Open Session on Education for Refugee and Displaced Children in Africa

During my internship, I have found that the most rewarding opportunities have been the unexpected ones. Last Monday, the director of our organization asked if I would like to accompany her to the African Union (AU) for an open session. Even without knowing what it was about, I knew it would be a great learning experience so I said yes. She then explained that the meeting would be with the AU’s Peace and Security Council regarding the status of education for refugee and displaced children in Africa.

The next morning we headed to the AU, where we ran into some people we knew from the American Embassy, including the intern who had shown me around there a few weeks ago, and the Foreign Service Officer who had given me his business card (#GottaCatchEmAll).

There were many international organizations and member states of the Peace and Security Council at the open session. It began with a video produced by one of the NGOs in attendance about the current status of refugee children’s lives and education in Africa. Then, we heard from two Sudanese teenagers, who live in a refugee camp in the northern part of Ethiopia. Each one expressed the importance of his/her education and provided recommendations for how to improve educational situations for refugee children. These recommendations included providing adequate learning materials and better, more immediate access to education for refugee children so they do not fall behind in their studies.

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council Meeting on August 9th, 2016

Representatives from the various international organizations and AU member countries made statements in support of refugee children’s education. Their messages were all fairly similar. First, each one expressed their continued commitment to efforts for providing and improving the education of refugee children, and second, was the urgent need to look beyond frameworks and policies to action steps to create real change. Many of them mentioned things likes the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063, with which I am already familiar. However, many of them also mentioned other documents and events specifically about refugee education, which I did not know much about, so I had a lot to Google when I returned to the office. Some of these included the following:

• The Education Cannot Wait Fund

• The Safe Schools Declaration

• The Kampala Convention

• The High-Level Meeting to Address Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants (which will take place at the UN in New York on September 19^th)

I was delighted to hear so many representatives pushing for more action going forward, rather than the creation of more policies and frameworks. There are already a number of these documents…now it is crucial that organizations and governments make better use of them. Focal areas going forward include ensuring that schools are protected in conflict areas, reinforcing national education management systems so as to include refugee children in mainstream education, increasing funding for refugee education, and ensuring that all education systems are non-discriminatory and accessible to all. At the end of the open session, the chairperson called for a continued commitment on the part of all organizations to advocate for refugee children’s education.

Many individuals also noted that the themes and recommendations from the session should be brought up at the High-Level Meeting to Address Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants meeting as well. This open session served only as the beginning of a long-term commitment to addressing the needs of refugee children and their educational opportunities.