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paperThe role of education in protecting children in conflictby Susan Nicolai and Carl Triplehorn

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Wars deprive millions of children of an education, yeteducation in emergencies has not traditionally occu-pied a prominent place in humanitarian thinking. Noone dies from not going to school, and other life-threatening needs – for food, water, shelter or health-care – can at first glance seem more pressing. Amidconflict and crisis, education programming has beenviewed as a luxury, and a task best left to the devel-opment community.

This paper argues for a reappraisal of the position ofeducation in emergency programming. It explores thelinks between education and the wider protectionneeds of the children it assists. It suggests that, as pro-tection in conflict emerges more clearly as a legiti-mate humanitarian concern, so the role of educationas a tool of protection must be more clearly under-stood. How does conflict affect a child’s education,

and what impact does this have on an affected indi-vidual’s social or cognitive development? In whatways can education enhance the physical and psy-chosocial protection of children in war-affected or dis-placed communities? What risks does education pro-gramming in these contested environments present,for children and for agencies themselves? What is cur-rently being done, and how could it be done better?

This paper does not offer definitive answers to thesequestions. Education in emergencies is a young area;the evidence of its impact is often anecdotal, andalthough its status as a humanitarian concern hasgained legitimacy in recent years, it has yet to beaccepted across the humanitarian community. Muchmore needs to be done to enhance our understandingof the links between education and child protectionin emergency situations.

March 2003

ABSTRACT

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About the authorsSusan Nicolai is Emergency Education Officer with the Save the Children Alliance, based with SC UK.

Carl Triplehorn is a consultant in emergency education.

The lead editor in SC UK was Anna Jefferys, Emergency Policy Officer with Save the Children UK. BrigidBroomfield-Hall was the supporting editor.

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Table of contentsChapter 1 The impact of conflict on children’s education 1

Education for all 1

Measuring conflict’s impact on education 2

Risks in education 3

Chapter 2 Intersections between protection and education 7

Protecting children 7

Child protection in practice 8

The role of education in protecting children 9

Chapter 3 Humanitarian programming in education: an overview 13

The birth of a sector 13

Agency efforts in emergency education 14

Operational frameworks 17

Chapter 4 Strengthening the links between education and protection 19

Maximising the opportunities 19

Minimising the risks 23

Conclusions and recommendations 25

References 27

List of interviewees 29

Annex 1 30

Annex 2 32

List of boxesBox 1:The role of communities in providing education 5

Box 2:The impact of war on education: testimony from Liberia 5

Box 3:Addressing the manipulation of education: Palestinian summer camps 6

Box 4: Protection: the ICRC definition 7

Box 5: UN Security Council resolutions on children in emergencies 8

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Box 6: Factors protecting children 9

Box 7: Sida’s guidelines on humanitarian assistance in education 16

Box 8: Education in emergencies: resource implications 16

Box 9:The phased approach in West Timor 17

Box 10:‘Child-Friendly Spaces’ 20

Box 11:Assessment questions which link education and protection 22

List of tables and figuresTable 1: Education in conflict-affected countries: a comparison 4

Table 2:The potential protective elements of education in emergencies 10

Figure 1:A ‘continuum’ of child protection 9

Figure 2: The ‘Circle of Learning’ 18

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It is difficult to measure the impact ofconflict on children and their educa-tion. One can attach numbers tosome aspects of suffering – twomillion children dead in the pastdecade, six million seriously injured,one million orphaned or separatedfrom their families, and twelve millionleft homeless (UNICEF, 1999). Forother less physical aspects, numbersdo not come as easily. Terror andviolence cause psychological damage,the extent of which varies from childto child, with potentially seriouseffects on social and emotional devel-opment. The cognitive developmentof children is also harmed during war,as skills such as literacy, numeracy andcritical thinking are delayed. In herlandmark study of the impact ofarmed conflict on children, Graça Machel describeshow conflict harms children not just physically, butsocially and emotionally:

Not only are large numbers of children killed andinjured, but countless others grow up deprived oftheir material and emotional needs, including thestructures that give meaning to social and culturallife.The entire fabric of their societies – their homes,schools, health systems and religious institutions –are torn to pieces (Machel, 1996).

Education for allA child’s right to education is enshrined in a numberof declarations and conventions. The UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights of 1948 outlines theright to free, compulsory elementary education, andstates that education should work to strengthen

respect for human rights and promote peace. Parentshave the right to choose the kind of educationprovided to their child. The Fourth GenevaConvention of 1949 states that, in situations ofmilitary occupation, the occupying power must facil-itate institutions devoted to the care and education ofchildren. Protocol I (1977) states that schools andother buildings used for civil purposes are guaranteedprotection from military attacks. Protocol II statesthat children shall receive an education in keepingwith the wishes of their parents.The rights of refugeechildren are protected in the 1951 ConventionRelating to the Status of Refugees, which guaranteesthe right to elementary education, and states that theyshould be accorded the same opportunities asnationals from the host country. Beyond primaryschool, refugee children are treated as other aliens,allowing for the recognition of foreign school certifi-cates and the awarding of scholarships.

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The impact of conflict onchildren’s education

The effect of conflict on children: a drawing by a Kosovar child in Albania

© Susan N

icolai, 1999

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t h e r o l e o f e d u c a t i o n i n p r o t e c t i n g c h i l d r e n i n c o n f l i c t

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The Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989calls for states to make primary education compul-sory and free to all, and to encourage the develop-ment of accessible secondary and other forms ofeducation. The Convention mandates an educationthat builds on a child’s potential and supports theircultural identity. The Convention emphasisespsychosocial support for conflict-affected children,and outlines the principle of non-discrimination,including access for the disabled, gender equity andthe protection of the linguistic and cultural rights ofethnic minorities. The Convention also protects achild’s right to recreation and culture.

Finally, the Rome Statute of 1998 outlining the legaljurisdiction of the International Criminal Court(ICC) includes protection for educational institutionsunder Article 8, which covers war crimes. The ICCprotects against ‘intentionally driven attacks againstbuildings dedicated to religion, education, art,science, or charitable purposes’.A number of regionalagreements also address issues of education.References to the right to education are found in theProtocol to the European Convention for theProtection of Human Rights and FundamentalFreedoms (1952); the American Declaration on theRights and Duties of Man (1998); and the AfricanCharter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child(1999).

Education has also been subject to a series of interna-tional conferences and agreements. In 1990, theWorld Conference on Education for All (EFA) inJomtien, Thailand, agreed to universalise educationand reduce illiteracy. Aggressive targets were setaimed at achieving universal basic education by theend of the decade.The global commitment to basiceducation was revisited ten years later, at the WorldEducation Forum in Dakar, Senegal. When consid-ering EFA, the Forum’s 1,100 participants clearlymeant education that went beyond merely formalschooling.Thus, according to the Dakar Frameworkfor Action, delegates committed themselves and theirgovernments to:

• ‘expanding and improving comprehensive earlychildhood care and education, especially for themost vulnerable and disadvantaged children;

• ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularlygirls, children in difficult circumstances and thosebelonging to ethnic minorities, have access to andcomplete free and compulsory primary educationof good quality;

• ensuring that the learning needs of all youngpeople and adults are met through equitable accessto appropriate learning and life skills programmes;

• achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adultliteracy by 2015, especially for women, and equi-table access to basic and continuing education forall adults;

• eliminating gender disparities in primary andsecondary education by 2005, and achievinggender equality in education by 2015, with afocus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access toand achievement in basic education of goodquality; and

• improving all aspects of the quality of educationand ensuring excellence of all so that recognisedand measurable learning outcomes are achievedby all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essentiallife skills’.

The goals of universal primary education and genderparity were adopted as Millennium DevelopmentGoals by the UN General Assembly on 6 September2001.

Measuring conflict’s impact oneducationEducation in emergencies (often used interchangeablywith emergency education) is primarily carried out insituations where children lack access to their nationaland community education systems due to the occur-rence of complex emergencies or natural disasters.Because modern conflicts are chronic and recurring,the sector tends to use the word ‘emergency’ in itsbroadest sense, encompassing not only the first days ormonths after an event, but also the effort to deal withthe on-going effects of the crisis, and reconstruction.Within the context of EFA, emergency educationdoes not negate states’ responsibility to educate theirpeople; rather, it provides the space for the interna-tional community to assist where the government isunable or unwilling to provide education.

