NGOs urge world leaders to support Afghan education
© UNHCR/Muhammad Rahim Mirza
Halima Bibi, an Afghan refugee, is helping her daughters in studies
Fifty civil society organizations have today issued a collective call on the international community to develop and fund a plan to support education in Afghanistan and for Afghan refugees.
The call to action, initiated by the International Parliamentary Network for Education, urges the G20 to ensure that education is a priority of the ‘common international strategy for Afghanistan’, expected to be agreed at an extraordinary summit on the Afghan crisis.
The statement follows the announcement on Friday September 17 that secondary schools in Afghanistan would reopen but only for boys. The edict makes Afghanistan the only country on earth to bar half its population from getting a secondary education.
“The statements of concern issued by governments around the world in response to the latest restrictions on education in Afghanistan need to be backed up by practical support for education in the country”, said the Executive Director of the International Parliamentary Network for Education, Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly.
Whilst the international community must continue to make it clear that restricting access to education for girls is unacceptable, securing permission to operate and attend educational facilities alone is not enough.
In order to keep existing schools open and ensure that more children have access to education, civil society organisations have called for “a significant increase in coordinated international support” for Afghan education.
Afghanistan’s network of community based educational facilities - often classes run in private homes - are reliant on international support and are at immediate risk of closing because of a lack of funding.
What’s more, even though the last twenty years saw a massive increase in school enrolment, some 3.7 million children were out of school, 60% of whom were girls.
Afghanistan urgently needs support and funding to develop and implement a plan to keep existing facilities open at the same time as opening new primary schools to ensure every Afghan child can go to school.
The coalition of civil society organisations has also called for extra support for countries hosting Afghan refugees to ensure they can provide a quality education to existing and new refugee children as well as support for scholarships that would allow more Afghans, especially girls, to access higher education in other countries.
The endorsement of IPNEd’s statement by more than fifty INGOs, national education coalitions and youth organisations demonstrates growing momentum for a coordinated international response.
It follows similar calls by IPNEd member parliamentarians across the G20. Last week, more than 100 members of the UK Parliament urged the Prime Minister to secure a commitment from the G20 for a plan for Afghan education.
Members of the International Parliamentary Network for Education in the Italian Parliament have also written to Prime Minister Draghi, to ask that he uses his conveying power as G20 President to rally the international community behind efforts to safeguard education in Afghanistan and for Afghan refugees.
“The breadth of signatories to our call to action, reinforced by parliamentarians across G20 capitals, shows the backing there is for a coordinated international response to support education in Afghanistan,” said Harriett Baldwin MP, IPNEd’s Co-Chair.
“Now is the time for more, not less support for Afghanistan and its people. The international community must use the opportunity that it has through the G20 to develop and fund a plan which ensures that Afghanistan’s fragile education system has the financial support to stay open and that all its children - especially girls - can exercise their right to education,” said Philippa Lei, Chief of Advocacy at Malala Fund.
“As the humanitarian crisis deteriorates and concerns intensify about the regime’s stance on the right to education, we cannot waste any more time,” concluded Ms Lei.
On behalf of Campagna Globale per l'Educazione, the national coalition of the Global Campaign for Education in Italy, Emanuele Russo, added:
"Civil society organisations in Italy are calling on Premier Mario Draghi to rally the G20 behind a funded-plan to support education in Afghanistan and for Afghan refugees in the host countries of the region.
“We believe this is the best opportunity the international community has to preserve the educational gains of the past twenty years in Afghanistan and to increase the number of Afghan children who have access to education.
“As G20 President, Italy must now lead this global effort to support the education of Afghanistan's children and young people”.
