The EU has decided to provide an additional €6.5 million to Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for the education of children in emergencies and protracted crises, launched in 2016.
This amount, announced on 12 April by the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, brings the total EU contribution to the fund to €27.5 million.
ECW enables governments, multilateral institutions and the private sector to support comprehensive education programmes for children and young people whose education has been interrupted or who have been totally deprived of school due to conflict or crisis. The fund also addresses longer-term needs in protracted crises through multi-year resilience programmes.
“Vulnerable children, especially girls, refugees and displaced children, have been the worst hit by Covid-19. At this critical time, we must protect and increase financing to education. And leverage every partnership to reach these vulnerable children and bring them back to education”, the Commissioner said in a video message. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)