It is with heartfelt thanks and great satisfaction that we offer you our best Season’s Greetings and wishes for the New Year, reflecting on all that we have accomplished since the launch of the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies at the start of 2021 and looking forward to an even more eventful 2022.
We began this year with our launch, at which 10 initial founding-member-organizations realised their pledge to turn the Global EiE Hub idea into reality. Since then, 22 more organizations have joined. The speed and eagerness with which this community has come together have been gratifying to see, and also speaks to the need the EiE Hub responds to, and the sheer amount of energy and expertise that is available and ready to be tapped into in order to bring EiE to scale. It confirms the value of our initiative.
We have been able to host, co-host or facilitate numerous events and activities over this past year. These have included:
- Technical meetings, consultations and side events which, taken together, have involved well over 1,000 online participants. Once on-site meetings became possible in the latter part of the year, the Geneva Global Hub for EiE brought together about 100 in-person attendees as well.
- Events have included the ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment side event and a high-level meeting; a Human Rights Council side event; a Geneva meet-up about the safety of schools, meetings on EiE data and a preparatory side event to the HLOM on the importance of language in teaching displaced learners, an intervention at the RewirEd Summit, and more.
- Targeted advocacy actions were taken on the International Day to Protect Education From Attack and in response to the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.
- Relationships have been created and nourished with numerous Permanent Missions in Geneva, peace, displacement, human rights actors and others.
The above has been facilitated by the strengthening of the institution and gradual building of capacity which proceeded throughout the year. Culminating in the following:
- The opening of a shared working space, officially launched in October at rue de Varembé 7 – a work and meeting space for the education in emergencies community.
- The launch of the Geneva Global Hub for EiE’s website in November: https://eiehub.org
- The initiation of a process to develop a 4-year strategy for joint impact, which is ongoing.
All this and more has been made possible thanks to the dedication and expertise of our members – and we are grateful for their active involvement.
As we plan for the year ahead, we look forward to and count on continued engagement from our members, partners and the global Education in Emergencies community. We must all keep pushing to give EiE the exposure it needs through key engagements across sectors. Our experience in 2021, during which time we have seen growing interest in the topic and positive responses to our outreach, shows that the opportunity is there, the need is clear, and the time is right. Let’s keep reaching further.
Click here to read the Geneva Global Hub for EiE’s full December newsletter, and click here to subscribe to future newsletters.
