In association with The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Bank.
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. This pledge seeks to ensure financing, technical support, and political will to include all refugee children in national education systems. This is defined as the ability for refugee children to attend schools that are part of the host country’s public system, funded through government channels, and attended by both refugee and host children. The partners acknowledged that parallel systems, often funded by donors and multilaterals, can be inefficient and fail to provide the same opportunities as national schools. Based on the World Bank and UNHCR estimates, the cost of enrolling all refugee children who live in low-income countries in national schools is about $310 million a year. That is about 2.5 percent of what the OECD members are currently spending on refugee programs in developing countries. In other words, it is not beyond what is possible. The challenge is to find ways to make it happen.
The Wilton Park Dialogue gathered close to 50 officials from ministries of education, national refugee agencies, refugee-led organizations, researchers, think tanks, bilateral and multilateral partners, foundations, and civil society to discuss this challenge and the pledge’s implementation progress. The objectives were to share lessons and best practices from key countries, discuss operational questions on implementation, strengthen responses, build trust and foster collaboration across institutions and partners.
The mega pledge demonstrates the current commitment by different actors to address refugee education which has led to a real transformation over the past few years. The level of integration of refugee issues in the agendas of host countries and their partners witnessed today would have been unimaginable 15 years ago. National policies in many countries have significantly improved refugees’ access to education and there is growing dialogue about shared responsibilities.
Looking ahead, achieving global, large-scale action as set out in the Global Compact requires shifts in i) perspectives on the problem, ii) policies and financing, and iii) system-level approaches and school-level interventions. These shifts are needed across host countries and the international community supporting them, requiring strong collaboration between the parties. There is a call for thinking big and acting now, making sure that the beneficiaries are part of the solution.