While humanitarian aid for children’s education, mobilised by the EU in emergencies and protracted crises, has achieved most of its objectives in recent years, it would be more effective if it were more sustainable, targeted more at girls and subject to better cost analysis, says the European Court of Auditors in a report published on Thursday 21 January.
This report is the result of an audit of projects in Jordan and Uganda, where EU commitments from 2017 to 2019 amounted to 18 million euros and 16 million euros respectively.
The aim was to assess whether EU humanitarian aid for education was effective in helping children and whether it was delivered efficiently, given that the budget for this item has been increased to 10% of EU humanitarian expenditure, or 169 million euros in 2019.
EU funding includes building or rehabilitating classrooms, providing teaching aids and furniture, training teachers and fast-tracking education to help children return to school.
The auditors found that EU aid is helping to restore and maintain children’s access to safe, good quality education during humanitarian crises. The projects were relevant and well coordinated and the European Commission addressed the problems it had identified during the monitoring visits.
However, most projects are too short (10-12 months) to cover the multi-year educational needs of children in long-term crises. As a result, EU aid has been less efficient and less able to provide sustainable solutions. Not to mention that a short duration increases administrative costs for humanitarian partner organisations of ECHO (the Commission’s humanitarian aid department), according to the auditors.
The proportion of girls targeted and/or reached by education projects does not reflect the greater disadvantages they face. While they are more likely to participate in household chores, suffer violence and marry early, the projects are, on the whole, targeted at boys.
Finally, EU ‘cash-for-education’ projects do little to reduce the dependency of beneficiaries on cash grants.
Recommendations. The Court therefore recommends to the Commission: - to make greater use of the results of the Enhanced Response Capability projects; - to provide more support for girls; - to provide longer-term funding for education in protracted crises; - to improve cost analysis when selecting and monitoring education projects; - to make the results of cash-for-education projects sustainable once its humanitarian aid has ended, for example by promoting self-reliance and directing more beneficiary families towards livelihood solutions. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)