Education in emergencies in Sub-Saharan Africa

We have more than 20 years’ experience of working in fragile and conflict-affected states and supporting education in emergencies. We provide rapid-response support and advice in emergencies, as well as both immediate and long-term technical assistance for post-crisis capacity building and reform.

Our experience includes large-scale post-conflict education capacity building and reform in Cambodia (1997-2017), Rwanda (2001-2016) and Somalia (late 1990s-2017), as well as providing immediate technical assistance in Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Uganda, among others. We also provided rapid-response support and advice to ministries of education around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We have significant experience in refugee education. Through our work with Alexandria Schools Trust, we support the training of Syrian refugee teachers in Lebanon and Jordan, building on their existing skillsets in English as a medium of instruction. We have also developed the global evidence base on education for refugees and internally displaced persons, to facilitate dialogue among policymakers and inform our programmatic work in refugee and conflict-affected states.

Education in emergencies continues to be a focus of our research work. In recent years, we have partnered with IIEP-UNESCO to publish reports on teacher management in refugee settings in Kenya, Ethiopia and Jordan. Our researchers also produced a wealth of rapid-response research for organisations including the EdTech Hub and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on education in emergencies – as well as education recovery – during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Find out more about our work supporting education in refugee settings

Alexandria Schools Trust

Through the Alexandria Schools Trust (AST), we build upon the existing skillsets of teachers of refugees and school leaders in the use of English as a medium of instruction, to help ensure high-quality teaching for refugee students.

Find out more

Supporting teachers of refugees

Children account for 41% of the over 89 million people who are forcibly displaced worldwide, and education is key to their life chances. It is therefore critical to consider the question of who teaches refugees, what challenges these teachers may face, and what support is needed to ensure better teaching and learning outcomes in these communities.

Find out more

We Teach Here

We Teach Here is a film series that focuses on the lives of teachers working in refugee settings in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Some of these teachers are refugees themselves. Others are national teachers who are working with refugee learners.

Find out more