Walk the Talk: Review of donor’s humanitarian policies on education

Education is a fundamental right for all children in all situations. Yet in the world today, about 58 million primary school aged children are denied their right to education (UNESCO, 2015). Half of them, 28.5 million, live in conflict and crisis affected areas (UNESCO, 2014).

Despite increased recognition of the important role that education may play for children and young people affected by crisis, education remains the most underfunded of all humanitarian sectors. In 2014 education received less than 2% of all humanitarian funding.

This review was commissioned by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Save the Children to better understand the landscape of donors’ humanitarian policies on education and the role such policies play in influencing education in emergencies practice. The sample of donors analyzed for this review included Australia, Canada, Denmark, European Union (EU)/European Commission (EC), Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US).