Ensuring High Quality Primary Education for Children from Mobile Populations: A Desk Study

This study focuses on provision for primary school-aged children amongst communities of refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs), mobile pastoralists and seasonally migrating workers. For refugee and IDP children, policy, coordination and implementation challenges include: inconsistent ratification and enforcement of conventions and agreements protecting refugees and IDPs; the disproportionate impact of forced displacement on low and middle income countries (LMICs); the lack of a shared agenda among a wide range of stakeholders with differing mandates; and inadequate forced displacement terminology. Promising and emerging policy, coordination and implementation strategies include: expanding existing rights documents and agreements and building policy from the ground up; enshrining forcibly displaced people’s rights to education in national laws and policy; genuine engagement with affected communities; utilising the Education Cluster and other existing multi-stakeholder networks for knowledge sharing and collaboration; and collaborating across sectors to address the needs of the whole child. Financing challenges include: unpredictable and low funding for refugee and IDP education; weak capacity to absorb funds at the national and local level; an over-reliance on short-term financing mechanisms; donor dependence and a lack of funding sustainability; and inappropriate distribution of funds within education programming.