Contact details

Submitted by: 

Education in Crisis and Conflict Network, a community of practice funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

Email: 

Nina Papadopoulos, Team Lead Education in Crisis and Conflict - [email protected]

Website: eccnetwork.net/

Introduction to the project 

Country

Global

Duration

2017 - ongoing 

The first editions of these products have been published on the USAID ECCN website. It is envisioned that revised editions will be published in future years based on feedback from field piloting.

Description

The Education in Crisis and Conflict Network has developed performance indicators to monitor the safety of learning environments and the conflict sensitivity of education programming.  

Project aims 

The tools produced by this project ease pressures on host countries, specifically related to the provision of education, by promoting a focus on safety, equity, inclusion, and the avoidance of fuelling tensions that result from an influx of refugees. (GCR Objective 1) 

The tools produced by this project contribute to enhancing refugee self-reliance by helping to ensure that refugee children and youth have safe access to quality education. (GCR Objective 2)

The tools produced by this project are highly relevant for supporting conditions for return in safety and dignity to countries or origin.  These tools can help to ensure that education systems and services in countries of origin are safe places and that they contribute to easing the drivers of conflict that initially led to the flight of refugees from these countries. (GCR Objective 4) 

Resources used 

The indicators are presently being publicized and piloted within active education projects.  The Education in Crisis and Conflict Network’s development of a strong community of practice, primarily among USAID implementing partners, has facilitated both the development of the indicators (through extensive expert contributions) and the current piloting by projects.

Main activities of the Good Practice

The project’s primary objective was to fill a demonstrated gap in measurement and monitoring of conflict sensitivity and safe learning environments within USAID funded education projects in crisis and conflict environments, including those serving refugee populations.  The indicator sets and guidance will be useful to all policy makers, programmers, and monitoring and evaluation specialists working in education in crisis and conflict settings.

Partners

Since the USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Network is a community of practice, contributions to the development of these products were made by members of a large number of implementing and inter-governmental organizations, including the International Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and Global Education Cluster

Challenges and how they were overcome

No significant challenges were encountered in developing the lists of suggested indicators.

Results of the Good Practice 

For programs that are providing or improving education for refugees and host communities, these indicators and guidance help implementers to:

• Focus on key local priorities for the safety of learning environments;
• Understand conflict sensitive education implementation –how to avoid aggravating any tensions between groups (including between refugees and host populations)
• Monitor and measure:
  • learner and teacher safety
  • organizational capacity and performance in conflict sensitive education
  • beneficiary perceptions of the inclusivity of education services

Consequent improvements in education provision improve the lives of refugee and host community learners and their families.

Next steps 

The USAID ECCN website will continue to host web pages providing access to the indicators and accompanying measurement guidance. The indicators will continue to be publicized via various communications media and platforms. Updates and revisions will be made to the indicators and the guidance based on feedback received from piloting.