Crisis-sensitive educational planning for refugees and host communities: lessons from Ethiopia

In 2016, Ethiopia, one of the largest refugee-hosting countries in Africa, committed both at legal and policy levels to improve access to quality education for refugees. This report presents lessons learned from the implementation of a joint programme by the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Ethiopia, as part of the broader multi-year programme ‘Building self-reliance for refugees and vulnerable host communities by improved sustainable basic social service delivery’ (BSRP), which started in 2017 with the aim of supporting the Government of Ethiopia with the implementation following their commitments in 2016.

The main enabling factors that contributed to improving the coordinated provision of quality learning in refugee and host communities in Ethiopia include: (a) international, regional, and national commitments to integrate refugees into the national education systems; (b) enhanced collaboration between the two main government bodies responsible for education in host and refugee communities, the Ministry of Education and the Agency for Refugee and Returnee Affairs; (c) concrete steps toward the inclusion of refugees in national education, such as the ongoing integration of schools attended by refugees into the national supervision and inspection system; (d) recognition of the importance of joint planning between host communities and schools attended by refugees to make better use of human and financial resources.