Protracted crises, transition and education financing

1Protracted crises and inclusion in national systems

Most crises last for years; a displaced child may spend their entire schooling away from home. Parallel solutions (camp schools using the country-of-origin curriculum, teachers paid by NGOs) then become costly and fragile. The current direction, driven by the Global Compact on Refugees (2018) and UNHCR's refugee education strategy, is inclusion in national education systems: the same schools, the same curricula, the same examinations, with targeted support (language classes, bridging classes, strengthening of host schools).

In internal crises, the logic is the same: support public schools, inspection services and the ministry's information systems rather than bypassing them. The humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach means planning emergency responses and system strengthening together.

2Accelerated and non-formal education

Accelerated education programmes (AEP) are for over-age children and adolescents who have missed years of school: they condense a cycle (often six years of primary in three) with an adapted curriculum, trained teachers and a flexible calendar. The Accelerated Education Working Group (AEWG) has defined ten principles for effective practice, including alignment with the national system and certification recognised by the ministry.

Non-formal education covers other options: catch-up classes to rejoin a grade, literacy and life skills for adolescents, vocational training, distance learning (radio, printed materials, phones) when schools are closed. Without a pathway into formal education or employment, these programmes have few lasting effects.

3Transition, certification and continuity

Transition is prepared from day one. It relies on four levers:

• Recognition of learning: placement tests, equivalencies, access to national examinations, certificates issued by the competent authority.
• Teachers: qualification pathways for volunteers, gradual integration into the public workforce, alignment of pay.
• Infrastructure: moving from temporary spaces to durable and safe buildings, handover to the authorities and management committees.
• Governance: active school management committees, data integrated into the ministry's information system, crisis-sensitive education plans.

A written exit strategy, with a timeline and responsibilities, prevents the end of funding from closing classrooms overnight.

4Financing education in crises

Education remains one of the least funded sectors of humanitarian response plans. The main sources are: humanitarian response plans (HRP) and country-based pooled funds, Education Cannot Wait (First Emergency Responses, Multi-Year Resilience Programmes of about three years, Acceleration Facility), the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) on the development side, development banks and bilateral donors. Some donors have set targets, such as the European Union, which devotes 10% of its humanitarian aid budget to education.

A strong proposal presents a shared analysis (JENA, PiN), quantified targets, a cost per child, access, protection and learning indicators, and a transition plan. Local and national partners must receive a real and direct share of funds, in line with localisation commitments.

5Including displaced and refugee children in the national system: analysis method and roadmap

Inclusion in national systems is the direction set by the Global Compact on Refugees (2018) and UNHCR's Refugee Education 2030 strategy. In internal crises, it means supporting public schools rather than creating parallel systems. But inclusion cannot be decreed: it requires available places, paid teachers, an accessible language of instruction, recognised documents and families able to bear the costs. The education manager's job is to analyse these conditions and build a realistic roadmap.

Step 1: analyse the policy and legal framework

• Do displaced or refugee children have legal access to public schools at all levels, including secondary education and national examinations?
• Which documents are required for enrolment and examinations? Are there waivers or placement tests?
• Does the education sector plan mention IDPs, refugees and crises? Does the ministry have a preparedness and response plan?
• Can refugee or displaced teachers be recruited, and under what status?

Step 2: analyse absorption capacity

Calculation: 18,400 - 5,800 = 12,600 remaining children; at 50 pupils per group, 252 groups, i.e. 126 classrooms on double shift and approximately 250 teachers at one teacher per group.

Step 3: build the roadmap

Risks to manage

• Tensions with the host community: if host schools deteriorate, inclusion will be rejected. Every investment benefits both populations and is presented as such.
• Language-related dropout: without language support, refugee pupils are placed in lower grades and drop out. Plan for 6 to 12 months of bridging classes.
• Loss of identity and of plans to return: some families fear that the host country's curriculum will compromise return. Dialogue, and mutual recognition of certificates where possible.
• Financing: the cost of additional teachers must find a sustainable source (State budget supported by development financing).

Inclusion is not a transfer of burden to an already overstretched ministry: it is a shared investment, planned over several years, that must strengthen host schools as much as it serves new pupils.

6Designing an accelerated education programme in line with the AEWG principles

The inter-agency Accelerated Education Working Group (AEWG), which brings together UNHCR, UNICEF, UNESCO, USAID, NRC, Save the Children, the IRC and other partners, has published a guide to ten principles for effective practice, a checklist, monitoring and evaluation guidance and a common definition. An accelerated education programme (AEP) is a flexible, age-appropriate programme, run in an accelerated timeframe, which aims to provide access to education for disadvantaged, over-age, out-of-school children and youth. It differs from catch-up programmes (short-term, for pupils who have missed a few weeks or months) and bridging programmes (preparation for entry into a different system, often language-related).

