During the rainy season, Abel, 22, a student in Kiziba Refugee Camp in western Rwanda, can barely run his laptop for two hours. This is because he uses solar power, which becomes unreliable during that period.
A time limit of two hours on one’s computer might be challenging, but on the whole Abel is feeling optimistic these days. He’s studying in a program that has taught him to use computers easily and speak fluent English—two skills he didn’t have before. Once he gets his degree, he plans to start his own business and make money to help his family.
There are many innovative projects out there, working on quality educational access for young refugees and displaced people like Abel. Still, we need to be doing much more.
Did you know that:
- 50% of refugee children have access to primary education, compared to a global average of more than 90%
- 22% of refugee adolescents attend secondary school compared to a global average of 84%
- Just 1% of refugees attend university, compared to a global average of 34%?
Supporting cutting edge innovations
The need for innovations in education in emergencies is what gave rise to the Humanitarian Education Accelerator (HEA). The HEA is a partnership between the UK Department for International Development, UNHCR, and UNICEF.
It focuses on turning pilot projects into scalable educational initiatives. Abel’s program, detailed below, was selected to be part of the HEA’s first cohort, which provides tailored mentorship on the scaling process and on evaluation, and up to £300,000 to strengthen their evaluation capacity.
Building a strong evidence base
One of the big questions when it comes to improving learning for children in crisis situations is how to effectively scale such programs and evaluate them.
Lack of evidence in this area was one of the driving factors behind the HEA’s creation. The program will help selected projects improve how they measure, evaluate, and scale their impact.
To this end, HEA will enlist expertise from external evaluators to gather evidence on the factors that enable or prevent projects from expanding in different contexts. The idea is to ultimately develop an evidence base that could be applied universally by those transitioning to the scaling process.
Getting started
HEA’s first cohort was recently selected and is about to begin its training program. The three projects are:
• The World University Service of Canada (WUSC) – Equity in Education: a project that aims to improve learning for refugee and host community girls via remedial classes. Here is an inside look into some of the students’ stories.
• War Child Holland – Can’t Wait to Learn: a project that uses innovative, cost-effective technology solutions to increase the number of emergency-affected children with access to quality education in Sudan and two countries in the Middle East.
• Kepler Kiziba – Higher Education for All: a pilot project of a blended learning university program at Kiziba Refugee Camp in western Rwanda that pairs online learning with in-person instruction and work experience opportunities while students earn a fully accredited U.S. bachelor’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University. Abel, mentioned above, is a student at Kepler Kiziba.
All three will be sharing updates from their work and HEA experience in the coming months on the HEA website.
Ready to scale your idea? Apply now!
If you missed the first round, now is your chance to be a part of HEA’s second cohort. HEA recently placed its second call for applications for innovations that are ready to scale in emergencies. A critical factor in selection will be demonstrating a strong proof of concept in one location, and having entered into scaling within a national, regional or global context.
Selected candidates will benefit from:
- Tailored mentorship on the scaling process and on evaluation;
- Annual bootcamps to build organizational capacity and enable peer-support;
- A fully-funded external evaluation and;
- Up to £300,000 to strengthen evaluation capacity within the organization.
Submissions are due by 4 November 2016.