Attacks on schools are one of the most easily quan-tifiable ways of gauging the effect of a conflict oneducation. During 2001, for instance, Israeli soldiersshot at nearly 100 schools in the OccupiedTerritories, using rubber bullets, live ammunition andtear gas. Another 71 schools came under attackthrough tank shelling or rockets fired from heli-copters (DCI, 2002). In East Timor, the violence ofSeptember 1999 destroyed between 80% and 90% ofschool buildings and related infrastructure (UNDP,2002). Iain Levine, Chief of Humanitarian Policy atUNICEF, suggests that such attacks can occurbecause education represents state authority; in somecircumstances, such as in southern Sudan, schoolsalong with health centres may be the only publicbuildings in rural areas which can be targeted.


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The impact of conflict on education may also be feltmore indirectly, as part of a wider pattern of disruptionand dislocation and the effects of state collapse. TheMachel study notes that formal education is at riskduring war ‘because it relies on consistent funding andadministrative support that is difficult to sustain duringpolitical turmoil. During the fighting in Somalia andunder the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, publicexpenditure on education was reduced to nearlynothing’ (Machel, 1996). In Mozambique, wartimedamage to schools left two-thirds of the country’s twomillion primary-school children with no access toeducation (UNICEF, 1996).

Children’s reduced enrolment and attendance atschools is another potential measure of conflict’simpact on education. Emily Vargas-Baron of theRISE Institute claims that, of the approximately115m children worldwide who are out of school, alarge majority are living in nations affected bycomplex crises (Vargas-Baron, 2001). The OxfamEducation Report states that two-thirds of countriesin Africa that are experiencing or recovering fromconflict have enrolment rates of less than 50%(Watkins, 2000). Just 3% of refugee adolescents –some 50,000 children – attend anything beyondprimary school (Refugee Education Trust, 2002). Forinternally-displaced children, the prospects can oftenbe worse; access to education in parts of Angola, theDemocratic Republic of Congo, Somalia andsouthern Sudan are minimal. In Somalia, it is esti-mated that only 9% of school-age children (and only6% of school-age girls) are attending school(UNESCO, 1999).

Detailed information in areas ofconflict is rarely available, and thesefigures should be treated withcaution. Enrolment ratios are basedon comparisons of registered childrenagainst often inaccurate figures of thenumbers eligible for schooling.Moreover, they give a poor reflectionof actual attendance patterns. Existingmeasures of the impact of conflict oneducation also say nothing aboutquality. Where children in areas ofconflict are lucky enough to go toschool, their learning is oftenhindered by trauma or hunger,untrained or ill-prepared teachers, orthe lack of sufficient learning mate-rials and infrastructure. Even whenofficially open, schools can be closeddown periodically, and days and termscan be shortened. In a reviewexploring wars’ effect on global

attempts to achieve EFA, Marc Sommers, a researchfellow at Boston University, concludes that imprecisedata ‘presents a serious constraint on the ability toaccurately estimate war’s impact on educationsystems, administrators, teachers and students’(Sommers, 2002).

Despite these weaknesses, it is clear that childrenliving in conflict are systematically denied the rightto education: as Vargas-Baron puts it, ‘in every failedstate there is a failed education system’. Table 1(overleaf) sets out the state of education in a numberof conflict-affected countries against goals establishedin the EFA, and gives estimates for the number ofchildren out of school.

Risks in educationWhile education is generally considered a force forgood, conflict can distort its benefits and introduceadditional risks. Schools may not always be safe: forexample, Chechen schools have been bombed duringclass hours because they were deemed to be shel-tering military targets, and grenades have beenthrown into classrooms (Peterson, 2001).Teachers toomay be at risk; in Colombia and Sudan, teachers havebeen threatened and killed (McCallin, 2001).

Education may be connected to recruitment by facil-itating access to children; in southern Sudan, forinstance, schools have been used as a convenient wayof assembling young men for military service(Sesnan, 1998). In the Democratic Republic ofCongo (DRC), schools have been a common site of


A classroom in East Timor

© Susan N

icolai, 2000



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Universal primary Gender parity Children out of education by 2015 in primary education school in 1999

by 2005

Angola Data unavailable Serious risk of not achieving 1,130,000

Burundi Serious risk of not achieving Serious risk of not achieving 631,700

Colombia Data unavailable Data unavailable 543,900

DRC of Congo Low chance of achieving Data unavailable No estimate

Somalia Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate

Sudan Data unavailable Low chance of achieving No estimate

Palestinian Data unavailable Data unavailable 3,100 AutonomousTerritories

Armenia Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate

Azerbaijan High chance of achieving Achieved No estimate

Georgia At risk of not achieving Achieved No estimate

Indonesia At risk of not achieving At risk of not achieving 2,267,900

Kyrgyzstan At risk of not achieving Achieved 82,300

Nepal Data unavailable Low chance of achieving No estimate

Philippines Achieved Achieved No estimate

Russia Data unavailable Achieved No estimate

Sri Lanka High chance of achieving Data unavailable No estimate

Tajikistan High chance of achieving At risk of not achieving 89,000

Turkey At risk of not achieving At risk of not achieving No estimate

Uganda High chance of achieving High chance of achieving No estimate

Uzbekistan At risk of not achieving Achieved No estimate

Afghanistan Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate

Bosnia- Data unavailable Achieved No estimateHerzegovina

East Timor Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate

Eritrea Low chance of achieving Data unavailable 288,400

Ethiopia Low chance of achieving Serious risk of not achieving No estimate

El Salvador Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate

Guatemala High chance of achieving Low chance of achieving 348,400

Iraq High chance of achieving Serious risk of not achieving 248,700

Liberia Data unavailable Data unavailable No estimate

Rwanda Data unavailable Achieved 31,600

Sierra Leone Data unavailable High chance of achieving 236,200

Federal Serious risk of not achieving Achieved No estimateRepublicof Yugoslavia

Countries orterritorieswith major current conflicts

Countrieswith isolatedconflictor rebellion

Countriesemergingfromconflict

Table 1: Education in conflict-affected countries: a comparison

Note: This table has been developed by cross-referencing conflict-affected countries identified in Sommers (2002); analysis regarding the

projected achievement of EFA goals and numbers of out-of-school children are from (UNESCO, 2002). Where estimates are lacking, this

is due either to inconsistencies between enrolments and UN population data, or a lack of UN population data by age.


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child recruitment by Rwandan-backed rebel groups.Propaganda teams from the Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka have positionedrecruitment booths near schools, and used streettheatre to induce children into joining the military. Innorthern Uganda, fighting forces have kidnappedschoolchildren directly from classrooms. One rebelgroup in Burundi abducted more than 150 studentsfrom two schools in November 2001, setting fire toseveral classrooms as they did so (HRW, 2002). Theprospect of education may itself serve as a rationalefor joining an armed group. In southern Sudanduring the 1980s, boys were lured hundreds of kilo-metres from their homes by promises of education,only to find that the ‘schools’ promised to them werealso military training camps (HRW, 1995).

The stress that conflict places on communities canmake the school environment itself more threatening.Corporal punishment, for instance, seems to becomemore common in schools during times of conflict.While teachers in many countries may see caning andslapping as an appropriate disciplinary tool, war canexacerbate its use as teachers take out their frustra-tions and stress on their pupils. In conflict areas of

West Timor, Buton and Ambon, for example,teachers’ use of physical punishment, ridicule andhumiliation to control and discipline children appearsto be connected to the stresses they themselves expe-rience (Van der Wijk, personal communication).Therisk of violence or abuse in an educational contextmay be particularly acute for girls; in West Africanrefugee camps, teachers regularly ask female studentsfor sexual favours in exchange for good grades(UNHCR and SC UK, 2002). In Kosovo after 1999,fear of rape or abduction kept many Kosovarminority children, especially girls, away from school.

The broader economic pressures people affected byconflict face may also inhibit schooling.War-affectedchildren from the most economically disadvantagedbackgrounds are discouraged from attending schooldue to the expense. In extreme cases, such as theexploitation found in West Africa, young people maydeliberately put themselves at risk, for example


Box 1: The role of communities in providingeducation

Education programming in areas of conflict isimpossible without the creativity and resourceful-ness of communities. In Guatemala, so-calledCommunities of Populations in Resistance(Communidades de Poblaciones en Resistencia orCPRs) kept schooling going during the civil war.Often this meant holding lessons in the open air,or beneath a tree for cover, with procedures inplace for hiding children in the event of bombard-ment (Vrolijk, 1998). Similarly, the Albanian-ledschool system in Kosovo during the period of Serboppression is a dramatic example of the capacityof local communities.

