Last week, UNHCR published its updated figures on global displacement. The numbers present a sad picture – at the end of 2022, 108.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of conflict and fragility – more than a 5% increase from just six months before.

The number of refugees has reached 35.3 million – the largest yearly increase ever recorded.

Almost half of all refugee children are out of school and unless action is taken, the current increase in refugees makes it all the more likely that this and future generations of refugee children will be deprived of the education they need to restore their future.

This week Save the Children published a new report, making the case for the international community to step up and mobilize the funds needed to finance the refugee education crisis.

Education systems are on the brink of collapse in refugee-hosting countries

Many refugees live in low-income countries, including Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda. Hosting large refugee populations puts a huge strain on these countries’ already stretched services. The intersecting threats of COVID-19, conflict and climate change threaten to push back education progress further.

Lower-income countries like these urgently need more funding for education. However, their economic growth is expected to remain below pre-pandemic levels. This will impede governments’ ability to allocate domestic financing required to expand access to and the quality of education for both refugee and host community children.

Worsening debt burdens undermine governments’ ability to fund education

Currently, more than half of lower-income countries are either in or at high risk of debt distress – meaning governments are unable to fulfil their financial obligations and require debt relief. These debt burdens have significant impacts on governments’ ability to properly fund their education systems.

Save the Children’s analysis for our report found that 4 out of 14 of the top low- and middle-income refugee hosting countries spent more servicing external debt than they did on education in 2020.

We also found that interest payments on external debt alone by the low- and middle-income countries in the top 20 refugee-hosting countries totaled more than $23 billion in 2020 – this is enough to send every refugee child in low- and middle-income countries to school for nearly five years.

The cost of delivering refugee education

We know what works to deliver education for refugees – and we know how much it will cost. In 2021, the World Bank and UNHCR updated the estimated annual cost of educating refugee children in low- and middle-income countries that Save the Children originally calculated in 2018 in our Time to Act report.

Their updated costings estimated this annual cost at US$4.85 billion globally. This is a pre-COVID estimate and may be higher with the additional costs associated with COVID-19 education interventions.

These costs should not just be viewed as an investment in refugee children, but also in the children in hosting countries, who can benefit from the expansion and investment in education services.

Global solidarity for refugee hosting countries is lacking

And yet - bilateral donors collectively reduced their direct aid to education by US$359 million from 2019 to 2020, according to the World Bank and UNESCO. Now additional aid is being directed towards mitigating the consequences of the war in Ukraine and other crises.

Education is also one of the least funded humanitarian areas, receiving just 3.1% of global humanitarian financing in 2021, with appeals for education receiving just 22% of the funds required.

The principles of fair burden-sharing for refugees provide a strong rationale for support from the international community. Refugee hosting countries are responding with incredible generosity, opening their borders and national systems.

In stark contrast, higher income countries are responding with increasing hostility, reducing aid budgets and leaving some of the poorest countries in the world to shoulder the cost of educating the world’s refugees.

The opportunity of the Global Refugee Forum

The Global Refugee Forum in December is an opportunity to create new hope for the world’s refugees, but commitments must be backed with financing if we are to turn the promise of the Global Compact on Refugees into a reality.

There are many policy and political barriers to refugee children being included in education systems. But our report shows why the lack of financing is one of the most critical.

Save the Children calls on donors and multilateral institutions to mobilize financing to meet the annual US$4.85 billion cost of providing education for refugees and strengthening education systems in low- and middle-income countries.

The recommendations in our report set out how this funding could be mobilized, including the important role the Global Partnership for Education plays in funding education for refugees.