Canada announces funding for education projects

Canada has announced $67.2 million in development assistance funding for projects supporting the education of children and youth experiencing forced displacement.

This funding is being distributed as follows.

Projects resulting from the Together for Learning Call for Proposals

Brighter Outcomes: Strengthening Civil Society Organizations for Displaced Children’s Education
$6 million (between fiscal years 2022 to 2023 and 2025 to 2026)—Save the Children Canada

This project aims to enhance equitable and inclusive learning outcomes for refugees, internally displaced and host community children, particularly girls, adolescent girls and children living with disabilities in Ethiopia, specifically in the Oromia Region’s Bale zone and the Somali Region’s Dollo Ado and Dollo Bay zones, by strengthening the capacity of local organizations led by refugees and internally displaced people (IDP). This project will include training, the provision of small grants to fund core and program activities, and support for carrying out advocacy forums on inclusive education rights of internally displaced and refugee children with community and education authorities. The project aims to reach a total of 120,600 direct beneficiaries, including 27,340 refugee and internally displaced children, as well as teachers and facilitators, caregivers, parent-teacher-student associations and school members.

EMPOWER
$7.9 million (between fiscal years 2022 to 2023 and 2026 to 2027)—Right To Play

This project aims to enhance the literacy and life skills of internally displaced and host community children aged 6 to 12, particularly girls and children living with disabilities in Gao and Mopti, Mali, and thus increase equity and inclusiveness in their communities. The project is centred on building the capacity of IDP- and women-led organizations financial support through grants and empowering them to promote the educational rights of host and internally displaced children. The project engages local education authorities, parents and community and religious leaders in addressing the intersectional barriers preventing host and internally displaced children from benefiting from quality education. The project expects to reach 37,550 children from IDP and host communities, including 5,260 children living with disabilities, and 69,350 parents, community and religious leaders and other community members.

Refugee Education and Development (READ)
$13 million (between fiscal years 2022 to 2023 and 2026 to 2027)—Plan International Canada

This project aims to enhance equitable and inclusive learning outcomes for refugee, internally displaced, returnee and host community children and youth, particularly girls and other marginalized groups facing intersectional barriers to education, living in conflict settings in Cameroon and Niger. The project strengthens refugee- and IDP-led organizations to ensure predictable funding, bolster internal capacities and build networks for advocacy for refugee education, poverty reduction and gender equality. The project expects to reach nearly 40,000 children from refugee and host communities as direct beneficiaries.

Geared for Success
$13.8 million (between fiscal years 2022 to 2023 and 2026 to 2027)—War Child Canada and Oxfam

This project aims to enhance equitable and inclusive learning outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and host community children and youth, particularly girls and adolescent girls, living in South Sudan and Uganda. The project gives community-based organizations led by refugees and IDP technical and financial support, including training, and provides core, direct and multi-year small grants to help strengthen the organizations and support gender-responsive education programming. The project expects to reach an estimated 132,040 beneficiaries, including 61,400 refugee, internally displaced and host community children and youth.

For more information on the above projects, visit Call for Concept Notes: Education for refugee and displaced children and youth in Sub-Saharan Africa

Other education projects

Education for Venezuelan and Host Community, Girls, Boys and Adolescents in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
$5 million (fiscal year 2022 to 2023)—UNICEF

This project aims to enhance the integration of Venezuelan refugee and migrant children, especially girls and children who face marginalization or vulnerability, into the education systems of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The project will provide catch-up, remedial and flexible learning programs for out-of-school children and children behind in their learning because of school closures. It will help increase their access to quality learning opportunities. It will provide children, especially girls, with learning equipment for continuity of their education online at home. The project will also provide mentoring for school directors; pedagogical, gender-responsive education training for teachers; psychosocial and pedagogical support for children and adolescents upon reintegration; and continuity in the education system. This project contributes to the Education Cannot Wait objectives in the 3 targeted countries.

Protection and Socioeconomic Inclusion for Venezuelan Children and Adolescents on the Move
$1.5 million (fiscal year 2022 to 2023)—UNICEF

The project focuses on gender-responsive protection and also aims to ensure equal opportunities for Venezuelan refugee and migrant children and youth on the move by improving access to education, as well as life skills and vocational training. The project also focuses on Venezuelan refugee and migrant girls, adolescent girls and LGBTQI adolescents in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana and Peru.

Canada’s Support for Niger’s Education and Training Sector Program
$3 million (fiscal years 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024)—Agence Française de Développement [French development agency]

This project aims to improve education for children and youth, including girls, in Niger. It focuses on improving access to and equity in education and training, improving the quality of education and training and the management of the country’s education and training system. The project directly benefits students—of whom girls make up 42% of the primary school total and 35% of the secondary school total—and teachers at the preschool to university levels.

Girls’ Education South Sudan
$1 million (fiscal year 2021 to 2022)—the United Kingdom’s  Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Implementing part of Canada’s G7 Charlevoix commitments, the overall aim of Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) is to increase girls’ enrollment rates in the country’s primary and secondary schools. Canada has previously committed $19.2 million to the project for 2020 to 2023. This additional contribution of $1 million will allow GESS to train teachers, increase completion and transition rates among upper-primary and secondary learners through a mentoring program and strengthen disability inclusion. This additional support also aims to mitigate the negative impacts on learners, particularly girls and those with disabilities, resulting from extended school closures due to COVID-19.

For more information, visit Canada’s G7 Charlevoix commitments.

Support for Inclusive Education in Jordan through the Accelerating Access Initiative Phase ll
$10 million (between fiscal years 2021 to 2022 and 2024 to 2025)—Jordan’s Ministry of Education

This project aims to improve learning outcomes for children and youth in Jordan, regardless of their nationality, through formal and non-formal programs that deliver equitable, quality education in safe and supportive environments that promote learning, life skills, work readiness, gender equality and inclusion. Canada has previously committed $5 million to this project. This additional contribution of $10 million will support Phase II of the project, which aims to improve enrollment and retention of the most marginalized students, especially girls and children with disabilities.

Building the Data and Evidence Base in Education for Refugee and Displaced Children
$3 million (between fiscal years 2022 to 2023 and 2024 to 2025)—Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies

This project aims to improve equitable, gender-responsive, inclusive, quality education and lifelong learning outcomes for all populations affected by different forms of crisis. The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) will do this by producing rigorous, accessible, relevant and improved data and evidence to inform policy and practice in education for refugee, other forcibly displaced and host community children and youth. This project builds on a previous INEE-led initiative, which was funded through the Charlevoix Education Initiative and resulted in several important reports and contributions to data and evidence on learners, particularly girls, affected by crisis and conflict.

Data for Change II: Improve the Education Outcomes for Refugee and Host Community Girls and Adolescent Girls
$3 million (between fiscal years 2022 to 2023 and 2024 to 2025)—Together for Girls

This project aims to increase the availability and analysis of evidence related to education for girls and women in fragile and humanitarian contexts. Aligned with Data for Change I, this next phase of work is expected to achieve improved education outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and host community girls and adolescent girls by improving the use of evidence-based and solution-driven information to provide accessible, high-quality, gender-responsive and innovative formal and non-formal education for refugee, internally displaced and host community girls by governments, donors, implementers and other key stakeholders. The program activities will prioritize countries and regions with refugee and other forcibly displaced populations, including Kenya, Colombia (Together for Learning Campaign focus countries), the Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) and Uganda. It will also prioritize work in Sub-Saharan Africa with women’s rights organizations.