While communities may rapidly organise educa-tional activities in emergencies, this is not alwaysthe case. Moreover, communities are frequentlyunable to sustain these efforts, and their organisa-tion is not truly participatory. In these cases, theinternational community can assist by developingand training local educational committees.Specifically, interventions may include matchingsupport for the building of schools and schoolincome-generation activities. The participation ofwomen and minorities in such schemes may set aprecedent for more inclusive schooling.

Box 2: The impact of war on education: testimony from Liberia

In 2000, the NGO Don Bosco undertook participa-tory research with children in Liberia. Educationwas highlighted as a major area of concern:

Children say that they are not in school becauseof high school costs, increased poverty and theneed to work and contribute to the household. Itis clear that everyone believes that the quality ofteaching has become worse since the war. Fewteachers have proper qualifications and they arevery badly paid. Teachers in state-run schoolsoften go for months without pay and even thoseworking in private and church schools are badlypaid. Many teachers have several jobs. Schoolsare described variously as ‘a market’, a ‘street’and a ‘kitchen’ because children go to school totalk and meet friends, but not to learn.

Attitudes to education itself have changed. Mostbelieve that the quality of teaching and learningwas higher before the war. Children and youngpeople were motivated to learn. Now it wouldseem few place any real value on education,which does not, of itself, lead to improved jobopportunities later on. One youth states, ‘educa-tion means nothing and we are going to schooljust for the name and to graduate, but not to learn.Before, school was interesting because we weregoing to build the future. (McCauley, 2001)



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through prostitution, to pay school fees. Even whenofficially ‘free’, hidden costs remain, such as foruniforms, books and transport. Survival pressures maycause children to be removed from school and set toproductive work; girls may be married off earlier thanusual, or parents may be forced to exclude one childfrom school for the sake of the education of otherfamily members. Bedreldin Shutta of Save theChildren recounts one instance in Sri Lanka where amother reported that she would not hesitate toencourage her elder child to join an armed group if itmeant money to pay for the education of her tworemaining children.

In societies in conflict, education systems may them-selves be politicised. A UNICEF study highlights avariety of ways in which education can be manipu-lated to the detriment of children:

• the uneven distribution of education as a means ofcreating or preserving positions of economic,social and political privilege;

• education as a weapon in cultural repression;• the denial of education as a weapon of war;• education as a means of manipulating history for

political purposes;

• education as a means of diminishing self-worthand encouraging hate;

• segregation in education as a means of ensuringinequality and inferiority; and

• using textbooks to inhibit children from dealingwith conflict constructively (Bush and Saltarelli,2000).

Thus, during the crisis in Rwanda and Burundieducation was used to heighten ethnic tensionsbetween Hutu and Tutsi, conditioning the populationto accept ethnic discrimination and propagating aculture of mutual fear and pre-emptive self-defence(Degni-Ségui, 1997). In Serbia, the education systemwas used to subjugate the Kosovar Albanians; in SriLanka in the 1970s and 1980s, government textbookspresented Tamils as the historical enemy of theSinhalese (Bush and Saltarelli, 2000). Governmentsmay deliberately block access to education for certaingroups. In the mid-1990s, for example, the Zaireangovernment sought to prevent Rwandan refugeesfrom having access to schooling (UNESCO, 1999).Many young Palestinians in schools in Lebanon havea ‘distorted and unclear perception’ of their ownhistory because curricula are required to teach from aLebanese perspective (Chatty, 2002).

Box 3: Addressing the manipulation of education: Palestinian summer camps

In the Occupied Territories, summer camps have a long tradition. They are also suspected of being used tomilitarise the children that attend them. In response, the Palestinian Ministry of Youth and Sports andUNICEF organised two national workshops in spring 2001, one in Gaza, the other on the West Bank. A setof principles for the organisers was established, which were then used to guide and monitor activities:

• equity, equal opportunities and impartiality;• a sense of belonging among the children;• participation;• self-respect;• tolerance and dialogue;• non-exploitation;• consideration of individual variations among participants;• consideration of the needs of different age groups;• a child-focused approach;• non-violence (physical and psychological);• the inclusion of children with special needs and disabilities; and• freedom of expression.


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This paper understands the relationship betweenprotection and education in conflict as two-fold,involving both protecting a child’s access to educa-tion amid conflict and displacement, and usingeducation to protect a child from the risks that suchsituations present. In recent years, protection hasoccupied an increasingly important position on thehumanitarian agenda, with agencies going ‘beyondthe conventional view of how people are dying, toembrace … how people are living’ (Martone, 2002).This humanitarian concern for protection arose outof the horrors of the 1990s: ethnic cleansing inBosnia, the Rwandan genocide, atrocities in SierraLeone. Since then, humanitarians have begun toexplore what kinds of practical actions can be takento protect civilians both from physical harm, andfrom wider violations of their human rights (IASC,2002a).

Protecting childrenChildren constitute a particularly vulnerable group intimes of war by virtue of their dependence on adultcare (OHCHR,2001).Conflict and displacement canpresent particular threats, such as separation fromfamily, abduction or recruitment by fighting forces, orexposure to targeted violence or landmines. At thesame time, pre-existing threats, such as sexual orgender-based violence, labour exploitation or malnu-trition and disease, may increase.

Efforts to protect children in times of war date back tothe early years of the twentieth century; in 1924, forinstance, the League of Nations adopted the GenevaDeclaration on the Rights of the Child. Today, thestandards for child protection during times of conflictare largely based on the Convention on the Rights ofthe Child (1989) and its Optional Protocols (2000);

the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees(1951) and its Protocols (1967); and the GenevaConventions (1949) and Additional Protocols (1977).Another important source is the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights (1948) and the subse-quent International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights and the International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights (1966). Regional instru-ments such as the European Convention on HumanRights (1950) also make specific reference to children.

Following Machel’s landmark UN study in 1996, anumber of key initiatives have been taken.

• The appointment in 1997 of a SpecialRepresentative of the UN Secretary-General forChildren and Armed Conflict.

• The UN’s adoption of the CRC’s OptionalProtocol prohibiting the participation in hostili-ties of those below 18 years of age.This was spear-headed by the Coalition to Stop the Use of ChildSoldiers, a network of humanitarian agencies.

• High-level meetings to focus attention on the plightof children in war, such as the Oslo/Hadeland

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Intersections between protection and education

Box 4: Protection: the ICRC definition

The concept of protection encompasses all activi-ties aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights ofthe individual in accordance with the letter andspirit of relevant bodies of law (i.e., human rights,humanitarian and refugee law). Human rights andhumanitarian actors shall conduct these activitiesimpartially and not on the basis of race, nationalor ethnic origin, language or gender (ICRC, 2001).



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Conference ‘Protection of Children andAdolescents in Complex Emergencies’ in 1998 andthe ‘International Conference on War-AffectedChildren’, held in Winnipeg, Canada, in 2000.

• Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC), arights-based training initiative by UNHCR, Savethe Children, the UN High Commissioner forHuman Rights (OHCHR) and UNICEF, whichhas developed a series of resource packs onconflict-affected children’s rights and needs.

• The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict,an NGO initiative that prepares reports on thesituation of children in specific conflicts, andmakes recommendations to UN and internationalactors to improve child protection.

• A set of Inter-agency Guiding Principles onSeparated Children developed by the WorkingGroup on Separated Children, as a means tostrengthen the tracing and reuniting of separatedchildren.

• The Sphere Project, which has establishedminimum standards in disaster response as a wayto improve the quality and accountability ofhumanitarian action. The particular needs ofchildren are being incorporated as a cross-cuttingsector in current revisions.

• A number of innovative agency-based initiatives,including the Emergency Stand-by Teams of Savethe Children Sweden and Norway, and theNorwegian Refugee Council (NRC); UNICEF’sChild Friendly Spaces initiative; and the series ofparticipatory adolescent field studies led by theWomen’s Commission for Refugee Women andChildren.

