Protecting Education from Attack: A Call for Improving Data Monitoring and Policy Response

Virtual side event to the ECOSOC High-Level Political Forum

The event will be entirely virtual, with simultaneous translation provided in English and French. Please register here, by Tuesday, 5 July, to participate. The event will also be livestreamed on UN Web TV.

Background

Attacks on education have harrowing effects, ranging from tragic deaths on account of damage to physical infrastructure, psychological injuries and threats that lead to school disruption and loss of learning over time. Long recognized by the international community in Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Right to Education obliges Member States to ensure its protection, respect, and fulfilment for all. In contexts of armed conflict, this inalienable human right has been further reiterated and reinforced by international humanitarian law and other prominent soft law mechanisms and tools, such as the Safe Schools Declaration and its guidelines, which aim to protect schools from military use. However, as it stands, the right to education is denied for many conflict-affected children and other vulnerable populations who fall victim to attacks on education. To this end, much needs to be done to ensure stronger evidence-based policies and conducive environments at the national level for the effective implementation of international legal frameworks.

Objectives

Organized in the margins of the ECOSOC High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), the virtual side-event will underscore the need for Member States to ensure full protection of the right to education in times of armed conflict, and will particularly aim to enhance government capacities to formulate and implement evidence-based policies on attacks on education within national data systems to better guide their actions towards realizing SDG 4. More particularly, this virtual event will bring together UN Member States, UN agencies and education stakeholders to highlight key challenges and promising practices around the following objectives:

Inform key stakeholders on data, policy measures and tools needed to strengthen national capacities in order to effectively review, respond, prevent, and mitigate occurrences of attacks on education and military use of schools to better deliver and accelerate progress towards SDG 4.
Identify linkages for Member States to strengthen national action on data collection and analysis on attacks on education as enhanced data collection and management will allow for better-informed robust policies to prevent, mitigate and respond to attacks on education and ensure educational continuity for all during times of peace and war.
Promote greater quality and institutionalization of attacks on education data into national education systems to foster greater national ownership and increased harmonization and integration into education sector policies and plans. This will further enable the inclusion of the most vulnerable populations in crisis contexts while bridging the humanitarian-development divide in delivering education for all.
Secure further introduction of tools especially designed to assist refugees and vulnerable migrants, in particular Qualifications Passport for Refugees as a recognition tool particularly designed for these individuals.
Identify key recommendations on how to engage with international actors and mechanisms and optimize national actions in line with ongoing preparations for the Transforming Education Summit (TES), which aims to strengthen and accelerate the implementation of existing multilateral agreements, particularly the 2030 Agenda framework, and galvanize action towards meeting SDG4 goals at the national and global levels.

Organizers

This virtual event is co-organized by Belgium, Malta, Norway, the State of Qatar, Gabon, UNESCO and OSRSG-CAAC.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@yahoo.com or bknotts@uua.org.

The impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children & youth

The NGO Committee on Children’s Rights invites you to our October meeting in recognition of UN World Mental Health month. Register here!

Invited panel of experts:

Kira Herbert, Educator, Croton-Harmon UFSD, BS Education, MS Education, NYS Teacher of Excellence
Erlanger A. Turner, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist Pepperdine University

Moderator: Professor Roseanne Flores, Ph.D Dept. Psychology at Hunter College, NY & ECOSOC Representative, American Psychological Association (APA)

We’ll also hear the voices of school children and youth expressing their experiences during the pandemic. For questions or more information, please contact the Committee Secretary at marlena2173@gmail.com.

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CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Children’s Rights-NY is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. For more information on the NGO Committee on Intergenerational Solidarity, please email the vice chair at susanneseperson@gmail.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org.

Barriers, enablers, and solutions for disability inclusive education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dear colleagues,

The UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, Human Rights Watch, the World Bank’s Inclusive Education Initiative, Inclusion International and its Catalyst for Inclusive Education programme are co-hosting a side event in the framework of the 14th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The event titled “Barriers, enablers, and solutions for disability inclusive education during the COVID-19 Pandemic” is also co-sponsored by the Italian Government, the Mission of Panamá to the United Nations, the International Disability Alliance, Instituto Jô Clemente and the Brazilian Coalition of Inclusive Education.

We invite you to join us in this side event that will be held on Tuesday 15 June at 8:30am – 9:45am EDT (New York time).

Registration link: https://hrworg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Q0kjeYF4SW2AemQBhl7VjA

Speakers:

Opening Remarks: Antonio Caponetto, Director of the Office for Policies in favor of persons with disabilities of the Italian Government (Presidency of the Council of Ministers)
Moderator: Sue Swenson, President, Inclusion International

Panelists:

Gabriela Martinez, Inclusion International Regional Representative (Latin America)
Stella Reicher, Inclusion International / Instituto Jô Clemente (Brazil) Self-advocate, Inclusion International (Africa)
Karolina Kozik, Human Rights Watch (Italy – inclusive education in practice during COVID-19 example)
Charlotte McClain-Nhalpo, World Bank IEI Survey “Learners with Disabilities and COVID-19 School Closures”

Closing Remarks: Manos Antoninis, UNESCO GEM Report

For more information, please find our Guide to the Conference of State Parties 2021 at this link: https://inclusion-international.org/cosp-2021/

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights-NY, please visit childrightsny.org.