The ten principles, grouped into four areas

Summarised wording; refer to the AEWG guide for the exact text and key actions.

Design steps

1. Justify the need: number of over-age, out-of-school children by age group and sex (JENA, EMIS and household survey data). Check that it is not a short catch-up need.
2. Negotiate with the ministry before any funding: status of the programme, condensed curriculum, duration, equivalences, end-of-cycle examination, certificate. Without recognition, the AEP is a dead end.
3. Define the structure: for example 6 years of primary in 3 one-year levels, each level covering two years of the national curriculum, with at least 4 hours of instruction per day and an adapted calendar (agricultural seasons, market days).
4. Produce or adapt materials: workbooks by level, teacher guides, level assessments. Allow 6 to 12 months if the materials do not exist.
5. Recruit and train: teachers trained in multi-level teaching, adolescent learners and psychosocial support; a ratio of approximately 35 learners per teacher.
6. Organise pathways: entry into formal education at the corresponding grade (placement test), access to the national examination, referral to vocational training for older learners.
7. Monitor: enrolment, attendance, completion of each level, examination pass rates, transition to formal education or employment, by sex and age.

Specific considerations for adolescent girls and young mothers

AEPs are often the only route back into education for adolescent girls who are married, pregnant or mothers. Measures to plan for: a childcare space for young children, schedules compatible with domestic responsibilities, female teachers, age-appropriate life skills and sexual and reproductive health content in conjunction with the health sector, and dialogue with families and husbands to secure their support.

The question to ask from the design stage: where will this learner be the day after the programme ends? If the answer is neither a classroom in the formal system, nor a recognised examination, nor a qualifying training course, the programme must be revised.

7Full worked example: the concept note for a multi-year programme in Doro

Fictional context: the Doro region has been hosting internally displaced persons for five years and, for the past two years, refugees from a neighbouring country. The JENA estimates that 40,000 children aged 10 to 17 have never completed primary school; 600 volunteer teachers are paid by NGOs; 9 schools have been attacked in three years. The cluster and the local education group, together with the ministry, are preparing a three-year Multi-Year Resilience Programme. You are coordinating the drafting of the concept note.

1. Problem and target population

Of the 40,000 children aged 10 to 17 who are outside primary school, the analysis distinguishes: 14,000 children aged 10 to 12 who can return to formal education after a 6- to 9-month catch-up programme; 19,000 adolescents aged 13 to 17 who need accelerated education; 7,000 young people aged 15 to 17 who mainly want vocational training combined with literacy. Over three years, the programme targets 60% of this population, i.e. 24,000 learners (52% girls), including 8% of learners with a functional difficulty, consistent with partners' capacities and likely funding.

2. Expected results and indicators

3. Indicative budget and cost per learner

Interpretation: the average cost per learner over the programme period is approximately USD 490 (11,753,500 / 24,000), but it ranges from USD 71 for catch-up to USD 420 for a full accelerated education cycle, excluding shared costs. The donor will compare these figures with those of other programmes in the region: you must be able to explain them (security costs, dispersion, teacher costs).

4. Partnership and localisation

Implementation by a consortium of two international NGOs and five national organisations. Share of the budget transferred directly to national organisations: 35%, with their indirect costs covered under the same rules as for international NGOs, and a capacity strengthening plan at their request (financial management, child safeguarding, learning assessment). Governance: a steering committee chaired by the regional education directorate.

5. Risks and mitigation

8Transition and exit strategy: a template to complete

Donors, notably the European Commission (ECHO), USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and the FCDO, require an exit or transition strategy in education proposals lasting more than a few months. Too often, it is reduced to a single sentence ("communities will take over"). A credible strategy specifies, for each element of the programme, who will take it over, by what date, with what resources, and which signals will show that the transition is possible.

Template

The three tests of a transition strategy

1. The date test: does each handover have a deadline and an indicator? If not, it will not happen.
2. The budget test: does the receiving party have the resources, or is it planned that they will obtain them, and through which mechanism?
3. The fallback test: what happens if the precondition is not met in time? A strategy without a fallback plan closes classrooms.

Links with the humanitarian-development-peace nexus

In a protracted crisis, the transition is negotiated with development actors: the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) finances education sector plans and can include crisis-affected areas; the World Bank and regional development banks finance reconstruction and teacher payment programmes; bilateral development donors support sector budgets. ECW's Multi-Year Resilience Programme is designed precisely as a bridge between these worlds. The education manager must know the sector plan calendar, take part in the local education group and ensure that affected populations are included in national planning documents. In conflict settings, the "peace" dimension translates into attention to content (curricula and textbooks free of hate messages), equity between groups and regions, and the role of schools in social cohesion.

An exit strategy is prepared at start-up, checked at mid-term and implemented at the end. If it is written in the last three months, it is too late.

