Planning and preparedness for education in emergencies

Addressing Emergency Preparedness and Conflict Mitigation in Education Sector Plans

With over one third of all children who are out of school living in countries affected by conflict or emergency, and an estimated 125 million children likely to be affected by climate change over the next decade, there is an urgent need for educational planners to integrate conflict prevention and disaster preparedness measures into sector planning processes.

While the consensus on the relevance and importance of education in humanitarian crises is growing, there is often a disconnect between planning for education in emergencies and long-term, sector-wide educational planning. This gap is compounded by two challenges in the development of Education Sector Plans (ESP): 

1. Effectively mainstreaming the provision of emergency education into sector plans
2. Addressing disaster risk reduction and conflict mitigation issues in education sector plans. 

For any country, identifying educational priorities and developing a long-term sector plan for education is not an easy exercise. Countries affected by conflict or prone to disaster face even greater challenges as crises make them more vulnerable and can have a devastating effect on the education sector. They may lack the capacity to react and cope with the crisis, and therefore find it challenging to provide quality education in crisis zones. In addressing the vulnerabilities to natural disasters and conflict in regular education sector plans and processes, it is possible to minimize the impact of such emergencies on the education sector.

Through a comprehensive analysis of the role of education in mitigating or exacerbating the effects of natural disasters and conflict, it is possible to develop strategies that are an integral part of the education sector planning process, and that can ultimately support mitigation efforts. In order to ensure that countries develop education plans that account for natural disasters and conflict, not only should the process include the five steps of the planning cycle, but each of these steps must consider the relationship of education to the potential or reality of conflict.

From the education in emergencies perspective, a good Education Sector Plan is a plan that specifically: 
- Considers the risks and vulnerabilities to disasters (human made and natural) of the education system as part of the education sector diagnosis 
- Addresses these risks and vulnerabilities during the process of plan formulation by mainstreaming risk reduction measures and emergency education activities within the overall strategy, not in isolation, 
- Includes budget lines for suggested risk reduction measures and emergency education activities 
- Includes indicators in monitoring and evaluation frameworks that monitor progress toward risk reduction and emergency education objectives 
- Includes an analysis of the management capacity that looks at both the capacities to provide quality education in a time of conflict and to develop plans and policies that mitigate conflict.

Focus and organisation of the E-Forum

Measures of emergency preparedness and conflict mitigation can indeed be built into the regular education sector planning process. The present E-forum aims to allow participants to exchange their views and experiences on developing strategies for the mitigation of natural disasters and conflict. More specifically, it is designed to allow them to discuss the issues and problems their countries face in incorporating disaster risk reduction and conflict mitigation measures into mainstream education sector plans.

The discussion will be organised around two primary sub-topics. One week will be spent on each sub-topic, building on previous discussions.

Week 1: The role of the education sector planning process in disaster preparedness and conflict mitigation

Week 2: Challenges and ways forward for the successful integration of preparedness activities into education sector planning processes 

The forum will be animated by e-moderators (IIEP staff) and will take place in English.