Monitoring and Reporting to Enhance the Protection of Education in Situations of Insecurity and Conflict

The Columbia Group for Children in Adversity (CGCA) out of Columbia University’s Program on Forced Migration and Health (hereafter “Columbia University”) was contracted to conduct in-depth studies of attacks on education in South Kivu province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Mogadishu, Somalia in an attempt to fill some of these information gaps and contribute to the development of improved methodologies for monitoring and responding to such attacks. The study used semi-structured interviews with a sample of key informants from government, NGOs, UN agencies, and other protection and education actors to assess their respective roles, capacities, and practices in monitoring and reporting attacks on education. The study also attempted to characterize the patterns of incidents in South Kivu and Mogadishu, and to identify important factors contributing to these patterns, though it did not seek to capture the global total of attacks during the study period. Finally, the research team appraised the available measures for safeguarding schools, students, and educational personnel in these two contexts, while exploring strategies to enhance prevention, protection, surveillance, and response.