This year marks 25 years since the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) was first founded. To celebrate the occasion, stakeholders from across the Education in Emergencies (EiE) community and beyond came together in Geneva for an event to both reflect on achievements of the past quarter-century, and to look forward to new challenges and opportunities. The policy dialogue, “Shaping What’s Next for Education in Emergencies”, was co-organised by INEE, the EiE Hub and co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions of Colombia and Switzerland to the UN.
In his opening remarks, Ambassador Dominik Stillhart, Deputy Director General and Head of Humanitarian Aid and SHA Division, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, highlighted how INEE has become more than a network, but is instead a community that is greater than the sum of its parts. “INEE emerged to provide a space where different actors could come together for EiE. Crucially, this is a space where a teacher could speak on equal footing with a high-level donor executive.”
Dr Faiza Hassan, INEE’s Executive Director, reflected on how she had ended up in the education sector “by accident”, after buying a one-way ticket to Somalia in 2012 after the Federal Government was established there, and volunteering with the Ministry of Education. INEE was a huge help to her then, and has helped many others since, by providing technical guidance and expertise, and facilitating connections. Dr. Hassan, however, also stressed that the organisation is changing with the times: “Our members have told us clearly that they do not just want us to mirror the sector, but to be a constructive disruptor. We need to challenge the sector and address long-standing inequalities, promoting local leadership and initiatives.”
Raouf Mazou, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, UNHCR, spoke of the need to ensure that displaced children and youth can access education by strengthening existing structures, rather than creating parallel ones. “When I meet internally displaced persons or refugees, they all say the same thing: that education is the most important thing. This is what allows them to both integrate in communities and to build a future.” He also stressed the devastating impact of the year’s funding cuts on learners in crisis: “It is clear that, when choices had to be made, education was the hardest hit.”
Dr. Kawira Gikambi, Deputy Director for Education at the Ministry of Education in Kenya later spoke of how her government had dedicated considerable resources to education, but was also facing challenges ranging from climate shocks to humanitarian aid cuts. “We need more bold steps to ensure that resources reach local communities. This includes to schools so that they can both prepare for and respond to emergencies.”
Rachel Kamana, SDG4 Youth & Student Network Representative and founder of Pamoja na Watoto Foundation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, spoke of how her organisation had managed to help local communities access better quality education in eastern DRC, in part by drawing on the INEE Minimum Standards. “When aid shrinks, young people don’t give up, but try to adapt. However, this innovation cannot replace the need for international solidarity – we still often run up against the wall of a lack of funding.”
Ifedinma Nwigwe, Executive Director, Maple Leaf Early Years Foundation, spoke of how her organisation had tried to build schools in Nigeria that take a holistic approach to education: “Our schools are not just places of learning, but we try to provide a safe space for displaced children. Children need feeding, nutrition and psychosocial support, in particular in areas where trauma from armed conflict is high.”
The event also featured representatives from the major education foundations, as Margarita Focas Light, Director of Partnerships at the Global Partnership for Education, and Daniel Toole, Interim Director of Education Cannot Wait, spoke of how their respective organisations had evolved over the years to provided significant and life-changing funding in crisis-affected and fragile contexts. With the next replenishments for both ECW and GPE scheduled for 2026, the sector faces a decisive test of collective resolve to protect education for children in crisis settings.
Moderator Petra Heusser, Executive Director of the EiE Hub, and Dr. Julia Siebert, Advisor to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and INEE Steering Group Co-Chair, rounded out the event by summarising discussions, and stressing INEE’s key role in elevating EiE on the global policy agenda over the past 25 years.
INEE 25: Shaping What’s Next for Education in Emergencies
