Our Mission Statement
The Education Cluster envisions a world in which everyone affected by humanitarian crises has equitable access to education in a safe and protective environment.
This vision reflects the cluster’s commitment to supporting Education for All and encompasses the need to facilitate inclusion, quality and relevance as part of equitable access to education.It embodies the principles of education as a basic human right and core component of humanitarian response, and the importance of education in facilitating physical protection, social stability and psychological recovery in the midst of crisis
The Education Cluster
The goal of the Education Cluster is to enable a predictable, well coordinated response that addresses the education concerns of populations affected by humanitarian crises.
The Education Cluster serves to strengthen the capacity and preparedness of humanitarian personnel and government authorities to plan, coordinate and manage good quality educational programmes in emergencies. The Education Cluster brings education actors together to assess needs, identify priorities, coordinates response and to promote education as key first response in humanitarian crises.
The Education Cluster was established in 2007 as part of the cluster approach and has been involved since then in all large-scale emergencies across many different countries. Since then, Education Clusters have been established in 44 countries, the majority of which are still active as clusters or as Education in Emergencies (EiE) coordination groups. The Education Cluster is the only cluster co-led at global level by a UN agency and a NGO, namely UNICEF and Save the Children. Beyond the two-lead agencies, more than 25 organisations are currently involved in the work of the cluster through participation in the global Education Cluster Working Group. Other partners participate in specific global cluster projects. Many more, including Ministries of Education and national civil society organisations, are participating at the country level.
The Education Cluster is operationalized at global level through the Education Cluster Unit (ECU) in Geneva, with staff from Save the Children and UNICEF. The ECU is charged with engaging in areas of support to country level clusters: operational support, building response capacity and standards and policy setting. In addition, it represents the Education Cluster in global humanitarian and other relevant fora. The Education Cluster is implementing a 3-year Strategic Plan which provides an overarching framework to better focus and support the collective action of organizations involved in education preparedness, response and recovery. Click here for the Education Cluster Strategic Plan 2011-2013.