Assessment for Lifesaving Learning (ALL): Pilot Findings and Recommendations (Somalia, 2026)

The lifesaving role of Education in Emergencies (EiE) is widely acknowledged yet remains largely unmeasured, particularly during the acute phase of humanitarian crises. Lifesaving learning, which encompasses risk-specific knowledge, protective behaviors, and psychosocial coping strategies, appears throughout sectoral guidance and programming, but the field lacks standardized tools to assess whether children actually acquire these skills. This presents early findings from the Assessment for Lifesaving Learning (ALL), a modular, hazard-specific measurement tool aligned with UN CERF lifesaving criteria. Grounded in experiential and social constructivist understandings of learning in crisis contexts, and building on prior work such as the Holistic Assessment of Learning and Development Outcomes (HALDO), ALL positions safety, protection, and survival as legitimate learning outcomes that are also ethically appropriate to assess in acute emergencies.

The tool uses close-ended, picture-based items differentiated for two age groups (4 to 11 and 12 to 17), with universal design features supporting accessibility. We report pilot results from Somalia, where data were collected from 324 children and adolescents across two locations (Baidoa and Beledweyne) and multiple delivery modalities, including schools, child-friendly spaces, and outreach centers. Internal consistency varied substantially across modules and age groups. Rather than disqualifying the tool, these estimates proved diagnostic, identifying where item counts, dimensionality, and administration procedures require refinement. We share methodological recommendations, including expanded item pools, strengthened cognitive interviewing, systematic back translation, and redesigned response options, and discuss implications for scaling credible, ethical, child-centered measurement of lifesaving learning across crisis-affected contexts.