UN Body Announces $2m First Emergency Response Grant For Sudan

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations (UN) global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, has announced a fast-acting $2 million grant to ameliorate the impact of crisis and climate change-related flooding in Sudan.

The 12-month grant is aimed at providing access to safe learning environments for children and adolescents in the worst-hit flood zones of Sudan.

Delivered by the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and World Food Programme, the investment will reach 64,000 flood-affected children. An additional 19,000 children will receive school meals through the World Food Programme.

More than 1 million school-aged children in Sudan are internally displaced, and 4.5 million are food insecure. Annual floods, made worse by the climate crisis, impacted over 200,000 school-aged children in 2022.

The First Emergency Response will be implemented in the four states where education infrastructure has been most damaged and school children most affected: North Kordofan, South Kordofan, North Darfur and Kassala states.

The investment will provide access to safe drinking water and school meals to address the catastrophic levels of food insecurity impacting more than 26 percent of Sudan’s children. Temporary learning spaces will be constructed, damaged classrooms will be repaired, and children will receive psychosocial support to recover from the trauma of displacement and violence.

More than one in three children are out of school in Sudan, 7 million girls and boys denied their human right to receive a quality education.

The investment builds on ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Sudan, which strives to reach over 100,000 children. ECW funding in Sudan totals $23.7 million to date. Nevertheless, approximately 65 percent of the education in emergencies humanitarian appeal remains unfunded in Sudan.

Director of ECW, Yasmine Sherif said the destruction of schools and learning due to climate change is increasing by the day. This, according to her, is the third ECW emergency response in the past month alone.

“We must act now for the children of Sudan. All children and adolescents affected have now had their education disrupted. Without safe and protective learning environments, girls especially face grave risks of childhood marriage and gender-based violence. Boys face recruitment into armed groups and forced labor.

Education provides these children and adolescents with continued learning and prevents additional hardship and suffering”, she said.

Similarly, the World Food Programme Country Director/Representative, Eddie Rowe noted that with millions of children out of school, and millions of others suffering chronic hunger, school meals are not only a necessity to children of Sudan, but a life saver. “To many, the school meal they receive at school, is the only nutritious meal they get in a day”, he added.

Norwegian Refugee Council Country Director, William Carter said the people of Sudan are suffering multiple crises – conflict, displacement, economic collapse, and now floods.

“Through this emergency response grant, we’re able to help restore hope and a sense of normalcy for thousands of displaced girls and boys in Darfur and Kordofan whose schools have since been destroyed by the floods this year”, he further stated.

While commenting on the grant, Save the Children Country Director, said Arshad Malik observed that climate change effects, including severe flooding, have destroyed or damaged more than 600 schools in Sudan this year.

“This grant will allow us to ensure that students can return to a safe, quality learning environment, through rehabilitation of classrooms, teacher training and the provision of learning materials, to ensure that children can develop and learn”, he stressed.