Child protection in practiceIn practice, children’s protection is variously seen as alegal, social and physical concern (IASC, 2002b).Defining its scope beyond the legal framework is,however, difficult. In an external evaluation ofUNHCR’s efforts to protect refugee children, forinstance, there was confusion among staff as to whatchild protection meant, and what the agency’s policyactually entailed (Valid International, 2002). Fewwritten definitions of child protection exist. TheOslo/Hadeland Conference described the interna-tional protection of children and adolescents as ‘thegamut of activities through which … rights aresecured by the international community’ (NRC et al,1999). Save the Children has developed a draft defini-tion of child protection as ‘action to prevent oraddress harm caused to children because their rightsto security, survival or development are threatened –directly or indirectly – by the acts of third parties,including armed groups’.

This paper sees child protection as a ‘continuum’. Atone end lie efforts to address violations of a child’srights, such as tracing and reuniting separatedchildren, demobilising child soldiers and ensuringthat schools are safe zones for children. Other protec-tion activities focus on securing governmental andcommunity respect for children’s rights throughtraining, advocacy and strengthening local mecha-nisms of enforcement and dissemination.These activ-ities are often combined with the delivery ofassistance and services to address gaps in the rights ofspecific groups, such as girls, minorities and childrenwith disabilities. Protection-related elements areoften included in these activities, but not as theirprimary aim.

Box 5: UN Security Council resolutions onchildren in emergencies

A number of UN resolutions refer to the securityand protection of children during emergencies.Resolutions 1261, 1314 and 1379 on childrenand armed conflict mandate international actionto protect the security and rights of children insituations of armed conflict. Education is a part ofeach of these resolutions.

Resolution 1379 (2001) requests the agencies,funds and programmes of the UN to:

• devote particular attention and adequateresources to the rehabilitation of childrenaffected by armed conflict, particularly theircounselling, education and appropriate voca-tional opportunities, as a preventive measureand as a means of reintegrating them intosociety; and

• promote a culture of peace, including throughsupport for peace education programmes andother non-violent approaches to conflictprevention and resolution.

Resolution 1314 (2000) reiterates the importanceof ensuring that children continue to have accessto basic services, including education, during theconflict and post-conflict periods.

Resolution 1261 (1999) stipulates ‘the provisionand rehabilitation of medical and educationalservices to respond to the needs of children, therehabilitation of children who have been maimedor psychologically traumatised and child-focusedmine-clearance and mine-awareness programmes’.


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The role of education inprotecting childrenWithin the international humanitarian community,there are increasing calls for education to play a role inenhancing child protection, both as a service to besupported and delivered, and as an ‘enabling right’which assists children in accessing their other rights(Pigozzi, 1999). The Oslo/Hadeland conference onchild protection in November 1998 claimed that‘Experience shows that education has a preventiveeffect on recruitment, abduction and gender basedviolence, and thereby serves as an important protec-tion tool’ (NRC et al, 1998). In UNHCR’s GlobalConsultations on International Protection, education

is similarly described as ‘an important protection tool’.Materials produced by the ARC declare that educa-tion has a ‘direct protection function in monitoringthe development and progress of children’ (UNHCRand Save the Children, 2000).

Certain aspects of education can inherently protectchildren: the sense of self-worth that comes frombeing identified as a student and a learner; the growthand development of social networks; the provision ofadult supervision and access to a structured, orderedschedule. Maintaining education and its ‘built-in’protective components can thus provide vital conti-nuity and support for children living through crisis.At the same time, education can offer an adaptive


Box 6: Factors protecting children

Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC) lists the following set of protective factors that shield parents andchildren from the worst effects of conflict and displacement (UNHCR and Save the Children, 2000).

Characteristics, assets or resources of the individual• cognitive competence – a reasonable level of intelligence, skills in communication, or realistic

planning;• a positive sense of self-esteem, self-confidence and self-control;• an active coping style rather than a passive approach – a tendency to look to the future rather than to

the past; and• a sense of structure and meaning in the individual’s life, often informed by religious or political beliefs

or a sense of coherence.

The child’s immediate social environment • good and consistent support and guidance from parents or other care-givers;• support from extended family and friendship/community networks and teachers and the re-establish-

ment of a normal pattern of daily life;• an educational climate which is emotionally positive, open and supportive; and• appropriate role models which encourage constructive coping.

Activities focused on addressingrights violations (primary

objective is providing protection)

Mixed activities aimed at respect for rights

Activities focused on fulfillingrights (aimed at need, but

includes protection-relatedobjectives)

Figure 1: A ‘continuum’ of child protection



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response, addressing some of the particular conditionsthat arise from conflict.Thus, teaching in a conflict-affected environment can pass on potentially life-saving information, or impart basic skills in literacyand numeracy that may be crucial to a child’ssurvival. Table 2 summarises some of the ways inwhich education may enhance child protection.Theright-hand column in the table refers to the relevantarticles in the Convention on the Rights of theChild.

Child-focused humanitarian activity in conflict situa-tions tends to assist a relatively limited number ofchildren most affected by the crisis.Vulnerable groupsmight include child soldiers, separated children,

children living on the streets, the sick or malnour-ished, those with a disability and child-headed house-holds.The urgency of their predicament, along withtheir high profile and discrete numbers, makes theman appealing focus. However, efforts that targetvulnerable groups without taking into account theneeds of their peers tend to create inequity and fosterresentment. Jane Lowicki of the Women’sCommission for Refugee Women and Childrenpoints out, for example, that in Sierra Leone anumber of demobilisation projects have provided freeeducation to former child soldiers. Non-combatantyoung people who are not able to attend school seemto resent this; they see themselves as the real victimsand as more deserving.

Physical protectionProvides a safe, structured places for learn and play Articles 31, 38Reaches out to all children, without discrimination Article 2Offers means to identify children with special needs, such as experience of trauma Article 19or family separationEngages children in positive alternatives to military recruitment, gangs and drugs Articles 33, 38Care and supervision can be provided by teachers, in consultation with the parent Article 18or guardianOffers children basic knowledge of health and hygiene Article 24Can improve children’s nutrition by the provision of nutritious daily meals as part Article 27of school feeding;Prepares children for appropriate work which is not harmful or threatening their Articles 32, 34health or securityPsychosocial protectionGives children an identity as students, averts inadequacy felt by children out of school Article 28Provides a venue for expression through play and cultural activities such as sports, Article 13, 31music, drama, and artFacilitates social integration of vulnerable children such as separated children and Article 20, 39former combatantsSupports social networks and community interaction for children and their families Article 15Provides a daily routine and offers a sense of the future beyond the immediacy Article 38of war or conflictCognitive protectionHelps children to develop and retain the academic skills of basic education, Article 28i.e. literacy and numeracy;Offers means for children to access urgent life-saving health and security information; Article 17Furnishes children with knowledge of human rights and skills for citizenship and Article 29living in times of peace;Strengthens children’s evaluative skills in responding to propaganda and disparate Article 14sources of information;Encourages young people to analyse information, express opinions, and take Article 13action on chosen issues

Table 2: The potential protective elements of education in emergencies

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The international community isincreasingly aware that all childrenliving in the midst of war arevulnerable and need protection(Kastberg, 2002). Schools andrecreational activities can bringsome elements of physical protec-tion to the majority of children –providing a safe place to play,offering an alternative to destruc-tive behaviour, giving access tonutritious meals or providingregular adult supervision. Forchildren who have been especiallyvictimised by the conflict, comingtogether for educational activitiesmay make it easier to identifythose needing special help, andprogrammes can be tailored totheir specific needs. Follow-upwork to find children who do notattend school will further aid inidentifying the at-risk, while education staff from thecommunity can be invaluable in identifying childrenfacing threats due to separation from their families,susceptibility to military recruitment or experienceof sexual exploitation.They will also understand theimpact of gender, ethnicity or disability on childrenin their own community.

In terms of a child’s psychosocial health, educationoffers a regular routine, opportunities for self-expres-sion and the chance to engage with peers.The verystatus of ‘student’ can be valuable, protecting a childfrom forced recruitment, or bolstering a sense ofidentity and inclusion; in Liberia, for instance, formercombatants sought to attend school to redefine them-selves as something other than soldiers (HRW, 1994).By gathering children together, educationprogrammes can support socialisation, establish peernetworks and encourage children to understand andaccept views other than their own (Tomas̆evski,2001). Regular routines enhance children’s develop-ment and assist in their recovery from conflict.Education activities are important in establishingdaily schedules that create a familiar and comfortablerhythm and establish a sense of structure and purpose(McCallin, 1999). For families, schooling provides aschedule for the week, while also marking specialtimes such as weekends, holidays and school breaks.Achild’s attendance at school also grants parents thetime and space to rebuild their livelihoods, re-estab-lish sources of income, or simply come to terms withtheir experiences.

