Education in emergencies. What are we missing? Episode 4

The world’s attention is limited. Today’s burning emergency becomes tomorrow’s forgotten crisis. When the media spotlight moves on, vital issues in development and humanitarian response risk being forgotten. In this podcast miniseries, Development Initiatives’ (DI’s) CEO Adrian Lovett speaks with people with deep expertise to take us beyond the headlines and explore the missing issues, missing voices and missing data as we ask: What are we missing?

In this episode, we turn our attention to more than 200 million children affected by war, displacement and disasters, who are missing out on a decent education. With climate change and extreme weather events on the rise, these children’s chance to learn is more disrupted than ever. The challenge is particularly stark in northeastern Nigeria, where, according to UNICEF, 2.8 million children need support for their education. So, what are we missing about access to education in emergencies, and how can the world more effectively support the children most in need?

Our guests are:

• Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait, the Global Fund for Education in Emergencies & Protracted Crises within the UN. Yasmine has over 30 years of experience with the United Nations and international NGOs. She has served in some of the most crisis-affected areas of the world, including Afghanistan and the Middle East, the Balkans, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan.
• Ussah Yakubu, Project Officer at Global Survivors Fund, working in northeast Nigeria, supporting survivors of conflict-related sexual violence across several states. Ussah is a practitioner focused on promoting peace and reintegration by strengthening child protection and the response to gender-based violence in Nigeria.

For more on some of the issues covered in this episode:

• Read DI’s Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2023.
• Read this report by Education Cannot Wait, Right Here, Right Now: An Emergency Appeal to Support Education for Children and Adolescents Affected by Climate Hazards.
• Read more about the Global Survivors Fund’s work in Nigeria.

All views expressed are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of Development Initiatives.