There are almost 15.5 million refugee children and youth worldwide. More than half of these children are not in school, deprived of their right to education and the chance of a better future.
In response to this critical challenge, partners at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum committed to the education ‘mega pledge’ for coordinated action on refugee education, promising financing, technical support and political will for action.
The pledge commits the 143 countries and organisations who have signed it to ensure that all refugee children are included in national education systems, alongside host community children and that financing flows through government channels. It aligns refugee education outcomes with national SDG targets, so host governments and the international community are accountable for improving access to quality education for refugees and host community children alike. It also commits to providing the financing and technical assistance required to address host governments’ challenges to inclusion.
This dialogue will bring together refugee host country governments and international partners to discuss the implementation progress that has been made on the pledge. For example, the World Bank is providing technical support to countries that open their schools to refugee children by helping governments implement programmes to help transition refugee children into host country schools through the Inclusion Support Programme for Refugee Education (INSPIRE).
This dialogue will bring together up to 45 officials from the Ministries of Education and national refugee agencies in key countries, as well as refugee-led organisations, researchers and think tanks, bilateral and multilateral partners, foundations and members of civil society with the following objectives:
- share lessons and best practice from key countries’ experience around the challenges and opportunities in delivering on the education ‘mega pledge’;
- discuss and compare operational questions on how to implement initiatives promoting refugees access to inclusive and equitable quality education in host country systems;
- build relationships of trust across institutions and partners to support countries with inclusion efforts;
- formulate actionable strategies and foster collaboration among stakeholders to improve the inclusion of refugees in national education systems.
In partnership with