School attendance also encourages children to regainsome hope in the prospect of a better future. Goals

such as completing homework, preparing for examsor completing a school certificate, regular assign-ments and tests and rewards such as gold stars andcelebrations at the end of term provide children withachievable short-term and long-term objectives.These can be essential when finding a reason tocontinue the struggle to live in a conflict-affectedsociety. This sense of hope can extend into a child’srelationship to the community. During conflicts,children lose the sense of what it means to be a goodcitizen and how to live in a non-confrontational way.In places where war has lasted for years, somechildren will never have seen how a stable family orcommunity functions. Education can respond to thisneed through building children’s skills in listening,problem-solving and conflict resolution (Baxter,2000).

Instruction also transmits vital basic skills, such asliteracy and numeracy and the capacity for criticalthinking, as well as imparting important information.In circumstances of crisis, academic learning is not aluxury. Knowing how to read, write and do basicmaths is essential for children in protecting them-selves. Reading skills enable children to gather infor-mation about their environment – whether fromsigns, newspapers, health brochures or medicinebottles. Writing skills enable children to sign forservices and write letters seeking assistance. Childrenmay need basic mathematical skills to manage theirhousehold’s flow of money.

Research shows that children and adolescents in wardo not see themselves as passive victims, but as ‘activesurvivors of experience’ (Boyden and Levinson, 2001).


Classroom for displaced children in Burundi

© Susan N

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Every day, children make decisions about what is intheir best interests based upon their knowledge andlife experience. Deciding to volunteer for themilitary or to venture into a heavily landmined areamay be logical decisions, based on need. Children’sresponsibilities can also extend to caring for youngersiblings, especially when separated from their parents.Providing children with accurate information fromsources that they can trust strengthens their ability tocope with conflict at a practical level, to analyse situ-ations and make decisions. In crisis situations, thou-

sands of children fall victim to dangers which simplehealth and hygiene education could have prevented.In most cases, these children are living in a new envi-ronment; they do not know the location of land-mines, the importance of immunisation or hygiene orhow to minimise the risk of a disease like HIV/AIDSand cholera. They might not understand the conse-quences of sexual activity or drug use. Education inschools is one of the most practical means ofconveying the kind of messages that enable childrento make safe decisions.

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Although education has long been an importantcomponent in development work, its appearance onthe humanitarian agenda is relatively recent; even adecade ago, few humanitarians considered educationwithin their scope of action.Education had been seenas neither indispensable to human survival norrequired for subsistence. In recent years, however,attitudes have started to change and education hasbegun to emerge as an issue of humanitarianconcern.Thus, Machel called for ‘educational activityto be established as a priority component of allhumanitarian assistance’ (Machel, 1996).The absenceof education for children dooms them to remainrecipients of assistance; the Humanitarian Charterand its call for the right to life with dignity serves tosupport the inclusion of education in humanitarianresponse (Sphere Project, 2000).

Emergency education seeks to give shape and struc-ture to children’s lives, preparing them with skills tosurvive conflict, and promoting justice, stability andrespect for human rights. Its aims tend to be three-fold: fulfilling a child’s right to education in theimmediate response phase, mitigating the psychoso-cial effects of conflict and achieving protection-related objectives.

An increasing number of assistance agencies haveincluded education as an emergency response.There is,however, no standard definition of ‘education in emer-gencies’ at the inter-agency level. In a 2002 review ofthe sector by Margaret Sinclair, a long-time leader inthe field, emergency education was defined as ‘educa-tion specifically organised for emergency-affectedchildren and young people … where children lack [orhave restricted] access to their national educationsystems’. Its scope is not exclusive to school systems;rather, emergency education can be seen as a ‘short-hand for schooling and other organised studies,together with structured activities arranged for and

with children, young people, and adults’ (Sinclair,2002).These other activities might include recreationaland cultural programmes, human rights and peaceeducation, landmine awareness, HIV/AIDS preven-tion, out-of-school literacy classes and skills training.

The birth of a sectorEducation began to gain recognition in humanitarianterms in the early 1990s, with initiatives such as‘RAPID ED’, a working group which hosted a seriesof meetings on emergency response; the NRC’scampaign to include education as the ‘fourth pillar’ ofhumanitarian response, in addition to food, shelterand health care; a ‘Declaration on Principles ofEducation in Emergencies and DifficultCircumstances’, proposed at the Oslo/HadelandConference; and the Global Information Networksin Education (GINIE), which serves as a ‘virtuallearning community’ for education innovation incountries in crisis and transition (www.ginie.org).

Agencies continue to show a strong commitment toworking together and developing the emergencyeducation sector. Two more recent initiatives – theInteragency Network on Education in Emergencies(INEE) and the Working Group on Standards forEducation in Emergencies – facilitate information-sharing between organisations and the establishmentof consensual standards for education response.

The INEE was established at the InteragencyConsultation on Education in Situations ofEmergency and Crisis, held in Geneva in November2000.Against the backdrop of the Convention on theRights of the Child, the EFA Declaration and theDakar Framework, the INEE aims to ‘promote accessto and completion of education of high quality for allpersons affected by emergencies, crises or chronicinstability’. Its objectives are:

3

Humanitarian programming ineducation: an overview

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• to share knowledge and experience;• to promote greater donor understanding of

education in emergencies;• to advocate for education to be included in emer-

gency response;• to make teaching and learning responses available

as widely as possible;• to ensure attention is paid to gender issues in

emergency education initiatives;• to document and disseminate best practices in the

field; and• to move towards consensual guidelines on educa-

tion in emergencies.

INEE’s members include UN organisations, interna-tional agencies, national NGOs, research institutesand universities, advocacy organisations, bilateralfunding agencies and national governments. It is ledby a steering group comprising UNESCO,UNHCR, UNICEF, CARE US, IRC, NRC and theSave the Children Alliance. It operates four task teamscovering networking, materials, monitoring and eval-uation, and post-primary education. The website(www.ineesite.org) includes a set of guides for goodpractice. INEE’s secretariat is based at UNESCO inParis.

From 2003, the INEE is to host the Working Groupon Standards for Education in Emergencies. Thisgroup emerged from a meeting in March 2002organised by key NGOs – CARE, IRC, SC UK, SCUS, NRC and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) – andinvolving a broad range of non-governmental andUN agencies.The meeting identified a commitmentto ensuring a level of quality and accountabilityamong education programmes serving children andadolescents in situations of crisis; and a belief thateducation in emergencies could not remain outsidethe mainstream of humanitarian programming, butmust be seen as a priority response. Inspired by theSphere model, the Working Group on Standardsfollowed in January 2003, with representatives fromten NGOs and three UN agencies. Developing stan-dards is expected to take two years.

Agency efforts in emergencyeducationThis section offers an overview of the main agenciesworking in the sector, and some of their central activities.

UN agenciesThe main UN agencies involved in education inemergencies are UNICEF, UNHCR and UNESCO(including its institutes).WFP also plays an important

role in emergency education through its schoolfeeding programme.

UNICEF protects the rights and best interests ofchildren living in poverty in developing countries,including children affected by armed conflict, whoare identified as a vulnerable group in need of specialprotection. According to Pilar Aguilar, head of theorganisation’s education responses in emergencies,UNICEF is ‘moving more towards working inter-sectorally’; to this end, it has developed an integratedservices model in the form of ‘child-friendly spaces’.There is also a focus on rapid educational response, asdemonstrated by UNICEF’s commitment to shipemergency education and recreation kits within 72hours of an emergency. The ‘School-in-a-Box’supplies materials for up to 80 students and a teacher.Contents include pens, pencils, chalkboards, chalkand paints. Using a locally developed teaching guideand curriculum, teachers can establish makeshiftclassrooms almost anywhere. In 2001, 19,000 kitswere delivered to over 30 countries. UNHCR andUNICEF have a Memorandum of Understanding,which assigns UNICEF the primary role for in-country situations, and UNHCR in refugee situa-tions (Sinclair, 2002). This has helped to organiseoverall response in recent emergencies.

