Dubai Cares, part of Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, announced today the selection of 4 proposals for funding under its Evidence for Education in Emergencies (E-Cubed) research envelope, which was launched in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2016 in partnership with Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). The winning proposals will receive collectively AED 10,466,176 (USD 2,849,102) to be invested in research dedicated to responding to the lack of evidence in the area of children and young people’s learning in crisis-affected contexts.
E-Cubed aims to fund research ranging from robust randomized controlled trials to evaluations, assessments and gap analyses geared to inform the policies and practices of international and national decision makers, implementing agencies and other local stakeholders involved in education in emergencies.
Commenting on the announcement, Annina Mattsson, Programs Director at Dubai Cares said: “E-Cubed reflects our efforts to champion education in emergencies and our belief in the important role we need to play to support evidence, especially in support of delivering quality learning to the most vulnerable children and young people. We are grateful to all those who answered our call for applications and to our partner, INEE, for sparing no effort in making this initiative a success. We also congratulate the winners and we hope that our financial support will boost their endeavors to achieve the desired outcomes.”
The first call for applications came out in September 2017 and attracted proposal from around 90 practitioners and academics in the Education in Emergencies community. Following a rigorous review process, and guided by feedback from an advisory panel consisting of experts in the field who have shortlisted 13 applications, Dubai Cares selected 4 research projects for funding.
The first winning proposal titled, “Education and Displacement: An impact-evaluation of an Accelerated Education Program for Refugees in Uganda” was submitted by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in partnership with Peace Research Institute Oslo and consists of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of NRC’s Accelerated Education Program (AEP) in Northern Uganda. The research, which extends for 5 years, investigates the effects of AEP programs on outcomes of education access and quality for the disadvantaged.
The second winning proposal titled, “Promising Partnership Models for Education in Emergencies: A Global-Local Analysis” was submitted by the Institute for International and Comparative Education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston in collaboration with the Center for Lebanese Studies at the Lebanese American University, Beirut. The 2-year research focuses on global and local educational responses to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon. It aims to improve coordination and cooperation between organizations, and reveal how partnerships can better work towards promoting refugee children’s access to quality education and learning.
Another winning proposal was submitted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Jigsaw. Titled “Voices of Refugee Youth: The Impact of Post-primary Education in Emergencies”, the 3-year research provides a participatory and youth-centered approach to studying the impact of post-primary education in emergencies particularly in Pakistan and Rwanda.
The fourth winning proposal was submitted by Yale University titled, “Sector-Wide Early Childhood Education in Emergencies (ECEiE) Assessment: Identifying Trends and Strategies to Strengthen Access, Equity and Quality of ECEiE”. The 2-year research focuses on conducting an analysis of current global policies and programs that provide early childhood education services to children in emergency settings.
“As the need for education in emergencies becomes more critical due to the accelerated displacement and a rise in armed conflicts and disasters, addressing the lack of evidence as to what works to promote children’s learning in crisis-affected contexts becomes even more crucial,” said Dean Brooks, INEE Director. “We are pleased to partner with Dubai Cares on this research envelope and we are also very happy that the first call for applications has received a significant number of submissions, which reflects a global interest in evidence as a means to ensure the highest quality education outcomes for children and youth in emergency contexts.”
The launch of the AED 36,735,000 (USD 10 million) research envelope follows a commitment made by Dubai Cares at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul to allocate at least 10 per cent of all its funding for education in emergencies towards research.