The foreign aid cuts from 2025 have taken a devastating toll on children and youth in need of education in emergency settings. In Their Own Words: Students, teachers and frontline education providers on the devastating impact of aid cuts, a new briefing from the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies, the Global Education Cluster and the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies, highlights the human consequences of these cuts through the voices of those most affected on the frontlines of crises: students, teachers and local education providers.
- Children and young people have been forced to drop out of school completely, or to try to learn without access to basic supplies. For many, the aid cuts have also meant losing vital services they used to access through schools: food, water, healthcare and protection.
- Teachers, who are vital to children’s learning and development in crisis, have seen their salaries reduced or jobs being cut. Those able to continue to work are struggling with larger class sizes and caring for students increasingly in need of support.
- Local education providers have been forced to reduce programming, or even to shut down fully. This has had harsh consequences in particular for the most at-risk children and young people in emergencies.
“It feels unfair, but what can we do? I want to study, I want to be a doctor, but without the right materials, it feels like I’m losing the fight.”
Maria*, a 16-year-old refugee in Tanzania, who has been without exercise books and other supplies due to cuts to foreign funding in 2025
The 2025 funding cuts do not represent a marginal adjustment to the humanitarian response, but rather a structural rupture with far-reaching consequences. Sustained, predictable and adequately resourced education is essential, not only to protect children today, but to prevent the deepening of humanitarian crises tomorrow. Funding for education is not only cost-effective, but has widespread, positive ripple effects for children and youth, their communities and societies at large.
As the aid sector continues to grapple with the effects of a fundamentally changed funding landscape, it is critical that the right of children and youth to access inclusive, quality education remains at the heart of decisions on resourcing. The briefing includes a full set of recommendations for funding actors, education stakeholders and others.
“It wasn’t easy abandoning my profession, [in particular due to] my connection to the children and adult learners. Abandoning my dream to [teach] in my community was indeed difficult and painful.”
Zebron, a teacher in a refugee camp in Zambia who lost his job due to funding cuts