30.8.2024

FCA’s grants 100,000 euros to humanitarian assistance for education in emergencies in Ethiopia

FCA released 100,000 euros from its Disaster Fund to address the most urgent needs of children from internally displaced populations in and from Ethiopia’s Oromia and Amhara regions, primarily to support Education in Emergencies (EiE)

THE EDUCATION IN EMERGENCIES project aims to improve access to safe, protective, and inclusive primary education for crisis-affected and displaced children in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.  

The humanitarian situation across Ethiopia remains dire, with complex and multi-dimensional factors continuously worsening life for millions, including 4.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) and over 1 million refugees. UNICEF estimates that 7.7 million children are out of school and highlights it as the world’s worst education crisis.  

According to data in 2024, 18 per cent of the country’s schools are partially or fully damaged due to conflict and climate shocks. Some 5,000 schools are closed; more than 900 schools have an armed presence, and over 100 schools are used by IDPs as shelters. Despite the acute needs, Ethiopia’s overall education response needs were only 7 percent funded by June 2024. 

To address the acute educational needs and to establish FCA as a humanitarian and implementing actor in Ethiopia, the project will be implemented for eight months from September 2024 to April 2025, jointly with a local partner, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).   

The project aims to:

  • Increase access to safe, protective, and inclusive emergency non-formal primary education through an Accelerated Education Programme (AEP) for IDP children out of school.
  • Improve community and school resilience, protection, and disaster preparedness to emergency and climatic shocks.  
  • Strengthen strategic humanitarian advocacy for the inclusion of the Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) and AEP pathways to formal education in the revised national AEP principles and guidelines and enhancement of the Safe School Declaration.

FCA already has a presence in Ethiopia through its African Union Liaison Office, which was launched in 2023.

Photo: a schoolchild at their desk during a class taking place under a similar FCA implemented AEP programme in Uganda. Credit: Hugh Rutherford/FCA