UNHCR coordinates international action for theprotection of refugees, part of which includesensuring primary education for all refugee children(UNHCR, 2000). UNHCR’s Department forInternational Protection (DIP) has included educa-tion in its recently-adopted Agenda for Protection.UNHCR’s education work has included developingcurricula initiatives in the areas of education forpeace, conflict resolution and human rights, andenvironmental awareness. However, the review ofUNHCR’s child-related efforts in 2002, whileseeing education as one of the keys to ‘operational-ising’ the protection function, warned that budgetreductions threatened this capacity (ValidInternational, 2002).

UNESCO’s emergency education work emphasisesthe need to extend support beyond the short term.The Programme for Education in Emergencies andReconstruction (UNESCO PEER), based inNairobi, has developed a set of mobile teaching-learning materials called the Teacher EmergencyPackage (TEP). First established in Mogadishu in1993, UNESCO PEER has expanded to the rest ofSomalia and Somaliland, and the refugee camps inKenya, Djibouti, Yemen and Ethiopia. It played aprincipal role in education response for the Rwandancrisis (Devadoss et al, 1996).

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In 2002–2003, the UNESCO International Institutefor Educational Planning (IIEP) and Section forSupport to Countries in Crisis and Reconstructionare developing a joint programme to ‘build govern-ments’ capacity to plan and manage education inemergencies’. Beginning with the documentation ofcase studies that illustrate different emergencyprofiles, researchers will review education responsesin East Timor, Honduras, Kosovo, Palestine andRwanda. In addition to drawing out lessons learnedand producing a series of policy studies, materials willbe developed to conduct training with ministries ofeducation (Talbot, 2002). Concurrently, theUNESCO International Bureau of Education(UNESCO IBE) is undertaking a study oncurriculum change and social cohesion in conflict-affected societies (Tawil and Harley, 2002). Researchwill take place in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guatemala,Lebanon, Mozambique, Northern Ireland, Rwandaand Sri Lanka.

The World Food Programme is the largest organiserof school feeding programmes throughout the devel-oping world. In 2001, 15m children were fed inschools in over 57 countries (WFP, 2003). WFPprovides food for students and teachers, usually in theform of school meals, as part of its emergencyresponse.WFP focuses on increasing girls’ enrolment;in Pakistan, for instance, a programme providingedible oil to girls was credited with increasing theschool attendance of Afghan refugee girls (IASC,2002a).

The ICRCThe ICRC’s work in education ispart of its mandate under theGeneva Conventions.The ExploringHumanitarian Law project designscurriculum materials on interna-tional humanitarian law for adoles-cents (Tawil, 2000). In selectedcrises, ICRC provides assistance forschools, such as in the Mindanaoregion of the Philippines, inChechnya and in Bosnia.

NGOsInternational NGOs working in theemergency education sectorinclude the Academy for EducationDevelopment (AED), CAREInternational, CRS, the ChristianChildren’s Fund (CCF), IRC,NRC and the Save the ChildrenAlliance. A number of regional andlocal NGOs also play a lead role inimplementing education response

in their areas of operation. As this group is vast, thissection looks at the work of some of the more promi-nent agencies engaged internationally.

IRC set up a Children and Armed Conflict Unit inthe wake of the Machel Report of 1996. In 1999, thepost of education technical advisor was established,and the scope of IRC’s work in this area hascontinued to expand.With a focus on rapid responseand displaced populations, IRC operates educationprojects in nearly 20 countries. In Africa, it hasformed a protection consortium, which includeseducation, along with CCF and Save the ChildrenUS. IRC will host the focal point for the WorkingGroup on Standards.

The NRC includes education as one of its ‘fourpillars’ of humanitarian response. It operatesNorwegian and African Standby Forces, ready fordeployment in 72 hours, many of whom areseconded to UN agencies. The NRC is operationalin 11 countries around the globe, and has developedTeacher Education Packages and human rightseducation programmes. NRC has been a majoradvocate of the sector, and currently chairs the INEEsteering group.

In 2001, the International Save the Children Alliancebegan to work closely together on strengtheningtheir education response. Since then, a joint set oftraining materials has been prepared, and shared prin-ciples for programming developed. Of the national


A makeshift school in East Timor

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member organisations, Canada, Denmark, Norway,Sweden, the UK and the US actively support educa-tion in emergencies. Save the Children Sweden andNorway each maintain an Emergency Stand-by Teamthat seconds community services officers, who lookinto education as part of other social service-relatedneeds, to UNHCR for three to six months. Save theChildren UK supports education in around 30 coun-tries affected by emergencies, and has produced aguide drawing on its experiences (Nicolai, 2003). In2002, the agency hosted an emergency educationofficer for the Alliance. Save the Children US imple-ments emergency education in some 24 crisis-affected countries. The agency has also produced afield guide on education as part of a series onchildren in crisis (Triplehorn, 2001).

Refugees represent a particular area of emergencyeducation programming. Organisations with thisfocus include the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS),which works with refugees and displaced people inover 40 countries, with special strength in Africa. InNairobi, the JRS has what is probably the world’sonly resource centre for education in emergencies,with material specifically related to populations incrisis. The Refugee Education Trust, established byUNHCR but now operating independently and re-examining its role, was originally conceived as amajor refugee education fund, channelling resourcesto those in the field engaged in secondary and voca-

tional education. Finally, the Women’s Commissionfor Refugee Women and Children advocates foreducation as essential to the protection of childrenand adolescents affected by armed conflict. It hasconducted participatory field studies among adoles-cents in Kosovo, Uganda and Sierra Leone. It has alsoundertaken a global survey on education in emergen-cies in an effort to build a database detailing thesector’s scope of work.

DonorsBecause education has traditionally been seen as partof development work, not humanitarian relief,humanitarian donors have generally been reluctant tofund emergency education responses. Moreover, fewbilateral donors have a policy specifically on educa-tion in countries in, or emerging from, conflict. Anotable exception is the Swedish agency Sida, whichhas produced guidelines for humanitarian assistancein the education sector.These list the right to educa-tion as the basis of grants, and highlight that protec-tion can serve as a further justification for educationprogrammes in humanitarian situations (Sida, 2002).

Other bilateral agencies have shown interest in thesector, and have funded emergency educationprojects.The Norwegian aid organisation NORAD,for example, has supported the sector through itspartnership with the NRC emergency team. The

Box 7: Sida’s guidelines on humanitarian assistance in education

Sida’s guidelines, Education in Situations ofEmergency, Conflict and Post-conflict, state thatthe agency will consider:

1. Supporting countries in situations of emer-gency, conflict and post-conflict to meet theeducation needs of children, young peopleand adults.

2. Supporting and assisting Swedish, internationalor local NGOs to build up capacity to inter-vene in the education sector.

3. Supporting various international networks andparticipating in them in order to advocate theimportance of education.

4. Supporting UN agencies and other organisa-tions to deliver education services andpromote long-term sectoral development.

5. Promoting and supporting research in this area.6. In exceptional cases, supporting individual

scholarship funds/programmes.

Box 8: Education in emergencies: resource implications

Implementing successful educational programmesin poor areas is expensive. Calculating these costs isnot, however, straightforward at country level, letalone globally. According to the EFA monitoringreport in 2002, Afghanistan’s projected educationsupport requirements for 2002–2003 ranged from$70m to $437.5m. The report estimated that, ifman-made crises or natural disasters caused a 25%increase in the annual costs of primary education injust four or five countries, an extra half a billiondollars would be necessary globally (UNESCO,2002).

Education programmes require continual support;in some cases, they become more, rather thanless, expensive over time. Effective educationprogrammes should give more children access toeducation, and greater numbers of childrenshould be retained in the education system. Thisrequires additional school staff, space, furnitureand learning materials.

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UK’s Department for International Development(DFID) has explored the impact of conflicts oneducation in a study partly meant to inform internalpolicies on the subject. The US Agency forInternational Development (USAID) and theBureau for Population, Refugees and Migration(BPRM) have both shown signs of interest; they aremajor funding sources especially for US NGOs, as isthe Canadian International Development Agency(CIDA) for Canadian agencies. ECHO has alsoshown a new openness to including this sector in itswork.

