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With education systems worldwide under growing threats from conflict, natural disasters, and pandemics, it’s critical to understand the complex and changing needs of learners, teachers, educational institutions, and communities to respond to them effectively and in a sustainable manner. As the coordinating agency of the SDG4 and as part of the commitments made in the Framework for Action, UNESCO is invested in building the resilience of education systems and ensuring quality and safe education for all. 

One essential part of supporting system-wide capacities to be more responsive, is enhancing the way information is generated and used to drive decision-making within Ministries of Education (MoE) as well as in collaboration with humanitarian and development partners.

As outlined during the 2019 Education in Emergencies Data Summit, the lack of data considered accurate, reliable, and timely by actors channeling education resources and efforts, poses a significant challenge. It also leads to the fragmentation of the data landscape and hinders collaboration that should leverage stakeholder’s complementarities.

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In this context, since 2021, in partnership with NORCAP and supported by Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), UNESCO is implementing activities in Ethiopia, South Sudan and at the global level, with the aim of strengthening institutional information systems for education in emergencies and resilience to crises.

What is UNESCO doing?

UNESCO is engaged in supporting MoEs in contexts affected by emergencies and playing an active role throughout the Emergency Management Cycle, in close collaboration with their humanitarian and development partners. This includes supporting their contribution to the assessment of educational needs, monitoring impact and progress, to the practical definition and coordination of the implementation of service delivery.

Based on the findings of six case studies developed in 2019 in Chad, Ethiopia, Palestine, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Uganda) highlighting how MoE’s information systems were effectively driving EiE and resilience-building efforts, UNESCO developed a process to tackle the most prominent challenges observed across all six contexts. More specifically related to:

• Inadequate institutional environment (EiE/EIE Data Policies and Frameworks)
• Fragmented, incomplete, untimely and unreliable data production
• Limited data dissemination and use
• Weak coordination for EiE assessment and planning.

With the technical collaboration of the UNESCO International Institute for Education Planning (IIEP), and in direct collaboration with the UNESCO offices in Juba and Addis Ababa, as well as its in-country humanitarian partners, UNESCO has played a key role in achieving the following results:

Increased awareness of the current challenges and opportunities for crisis-sensitive and harmonized information systems for more resilient education systems

UNESCO raised awareness of the Ministries of Education and their partners in Ethiopia and South Sudan around the crisis and risk-related data landscape at country level through in-depth reviews of education data tools and of monitoring and evaluation frameworks. This review specifically demonstrated the current coverage, gaps, and discrepancies of EiE Data and recommended corrective actions whilst building on the complementarity of different stakeholders.

Strengthened institutional commitment to education in emergencies and data

In addition to supporting direct institutional engagement and leadership throughout all phases of the project, UNESCO conducted targeted institutional capacity-building activities in direct collaboration with EiE stakeholders. In Ethiopia and South Sudan, this included:

• Raising the awareness of Ministry officials – working at national and subnational levels- around the key concepts of Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crisis, crisis and risk sensitive planning, as well as the implications of data on effective and coordinated assessment, planning and monitoring.
• Supporting the MoEs in identifying and integrating EiE-relevant data in institutional information systems, including the Annual School Census and Abstract.
• Advocating for increased resources and capacities – at all levels – for MoE engagement and leadership throughout all phases of the emergency management cycle.
• Promoting the development of institutional policies and frameworks on Education in Emergencies and specifically on EiE Data.

Strengthened coordination towards harmonized data, collection, sharing and use

Although not a traditional player in the field of EiE, UNESCO builds on its long-standing collaboration with MoEs , which remain the ultimate duty bearers and key stakeholder for any localized, context-specific, and sustainable process. Nonetheless, UNESCO acknowledges that EiE must be addressed in a collaborative and coordinated manner with all humanitarian and development partners. More specifically, in South Sudan and Ethiopia, UNESCO supported the MoEs to increase their collaboration with all relevant EiE stakeholders leading to:

• The MoE’s engagement in the revision of the Education Cluster strategies and the mainstreaming of the importance of data alignment and system strengthening for more coordinated EiE.
• The establishment of Data related Working Groups - the Knowledge, Evidence, Learning, and Research group (KERL) in South Sudan and the EIE Data Technical working group – under the leadership of the MoE and composed of humanitarian and development partners.
• The increased participation of MoEs in EiE assessment and planning processes, including in the review of the education cluster monitoring tools, the definition of the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO)/Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), the Joint Education Needs Assessments (JENA) and the development of ECW’s MYRP for South Sudan.
• Alignment with ongoing government-led education sector assessment and planning processes, including the renewal of ECW’s Multi Year Response Plan, to support the scale up of results and sustainability of engagement by the MoE and its partners.

Enhanced strategic and technical commitment across levels, sectors, and partners

At the global level, UNESCO is collaborating closely with a wide range of partners to build strategic and technical commitment towards strengthening and use of institutional education data sets in crisis settings.

Through its active participation in global coordination mechanisms (i.e., Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies, INEE Data Working Group and Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and resilience in the Education Sector), UNESCO leverages the groups’ wide outreach to influence global processes while learning from the EIE community worldwide, committed to ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

In fact, in addition to documenting its own process, the project team is documenting those carried out by partners from around the world dedicated to building system capacities in Education in Emergencies Data. The objective of this effort is to develop knowledge and guidance tools that can be applied by a wide range of stakeholders and in different contexts. More specifically, and in direct collaboration with the INEE, this has resulted in the development of a repository on evidence & learning on crisis and risk-related data which is currently going though it’s second call for proposals.

What can we look forward to?

In Ethiopia and South Sudan:

• Capacity building of the Ministry of Education staff at national and sub-national level EiE data collection, analysis, dissemination, and use.
• Lead efforts to reach collective agreement among the MoE and its partners on key standardized indicators and harmonized data collection tools for monitoring EiE.
• Support institutional leadership in the established EiE Data coordination mechanisms for enhanced data sharing and alignment among partners.
• Scale up of the project achievements in alignment with the in-country priorities and opportunities

At Global Level:

• The completion of the second round of collection on evidence and learning on crisis and risk-related data and the publication of the case studies on the INEE repository for Evidence & Learning on crisis and risk-related data.
• The development of the Conceptual Framework for EiEPC Data and guidance tools to support their integration in institutional information systems.

More information

• Dedicated web page
• Contact: f.pinna@unesco.org

URL:

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/review-strengthening-institutional-education-information-system-emergencies-initiative