9Financing education in crises: donor landscape, expectations and common mistakes

The main sources and their logic

What donors look at in an education proposal

• Analysis: reference to the JENA, the HNO and the PiN; justification of areas and groups.
• Coherence: alignment with the cluster strategy, national policy and other funding in the area.
• Quality: learning and well-being indicators, teacher training and support, INEE Minimum Standards actually applied.
• Protection: child safeguarding policy, PSEA, complaints mechanism, analysis of programme-related risks (journeys, gatherings of children, data).
• Inclusion: budgeted measures for girls and children with disabilities; use of markers (ECHO's Gender-Age Marker, for example, which assesses the integration of gender and age into the analysis, activities and participation).
• Efficiency: justified cost per learner, share of support costs, compliant procurement.
• Sustainability: a costed and time-bound transition strategy.
• Localisation: the role and budget of local organisations, in line with Grand Bargain commitments (a target of 25% of humanitarian funding channelled as directly as possible to local and national actors).

Common mistakes

• Presenting a one-year programme for a five-year problem, with no link to subsequent funding.
• Budgeting for construction but not for maintenance, nor for incentives beyond the project.
• Promising certification that the ministry has never granted.
• Calculating a cost per learner without specifying the duration or what it includes, which makes comparisons misleading.
• Treating the local partner as a subcontractor, with no indirect costs and no role in design.
• Overlooking donors' regulatory constraints (procurement rules, partner and supplier vetting, compliance with sanctions regimes) in areas controlled by armed groups.

Variations by context

• Sudden-onset emergency: rapid funding (pooled funds, CERF through agencies, ECW First Emergency Response, donors' emergency reserves); a short proposal focused on access, safety and psychosocial support; rapid revision after the full JENA.
• Protracted crisis: multi-year funding, coordination with GPE and the World Bank, learning and transition objectives, integration of teachers.
• Refugees: Regional Refugee Response Plan, UNHCR, development donors mobilised under the Global Compact on Refugees, World Bank programmes for host communities and refugees.
• Restricted access: budgets for security and third-party monitoring, contractual flexibility (rapid modifications, distance learning), management of diversion risks.
• Partners with limited capacity: phased funding, accompaniment, indirect costs covered, a capacity assessment followed by a joint plan rather than exclusion.

10Interview questions and key references

Questions and elements of a good answer

1. "Should we create camp schools or include refugees in the national system?" Inclusion as the guiding principle (Global Compact on Refugees, UNHCR strategy), but with an analysis of the conditions: legal framework, places, language, teachers, documents, costs; transitional solutions (bridging classes, support to host schools); benefits for the host community; a multi-year roadmap.
2. "What is the difference between accelerated education, catch-up and a bridging programme?" AEWG definitions, target groups, durations; the importance of certification and alignment with the national system; concrete examples.
3. "How do you write a credible exit strategy?" Receiving party, precondition, indicator, deadline and fallback plan for each element; preparation from start-up; links with the sector plan and development donors.
4. "Your programme's cost per learner is twice that of another partner. How do you justify it?" Check that the scopes are comparable (duration, content, shared costs, area), explain the factors (security, dispersion, quality of support, learning outcomes), acknowledge room for efficiency gains, present the cost per result (per learner reaching a given level) rather than per enrolled learner.
5. "How do you prepare the integration of 600 volunteer teachers into the civil service?" Inventory and qualification, a recognised training pathway, agreement with the ministry on posts and timeline, gradual alignment of incentives, joint advocacy with development donors, integration in cohorts, a fallback plan.
6. "What are the funding sources for education in crisis situations and how do you access them?" Pooled funds, CERF through agencies, ECW, ECHO, bilateral donors, GPE; the role of the cluster and the local education group; requirements on quality, inclusion and localisation.
7. "How can education contribute to peace or, conversely, fuel conflict?" Curriculum and textbook content, unequal access between groups or regions, teacher recruitment, language of instruction; conflict analysis, a conflict-sensitive approach, the "do no harm" principle.

Key references

• United Nations, Global Compact on Refugees (2018); UNHCR, Refugee Education 2030: A Strategy for Refugee Inclusion.
• Inter-agency Accelerated Education Working Group (AEWG), Guide to the Accelerated Education Principles, checklist and monitoring and evaluation guidance.
• INEE, Guidance Notes on Teacher Compensation and resources on conflict-sensitive education.
• Education Cannot Wait, guidance documents on First Emergency Responses, Multi-Year Resilience Programmes and the Acceleration Facility.
• Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and IIEP-UNESCO, guidelines for the preparation of crisis-sensitive education sector plans.
• European Commission, Communication on Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises (2018) and ECHO's policy document on education in emergencies; ECHO Gender-Age Marker.
• Grand Bargain (2016) and its commitments on the localisation of aid.
• OECD, DAC Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (2019).
• Global Education Cluster, guidance on transition and coordination with local education groups.