkit for Education in Emergencies).