ver the last five years, the number of armed conflicts in the world has doubled, with civilians bearing the brunt of the surge in violence. At the same time climate change is causing more frequent and extreme weather events, meaning more and more people are being displaced by floods, cyclones and droughts. As a result, nearly 250 million school–aged children impacted by crises now require support to complete their education, up from 75 million a decade ago. We need to urgently step up our support to pull these children back from the brink.
However, while needs are increasing, funding for education in emergencies and protracted crises has declined in recent years. The UN–backed humanitarian education appeals aimed to mobilize $3.1 billion last year, a downfall from $3.7 billion in 2023. Unfortunately, financial investment in education during protracted humanitarian crises has not been sufficient to make up for the shortfall: while aid to low–income countries increased throughout the 2010s, it fell by four percentage points in recent years, primarily due to the impacts of the COVID–19 pandemic.
According to UNESCO, there is a $100 billion annual financing gap to achieve the education targets in low– and lower–middle income countries between 2023 and 2030, putting the world off track to achieve SDG target 4 and related SDG’s (ending extreme poverty or gender equality). Without universal pre–primary, primary, and secondary education by 2030, we may soon lose several generations. This will impact all SDGs and reinforce a continued dependency on humanitarian aid. Local empowerment, national empowerment, opportunities to arise out of poverty and ending severe gender inequalities demand education, or else these will remain illusions. Education is the very foundation to address a multitude of challenges.
Today, the world invests more in wars than in development, more in bombs than in schools. As a global community, unless we start investing in the young generation—their education and their future—we will leave behind a legacy of destruction. Global military spending soared to $2.7 trillion last year, while $100 billion a year would already be enough to secure a quality education for all children impacted by crises. Our shared vision must be accompanied by logical action of investments, or else we will remain dreamers, not doers.
2025 must be the year when the world wakes up to the desperate plight of the millions of children worldwide who are losing out on their education because their lives have been turned upside down by conflict, climate–induced disasters and displacement. Failing to act will perpetuate cycles of hunger, violence, extreme poverty, gender inequality, exploitation, and human rights violations. It is definitely impossible to build good governance and the rule of law without an education. We are simply not giving these quarter of a billion children and adolescents a chance to dream and make dreams come true; an opportunity to rebuild their war–torn society; nor in any other way contribute to peace and security.
Our children and young people are our hope in the present era. They are also our common future. The slow progress towards universal education is the biggest social policy issue of our time. We need to act as if the future of humanity depends on them. Because it does.
a global affairs media network
Fix crisis education financing gap or risk “lost generations”
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
May 9, 2025
More children than ever—250 million today compared to 75 million a decade ago—impacted by crises require support to complete their education. Needs continue to increase, but funding for crisis education is decreasing—our future depends on bridging that gap, writes Yasmine Sherif.
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ver the last five years, the number of armed conflicts in the world has doubled, with civilians bearing the brunt of the surge in violence. At the same time climate change is causing more frequent and extreme weather events, meaning more and more people are being displaced by floods, cyclones and droughts. As a result, nearly 250 million school–aged children impacted by crises now require support to complete their education, up from 75 million a decade ago. We need to urgently step up our support to pull these children back from the brink.
However, while needs are increasing, funding for education in emergencies and protracted crises has declined in recent years. The UN–backed humanitarian education appeals aimed to mobilize $3.1 billion last year, a downfall from $3.7 billion in 2023. Unfortunately, financial investment in education during protracted humanitarian crises has not been sufficient to make up for the shortfall: while aid to low–income countries increased throughout the 2010s, it fell by four percentage points in recent years, primarily due to the impacts of the COVID–19 pandemic.
According to UNESCO, there is a $100 billion annual financing gap to achieve the education targets in low– and lower–middle income countries between 2023 and 2030, putting the world off track to achieve SDG target 4 and related SDG’s (ending extreme poverty or gender equality). Without universal pre–primary, primary, and secondary education by 2030, we may soon lose several generations. This will impact all SDGs and reinforce a continued dependency on humanitarian aid. Local empowerment, national empowerment, opportunities to arise out of poverty and ending severe gender inequalities demand education, or else these will remain illusions. Education is the very foundation to address a multitude of challenges.
Today, the world invests more in wars than in development, more in bombs than in schools. As a global community, unless we start investing in the young generation—their education and their future—we will leave behind a legacy of destruction. Global military spending soared to $2.7 trillion last year, while $100 billion a year would already be enough to secure a quality education for all children impacted by crises. Our shared vision must be accompanied by logical action of investments, or else we will remain dreamers, not doers.
2025 must be the year when the world wakes up to the desperate plight of the millions of children worldwide who are losing out on their education because their lives have been turned upside down by conflict, climate–induced disasters and displacement. Failing to act will perpetuate cycles of hunger, violence, extreme poverty, gender inequality, exploitation, and human rights violations. It is definitely impossible to build good governance and the rule of law without an education. We are simply not giving these quarter of a billion children and adolescents a chance to dream and make dreams come true; an opportunity to rebuild their war–torn society; nor in any other way contribute to peace and security.
Our children and young people are our hope in the present era. They are also our common future. The slow progress towards universal education is the biggest social policy issue of our time. We need to act as if the future of humanity depends on them. Because it does.
