Peacebuilding Education and Advocacy in Conflict-Affected Contexts Programme

Recognizing the crucial role of education in both driving conflict and contributing to peace, UNICEF’s Peacebuilding Education and Advocacy (PBEA) programme, or “Learning for Peace”, was established to strengthen resilience, social cohesion and human security in fragile and conflict-affected contexts by improving policies and practices for education and peacebuilding. From 2012 to 2016, the program has implemented in 14 countries, including 10 in Africa.

This report summarizes the lessons learned and promising practices shared at the PanAfrican Symposium on Education, Resilience and Social Cohesion, held on 1 – 3 June 2016 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The symposium was organized jointly by UNICEF (WCARO and ESARO) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), with its Inter-Country Quality Node (ICQN) on Peace Education.

The report is organized into three substantive sections, which align to the thematic areas of the symposium: 1) Taking a Systems Approach in Education for Peacebuilding; 2) Quality Education to Combat Violence and, 3) Schools for Learning and Practicing Peace. The symposium communique crystallizes the commitment of participating African countries to improving equity and quality in education in order for systems to more strongly contribute to social cohesion, resilience, and development.