Education Cannot Wait – Institutional Support 2022 to 2026

This grant represents Canada’s long-term institutional support to Education Cannot Wait (ECW). ECW uses these funds and other donor’s funding to achieve its mandate. ECW is the only global fund designed to deliver rapid flexible support to address financing capacity and coordination gaps to ensure that girls and boys in crisis situations have access to quality education. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) hosts ECW under its financial human resources and administrative rules and regulations. At the same time an independent ECW Secretariat runs operations. ECW’s mandate and work particularly its focus on gender equality in crises aligns with Canada’s commitment to the G7 Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education for Girls Adolescent Girls and Women in Developing Countries and the Feminist International Assistance Policy. ECW’s work in regions of displaced children and youth by crisis and conflict aligns with the Together for Learning campaign Canada launched in March 2022. ECW offers a platform for Canada to advance its education objectives through multilateral policy dialogue on major issues concerning global education. As a member of the High-Level Strategic Committee and the Executive Committee Canada has helped shape ECW’s strategic policy direction and successfully pushed for stronger integration of gender equality issues in ECW’s programming and a stronger focus on refugee and displaced children and youth.

The expected outcomes as stated by the ECW include: (1) increased gender-equitable participation retention and completion rates in safe and inclusive learning spaces; (2) improved inclusive gender-equitable holistic learning and well-being outcomes; (3) increased and better funding for Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises (EiEPC); and (4) stronger EiEPC capacities and systems.