Operational frameworksAs collaborative initiatives between agencies advance,the best practices necessary to provide quality educa-tion in times of crisis will become increasingly clear.Even so, the diversity of crisis, agency mandates andfunding mean that it will be impossible to putforward a generic approach to education in emergen-cies. Factors such as the capacity and priorities of thelocal or host government, the availability of facilitiesand the presence or otherwise of pre-existing educa-tion systems and staff will all influence implementa-tion decisions, as will the level of distress and violencethe affected population has experienced. That said,general frameworks have begun to emerge.

The phased approachThe phased approach to education in emergenciesseeks to develop programming through the differentphases of a crisis. The three-phase model of RapidEducational Response was first proposed in a jointpublication by UNESCO, UNHCR and UNICEF(Aguilar and Retamal, 1998). Suggested for use in the

initial months following large-scale displacement, thismodel proposes that education in emergencies shouldfocus initially on establishing recreationalprogrammes, which then move into non-formaleducation and eventually the establishment of formaleducation.This model includes the caveat that phasesmay be implemented simultaneously, and implies thatat some point no educational services exist forrefugee and displaced children.

The ‘Immediately, Sooner, Later’ matrix, a moredetailed model of phased response developed bySinclair and Triplehorn, was proposed as a flexibleguide for humanitarian actors’ educational activities.This matrix includes the overarching themes ofprotection and psychosocial support that were notaddressed in the earlier model. Additionally, it positsthat, within emergency education, there are certaincore areas – including academic subjects, life skillsand capacity-building – all of which must beincluded regardless of the context. Implementationfollows a general progression, but is not bound to aspecific timeframe. (The ‘Immediately, Sooner, Later’matrix of response is in Annex 1, page 30.)

The child-centred approachWhile useful in articulating how educationprogrammes can be rapidly implemented and howthey can change over time, the phased models used inisolation focus on the operations of the humanitarianagency, rather than the children and their communi-ties. The ‘Circle of Learning’, proposed in work forSave the Children, provides an alternative that putschildren at the centre of the decisions determiningthe response (Nicolai, 2003). The accompanyingdiagram (Figure 2) provides an overview of four


Box 9: The phased approach in West Timor

At the height of the violence in East Timor in September 1999, over 250,000 refugees poured over theborder into West Timor. Many children were living in crowded camp environments, and few had access tolocal schools which were already under-resourced. UNICEF, along with its implementing partner theAtambua diocese of the Catholic Church, began setting up ‘tent schools’ in camps.

The programme initially aimed at recreation and psychosocial support. A modified Indonesian curriculumwas introduced, which focused on literacy, mathematics and life skills. By mid-2000, when over two-thirdsof the refugees had returned to East Timor, UNICEF began negotiating with the district education authori-ties to enrol refugee students within local schools, and for the local authorities to take over managing someof the ‘tent schools’ (Jiyono, 2000). However, the murder of three UNHCR workers in September 2000 andthe subsequent UN evacuation meant that no support could be given to this process. As the ‘tent schools’had no links to the formal system, most were soon closed. Six months later, SC UK returned to West Timor,and found local schools stretched far beyond their capacities. As it was no longer safe to work within thecamps, the organisation focused on building capacity within local schools to integrate refugee children.

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education approaches, which could potentially beimplemented simultaneously:

• Support for existing governmental and commu-nity educational systems and initiatives.

• Special measures to return children to school,such as sensitisation and community-awarenesscampaigns for girls, minorities and returningrefugees and IDPs and accelerated learningprogrammes for young people and demobilised

child soldiers to help them achieve a recognisedlevel of education, and where possible return tothe classroom.

• Out-of-school alternatives, like literacy and lifeskills education for displaced children who do notplan to return to school.

• Coordinating non-school-age programmes foryoung children and adolescents, such as early child-hood education provided within refugee camps, orvocational skills’ training for young refugees.

Well-being ofthe child

• Cognitive• Psychosocial

Out-of-school alternatives

• Structured learning• Child-led initiatives

Non-school age programmes

• Adolescent education• Early childhood development

Measures toreturn childrento school• Advocacy for

access• Accelerated

learning programmes

• Short term relief

Existing education• State

structures• Community

board• School

committees

Figure 2: The ‘Circle of Learning’

This circle is geared to the provision of basic education, with an emphasis on primary schooling. In many emergencies, there is an overlap

between these interventions, for instance between ‘out of school alternatives’ and ‘adolescent education and support’. Basic education is

now often conceived of as primary and lower secondary, or about ten years of schooling. With unclear age-group distinctions in many

countries, it is not uncommon for adolescents to attend lower grades than would normally be expected.

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Education programmes can protect children, butthey can also put them at risk. While this paperargues that the protective benefits of educationoutweigh the negatives, this is not proven andcannot be applied to all situations. Recent humani-tarian interventions, in West Africa, Guinea or SierraLeone, for example, have shown that educationactivities may subject children to abuse, or makethem more vulnerable to military recruitment.These risks deserve serious attention, but theyshould not cause education to be discounted as atool of protection. Programmes should be designedto enhance education’s inherent protective aspects,while frankly and simultaneously addressing thepotential risks.

Maximising the opportunitiesProtection is a developing field, and humanitarianagencies have few frameworks to guide them in integrating protection into their activities.The recentIASC publication Growing the Sheltering Tree: ProtectingRights through Humanitarian Action provides a possibleframework through a series of practical field-basedexamples (IASC, 2002a). In encouraging an inte-grated approach, the suggestions are structuredaround ‘four pillars’ of protection based on sugges-tions first made by Diane Paul (Paul, 1999).The fourareas identified as central to putting protection intopractice are: leadership and collaborative work inprotection; negotiating access to people under threatand ensuring the right to humanitarian assistance;‘conscious’ presence (the strategic implementation ofprogrammes to promote protection and preventviolations); and programme process (assessment,planning and evaluation).

Applying these areas specifically to education inemergencies and its potential to enhance childprotection, this chapter considers:

• the leadership potential within the educationstructures of conflict-affected communities;

• education’s role in enhancing access for vulnerablechildren;

• the importance of visible presence as a deterrentto violence against children; and

• the role of teachers and schools in implementingeducation efforts and gathering and giving outprotection-related information.

Community leadershipA community’s concern for its children can be one ofthe best protection resources, and can be reachedthrough schools. Diane Paul, editor of Growing theSheltering Tree, suggests that school representativescould act as a ‘protection liaison’, providing a centralpoint for sharing information. Education committeeswould make ideal allies in such a protection role;indeed, they may themselves become an importantpsychosocial tool. In some situations, such as theCommunity Education Committees in the BeletWayne district of Somalia, committees have receivedpsychosocial training to enable them to enhance theirparenting skills to deal with traumatised childrenwithin their community.

Education committees are likely to comprisecommunity leaders with an interest in child protec-tion, as these are the same issues that affect their ownchildren. The first role of the group should be toencourage children to attend school, and parents toparticipate in education activities. While they maynot initially be familiar with the idea of protection,individuals from the committee could be trained, inturn training others, on children’s rights, local laws orthe identification of vulnerable children.

Education committees can potentially play a largerrole in protection. As an example, humanitarianorganisations typically include child rights in their

4

Strengthening the links betweeneducation and protection

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training of education committees; what is lacking,however, is follow-up to make protection manifest.This lack of follow-up can make school educationcommittees believe that their purpose is to mobiliseresources to build the school or raise money, ratherthan taking a more comprehensive view of providingfor the welfare of their children. In Liberia, IRC-trained Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) identifiedstudents not attending school, and teachers followedup with the individual families. For girls, this wascommonly due to pregnancy; in some instances,PTAs were instrumental in young mothers returningto school.

By their nature, education committees are well-placed to identify allies and extend local networksconcerned with protection. In Kosovo, where PTAswere poorly developed, the IRC supported localwomen’s groups to conduct house-by-house surveysof the educational needs of all the girls and women intheir villages. This identified girls who had nevergone to school, as well as those being prevented fromattending. In both instances, the women’s groupsworked with local schools to develop appropriateprogrammes and advocacy. In Rwanda, UNICEFdeveloped partnerships with education committeesto identify at-risk children, as well as potential inter-ventions. The Committees then developed projectswhich linked education and protection. Examplesinclude support for the education of orphans,domestic workers and child-headed households, andaccelerated learning for children who had droppedout of school or who had missed their first chance ofenrolment (Baldah, personal communication).

