Danish Finance Minister calls for innovative solutions to close education in emergencies funding gap
Danish Member of Parliament and Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen calls for innovative financing solutions to close the education in emergencies financing gap.
An estimated 9 million children are out-of-school across Ethiopia today due to ongoing violence, climate-induced disasters and widespread forced displacement – a staggering threefold increase from 2022.
Following a visit to Ethiopia, Danish Member of Parliament and Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen called for innovative financing solutions to close the education in emergencies financing gap.
Increasing humanitarian crises, conflicts and climate related disasters means that the number of crisis affected school-aged children requiring educational support has grown from an estimated 75 million in 2016, to 224 million today.
Ethiopia is a case in point.
An estimated 9 million children are out-of-school across Ethiopia due to ongoing violence, climate-induced disasters and widespread forced displacement – a staggering threefold increase from 2022. Close to 18% of schools in the country have been destroyed or damaged. Ethiopia also hosts the third largest refugee population in Africa, with over 200,000 new arrivals from Sudan and Somalia in 2023-2024 alone, further increasing pressure on existing resources.
Education Cannot Wait visit
A joint high-level mission to Ethiopia by Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Global Champion and Danish Minister of Finance Nicolai Wammen and ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif, highlighted both the scale of the crisis and the transformative potential of targeted interventions.
ECW’s high-level delegation travelled to the Tigray region, which is recovering from a 3-year conflict that brought education to a complete halt. The delegation visited schools benefitting from funding by ECW and strategic partners, and met children, parents and teachers.
One school saw a 20% increase in enrollment thanks to ECW’s comprehensive support package, which includes school rehabilitation, teacher training, mental health and psychosocial support, and gender-transformative initiatives.
“It is heartwarming to witness the life-transforming power of quality education in the most complex crisis situations. I met strong and resilient girls and boys who are returning to learning, healing and thriving thanks to ECW’s support. However, conflicts, climate change and other crises continue to push millions of children out of school every year – in Ethiopia and beyond. Business as usual will not meet this challenge,” said Mr Wammen.
To date, ECW has invested over $93 million in Ethiopia, reaching more than 550,000 children and adolescents. During the mission, ECW announced a new $5 million First Emergency Response (FER) grant to address urgent education needs in the Oromia and Afar regions, which have been further destabilised by renewed violence and displacement.
Despite these efforts, the funding gap remains significant. Ethiopia’s 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) identifies a $64 million shortfall to meet acute education needs.
With the right investments and sustained political will, we can ensure that these children are not left behind.
Political leadership for education in emergencies
“Mr Wammen’s commitment to children affected by crises and to ensuring that they have access to education is a n inspiring example of political leadership in action,” said IPNEd executive director Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly.
Mr Wammen’s work demonstrates the sort of actions that legislators can take to help shine a light on the challenges facing crisis affected children and young people and how they can help make the case for closing the funding gap that exacerbates the negative impacts of humanitarian emergencies.
During a high-level event at the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Financing Conference in February 2023, parliamentarians from a wide range of countries formally adopted the Geneva Declaration on Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises.
The Declaration is a political statement, developed in consultation with legislators from a wide range of countries and informed by experts in education in emergencies. It provides a framework for raising awareness of the unprecedented impact of forced displacement and humanitarian crises on education, and sets out the challenge posed by humanitarian crises to the realisation of the education SDG.
It also identifies the commitments parliamentarians can make, both alone and in collaboration with peers from within their parliaments, regions and globally, to act in response to the challenges posed by humanitarian crises.
A path forward
The visit by ECW’s high-level delegation sheds a much-needed spotlight on the education crisis in Ethiopia. It also serves as a reminder of the resilience and determination of the country’s children and you people, who see education as a path to a brighter future. With the right investments and sustained political will, we can ensure that these children are not left behind.