ASPBAE Asia Pacific Policy Dialogue on Education Financing

Dear ASPBAE Members and Friends,

We cordially invite you to join the ASPBAE Asia Pacific Policy Dialogue on Education Financing which will be held on Monday, 26 April 2021, at 1:00 pm Manila time (Philippine Standard Time).

This is a key Asia Pacific event as part of the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) held from 26-30 April and the One Billion Voices Campaign, both coordinated by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) and supported by ASPBAE. Each regional network member of GCE is holding an event on a different day of GAWE, and the Asia Pacific event by ASPBAE is the first one to start the week on Monday 26 April.

We hope you can join us in this event and encourage your colleagues to participate as well. There is no registration process required. Join the Zoom Meeting here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86001255005?pwd=M0h2ZVV3ZGY5VG51Zzl5OUZORDBlQT09
Meeting ID: 860 0125 5005; Passcode: 850131

The event will be attended by three senior government officials, one each from Timor Leste, the Philippines and Bangladesh speaking, along with a presentation from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), as well as a presentation from ASPBAE and a youth representative from NCE Nepal. There will be space at the end of the speeches and inputs for a number of questions to the speakers.

Objective:

The objective of the Asia Pacific Regional Dialogue on Education Financing is to encourage governments to mobilise national resources that can ensure inclusive education systems and programmes that prioritise the most marginalised.

Rationale:

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a huge gap between education spending, and what was actually needed to achieve SDG4. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated this gap, and has led to a curtailment of funding by donors and governments for the education of its people. More than ever, it is important for governments to step up and protect national education budgets, and even better, to increase them, especially to enable education access to rural and remote communities, people with disabilities, those that are missing out on school, unemployed youth, and those that have no access to online learning opportunities.

This online event is part of the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE), an annual international week of campaigning for improved national education policies and increased national education budgets. The theme of GAWE this year is education financing towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). GAWE is part of a year-long campaign organised by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) called One Billion Voices.

Rallying Call: ‘Protect Education Budgets: reach the most marginalised’

Main speakers:

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, Chair, Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture
Dr. António Guterres, Vice Minister for Education, Youth and Sport, Timor-Leste
Mr. Md. Mahbub Hossain, Secretary, Secondary and Higher Education Division, Ministry of Education in Bangladesh
GPE presentation: recorded message from Ms Margarita Focas Licht, Chief, Effective Partnerships

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org.

Youth-led Action Research (YAR) on the Impact of COVID-19 on Marginalised Youth in 9 Countries in the Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific region is home to more than 700 million young people. About 85 million come from marginalized backgrounds, living in extreme poverty, having little to no access to education, employment, health care, and social protection, and facing barriers to meaningful opportunities to engage in decision-making processes that affect their lives. Disconnected from their peers and pushed to the margins, youth took a serious hit due to the profound impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to face significant disruptions and changes on multiple fronts- at home, in their community, and in the economy. They will continue to feel the weight of this crisis for a long time.

The Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE) recognizes the immense value of youth as equal partners in promoting transformative youth and adult work and strong lifelong learning systems and creating a better world. ASPBAE is well-positioned to serve as a source of support for youth and as a platform through which their voices and needs can be conveyed and amplified, even and especially during a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Strengthening the voice and agency of youth in education policies and processes has been a priority of ASPBAE and is a huge part of its work and advocacies.

It is against this backdrop that ASPBAE invites you to its virtual side event:

Youth-led Action Research (YAR) on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Marginalised Youth in 9 Countries in the Asia Pacific

Register here!

This side event will bring together youth and youth organizations, national and local governments officials, international organizations, civil society organizations, parents’ and teachers’ associations to deepen understanding of the new and challenging realities that marginalized youth are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the different aspects of their lives. The event specifically aims to:

✱ Share stories and recommendations of marginalized youth on how to place education, decent work, and social protection at the centre of the agenda towards recovery and resilience

✱ Discuss measures that governments, decision-makers, and other relevant stakeholders can take to finance and prioritize the recommendations of youth

✱ Appraise the VNRs of 12 countries in the region through an adult learning and education (ALE) lens looking into the integration of youth and adult learning and education in the implementation of the SDGs

✱ Discuss the financing of education based on the recommendations from the youth-led action research

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights, please visit childrightsny.org.

International Day of Education: Recover & Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 generation

International Day of Education: Recover and revitalize education for the COVID-19 generation

Monday 25 January 2021, 8am – 11am EST

Website: en.unesco.org/commemorations/educationday

RSVP link: on.unesco.org/IDEzoom

Watch online at webtv.un.org/ and use hashtags #PowerEducation #EducationDay

This third International Education Day occurs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to a global learning disruption of unprecedented scale and severity. The closure of schools, universities and other learning institutions, as well as the interruption of many literacy and lifelong learning programmes, has affected the lives of 1.6 billion students in over 190 countries. As a new year begins, now is the time to step up collaboration and international solidarity to place education and lifelong learning at the centre of the recovery and the transformation towards more inclusive, safe and sustainable societies.

This event will highlight the urgency to mobilize funding for education; give voice to ‘community heroes’ who acted to leave no learner behind during school closures and present innovations that pave the way towards more resilient and inclusive education systems. The celebration of International Education Day by UNESCO will be organized in partnership with several partners, including the Global Partnership for Education and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies (CRI), and feature the participation of partners from the Global Education Coalition.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee for Rare Diseases, please visit ngocommitteerarediseases.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights, please visit childrightsny.org.

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