Emergencies and fragile contexts
Networking: IIEP and its partners
One of IIEP’s core components in its Medium Term Plan is a commitment to sharing knowledge to support informed decision making at various levels. IIEP’s relationship with its partners is therefore critical. IIEP has a number of national, bilateral and multilateral partners as part of its global work, but some key partners relating to education and situations of fragility and conflict are highlighted here.
IIEP has played a pivotal role in the development of the INEE and its formation of internationally recognized standards which are now leading the way in providing coherence and co-ordination of quality education interventions in prior to, during and after emergencies. IIEP supported the development of the INEE Minimum Standards which are integral to IIEPs training courses on education in emergencies and reconstruction.
The more recent debates on the role of education in conflict prevention and mitigating state fragility are also central to IIEP’s policy direction. IIEP is the UNESCO representative on the INEE Working Group on Education and Fragility, formed in April 2008. This group will contribute to strengthening consensus on effective mechanisms to mitigate state fragility through quality education. The members of the group are internationally renowned educationists who are leaders in this field.
By the very nature of its educational planning mandate, IIEP is an automatic partner of the FTI. One of the central missions of the FTI is to mobilize resources for low income countries to develop and implement effective comprehensive education sector plans. IIEP provides targeted capacity development and technical support to planning units, which makes this happen. The FTI is also committed to supporting countries in situations of fragility and to ensuring that funding mechanisms to support fragile contexts are in place. IIEP is now an active participant in the FTI Fragile States Task Team.
UNESCO Post-Conflict-Post-Disaster Unit
IIEP’s work in emergencies and fragile contexts dovetails with the UNESCO PCPD Unit’s primary function of providing ‘specialized policy advice and technical assistance to affected governments and other agencies’ in situations of emergency, post-conflict or post-disaster. The PCPD Unit is responsive and flexible to such requests from governments and education agencies and IIEP works alongside the unit to ensure coherence and co-ordination across UNESCO as well as to support holistic approaches to education in emergencies and fragile contexts.