Children can also take the lead in their own protec-tion, and often address a wide range of education-focused goals through their activities. At an Afghanrefugee camp in Bajaur Agency, Pakistan, forexample, Save the Children supports groups ofchildren to participate in ‘reflect-action’ circles toidentify their protection concerns. Important issuestypically span a range of topics, from latrines toearly marriages, but many centre around schooling.Thus, the group brought its concerns aboutteaching aids being resold by school staff in themarket to the attention of community leaders, whohave since taken action (Save the Children, 2002).In Liberia, Don Bosco facilitated the formation of achild protection network through elections ofschool representatives, called junior counsellors.This group prepared a detailed report of abuse inschools, such as money or sexual favours beingexchanged for good grades. The report led to thedismissal of many teachers and the introduction ofcodes of conduct for teachers and students(McCauley, undated).

Facilitating accessWhen providing protection, access to vulnerablechildren is vital.This is usually thought of in terms ofhumanitarian space: the use of aid to reach vulnerablepeople and so increase a sphere of influence.UNICEF, for example, has promoted the concept ofchildren as ‘zones of peace’ and facilitated ceasefiresor ‘days of tranquillity’ that enable the provision ofservices to children. In the DRC, initiatives such asthese have enabled students in rebel-held areas to sitfor state exams (Kastberg, 2002).

In education, access also means such issues as schoolenrolment and attendance. In conflict areas, this maybe acutely difficult as ‘many children who should bein school are hard to find, hard to get into school, andit is hard to make sure they remain there untilcompleting, at the very least, their primary education’(Sommers, 2002). Whatever their source, barriers tochildren attending school are indicative of largerprotection issues – discrimination, security, poverty orgeographic isolation. Education programmes need tobe aware of obstacles to access, and incorporatestrategies to overcome them. Thus, emergencysupport may seek to eliminate barriers such as schoolfees or difficulties around non-payment of teachers orlack of equipment, for example, thus facilitatingaccess for children who might not otherwise be ableto fully participate. The concentration of peoplewithin refugee camps may offer an opportunity toexpand educational access to children who previously

Box 10: ‘Child-Friendly Spaces’

Developing designated safe areas in the aftermathof acute crisis can be an important mechanism ofprotection for children. In refugee camps, forexample, the simple demarcation of an area withrope, plastic tape or stones can preserve a spacefor children that can later be developed into aschool or a playing area. UNICEF’s ‘Child FriendlySpaces’ provide integrated educational, healthand social support services for conflict-affectedfamilies. The concept was first used in 1999 in theKosovar refugee camps in Albania andMacedonia. While school classes and recreationserved as core activities, the model offered astructure for ensuring that other children’sservices, such as early childhood care, psychoso-cial counselling, infant feeding, nutritionalsupport, basic health care and hygiene, wereavailable. The concept has subsequently beenadapted for use in Afghanistan, Angola, EastTimor, El Salvador, Guinea, Kosovo, Liberia andTurkey (Siegrist 2002, personal communication).

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did not have it due to poverty or a lack of schools intheir areas. Sometimes, the challenge can be as basicas a failure to recognise a school as a school. InTanzania, for instance, it took two years for thegovernment to permit refugees from Burundi toreceive ‘formal’ primary education. Previously,schools in the refugee camps had been referred to asChild Activity Centres, which were not able toprovide children with the same certification as formalschooling. The government still does not allowrefugee children to receive formal secondary educa-tion (Eversmann, undated).

Presence as preventionPresence, most commonly understood as thepresence of outside observers, can offer a sort of‘protecting witness’ for civilian populations. In theprotection lexicon, this means that internationalwitnesses are on the scene (IASC, 2002a). Thus,visible support of schools and safe areas places theparticipating children under the protective umbrellaof the supporting organisations.This presence, shownthrough agency stickers and flags and by monitoringin marked humanitarian vehicles, may be a deterrentfor individuals or parties wanting to harm children.

Local groups or communities may play this rolethemselves. In Sri Lanka, for example, the LTTE wasless likely to conscript children from areas whereinternational organisations were involved with localpartners (Shutta, personal communication, 2002).Although international actors were not physicallypresent at all times, it was clear that local groups werein easy contact with them. Similarly, in Kosovo IRC

and CCF sought to generatecommunity support for the educa-tion of Roma children. This tookmany forms: in some communi-ties, Roma children were escortedto school by other children; inmore hostile areas they wereescorted by parents. Both organisa-tions also sought to include theRoma in wider community activi-ties, such as sport or cultural activ-ities like dance.

Assessment, dissemination,reporting and monitoringMulti-sectoral assessment shouldinclude an effort to understand thecapacities of existing communityservices, such as schools.This helpsto identify where the internationalcommunity is not needed, andareas where support can be offeredfor a limited period of time. As a

means of identifying potential violations and threats,OHCHR’s training manual on human rights moni-toring states that the assessment of children’s rightsshould include reference to the role of ‘structures’,including ‘access to schools and health care; thestrength of immediate and extended family struc-tures; and the effectiveness of government ministrieswith responsibility for issues affecting children.Analyses should be aware of both modern and tradi-tional structures’ (OHCHR, 2001). Humanitarianactors should also survey beneficiary communities todetermine protection concerns.

Educational activities can ensure daily attention ispaid to children. In this respect, education differsfrom health programmes that monitor only the sick,and from food-distribution programmes with theirperiodic character. Teachers at schools are aware ofchildren’s needs and can facilitate screening forchildren who require special assistance. If children donot come to school, teachers should be asking wherethey are – and following up.Teachers can also provideinformation about:

• where families can be registered, or where a childtracing form can be submitted;

• how to obtain medical and social services, andinformation on food distributions;

• where to report crimes, including general securityinformation;

• news from home, such as the current status ofpeace negotiations;

• announcements from community groups, such aswomen’s group meetings; and


Literacy classes in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan

© Jam

es Barabazon, 2001

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• human rights education, on such instruments asthe Convention on the Rights of the Child or theRefugee Convention, translated and explained.

If the proper mechanisms exist, teachers and studentscan report abuses, rights violations or generalconcerns. Essential to any such process is trust, confi-dentiality and follow through on the part of theagency. Because this could potentially become toopolitical or unsafe, proper oversight is important. InPakistan, IRC’s protection unit learned of domesticviolence from the agency’s extensive teachernetwork. Teachers knew that the abuse washappening, but did not know where to go or what todo with the information. Women’s centres wereeventually created to help deal with this issue (Smith,2002, personal communication). In early 2003, the

IRC piloted a protection reporting form for teachers(see Annex 2).

Monitoring educational activities can provide abarometer of children’s protection needs in the largercommunity. For example, marked drops in the atten-dance of girls could be an indicator of stress, if scarcefinancial resources lead families to invest in boys overgirls. In some countries, UNICEF maintainsdatabases of children enrolled in school to provideinformation to monitor and prevent recruitment(Mahalingam, 2002). This kind of monitoring needsto happen at the local level; collecting national orregional statistics has limited direct effect on childprotection.The value of monitoring lies in empow-ering local communities to identify issues and themeans to address them. If the government or an

Box 11: Assessment questions which link education and protection

Protecting children is often guided by knowing what to look for and what questions to ask. The followingare a series of questions that may be asked of children, parents, education officials and leaders to identifylinks between protection and education.

Education and protection needs• How has the conflict affected education? Where are children presently learning? Have school opera-

tions been affected by the conflict, by closures, double shifts or home schooling, for example? Can theinternational community reach all of these sites?

• Do education activities exist? Who does and does not attend them? Why? Is it because of the languageof instruction, discriminatory messages by teachers or textbooks, a lack of accreditation, the need towork, discrimination, disability?

• Do children urgently need vital information to protect themselves, for instance on HIV/AIDS, familyplanning or landmine awareness?

• Do children have access to opportunities to earn a living through vocational education and apprentice-ships?

• Is the area safe? Is it cleared of landmines or unexploded ordnance? Does learning occur in a struc-turally-sound building with sufficient sanitation facilities?

Educational and protection capacity• Does attendance protect or endanger children? Are children at risk when they are in or travelling to

educational activities?• Are teachers and facilitators trained? Who monitors their work? Would they be interested in further

training?• Is the community involved in providing education? What is their role in child protection? What types of

cases have they dealt with? How inclusive is the participation? Which sections of the community areinvolved, and which are not? What groups work with children, aside from those associated withschools? Can activities be linked?

• What systems are in place to monitor child protection issues, such as student attendance and matricu-lation data? Who interprets and

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