GPE has a long-standing commitment to ensuring quality education for children living in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Strengthening resilience and mitigating the impacts of crisis continue to be critical to our mission, as is enshrined in the GPE 2025 goal of building education systems that are inclusive, equitable and resilient.

The range and frequency of crises in GPE partner countries – from conflict and displacement, to disasters brought about by natural hazards or climate change, to health emergencies like COVID-19 – call for GPE to ensure that preparedness to crises is an integral part of diagnostics, planning and implementation support, and that GPE has ways to adapt its support in a flexible and timely manner to support partner countries.

We have years of experience supporting partner countries impacted by crises, and recognize the importance of learning and adapting our operational model accordingly.

This is why we have recently updated our Operational Framework for Effective Support in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Contexts to:

• Ensure that the framework aligns with our new operating model, GPE 2025
• Account for lessons learned from the implementation of the framework
• Incorporate feedback from partners and lessons from our strengthened collaboration with Education Cannot Wait (ECW).

GPE strengthens its tools to support countries in crisis

To ensure GPE support can be adapted in a timely and flexible manner to continue support in times of crisis, we made the following key changes:

We adapted the criteria for triggering adapted modalities for GPE support. The framework can now be triggered by any crisis that risks substantially impacting education continuity for all or specific groups of children, or threatens the continuity of the education system itself. This means partners can adapt GPE support in response to any kind of crisis they are facing and better ensure education continuity for children, in coordination with other actors including ECW.

We introduced a timeline for resumption or revision of activities to help avoid delays and ensure that funding can be reoriented quickly to support education needs. The grant agent and coordinating agency are now requested to provide an update to the Secretariat within 3 months of the emergence of the crisis, with options for continuing support either within the existing program or alternative arrangements.

Within six months of the start of the crisis, if there is no resumption of activities or a clear path forward, the Secretariat reports to the Executive Committee with options on next steps (see further down on what some of these options can be).

To ensure that partners have flexibility to adapt GPE support to fit the circumstances, we expanded eligibility for accelerated funding, whereby all countries eligible for GPE support in 2021-2025 can access a portion of their grant allocation on an expedited basis (up to 20% or $10 million, whichever is lower).

In parallel, the GPE Secretariat is now able to cancel part of a grant and reallocate funds to a new program, instead of a lengthier procedure involving a Board decision. This reallocation can be programmed as accelerated funding.

These changes mean that governments and partners can better sustain continuity of the education system, build back better, and institutionalize response capacities, resulting in more effective, responsive and inclusive education systems.

Coordinating our support across the humanitarian-development nexus for maximum impact

Following a crisis, partners will determine short- to medium-term priorities, including the joint planning framework that will be used to determine changes to support education.

Depending on the context, this could be a continuation or adaptation of the existing education sector plan, but also a Humanitarian Response Plan, Education Cluster Strategy, Multi-Year Resilience Program, transitional education plan, or other interim plan.

To improve alignment between humanitarian and development coordination mechanisms and planning approaches, engagement of emergency actors in sector dialogue is encouraged, such as representatives of the Education Cluster, Education in Emergency Working Group, or Refugee Education Working Group, as relevant.

Should partners decide to apply for accelerated funding, both the local education group and representatives of humanitarian education coordination mechanisms are consulted in program development. Such consultation improves the quality of the response and ensures that programs complement the support provided by others such as through Multi-Year Resilience Programs, where they exist.

In principle, GPE supports the government’s leadership of crisis response. Should the crisis be a political one (for example a result of a coup d’état or large-scale violence, armed conflict, or human rights abuse), the operational framework allows GPE to determine whether to suspend engagement with the government and/or grant activities. In such situations we prioritize children’s rights, humanitarian principles, and saving education systems from collapse.

Continuing to adapt our offer to countries’ needs

The changes described above are directly in line with GPE’s “learn and adapt” approach to respond to what we learn through implementation and to what partner countries request and need.

The guidelines for accelerated financing are being revised to align with the changes to the operational framework and will be published shortly.

Ultimately these updates help to ensure that GPE can better support countries to rebuild and strengthen their education systems during and after a crisis so that children don’t lose out on their education.