Afghanistan: Reaching the most vulnerable children with community schools

Global Partnership for Education(GPE) is supporting the Government of Afghanistan to make education more accessible for children in remote and insecure areas, an important contribution to strengthen the country’s fragile education system.

According to government estimates, 20% of Afghanistan’s 2.5 million school-aged children and youth are out of school. Most of these children are girls, children in remote and insecure areas, and children from vulnerable groups, which are the focus of GPE’s support for Afghanistan.

With robust education policies and strategies, and the capacity to implement them, the government and its development partners can build on the gains achieved by GPE’s support to deliver lasting results in education that can help break the inter-generational cycle of poverty and contribute to peace and security.

Afghanistan became a GPE partner in 2011. From the outset, GPE’s support focused on disadvantaged children in remote rural areas in 13 provinces, especially those affected by security and political instability, including Helmand and Uruzgan. These areas have the country’s lowest education and economic indicators, and high gender inequality.

Since 2011, GPE has worked closely with the government and other partners to bring them together for joint education planning. The results of this effort show that GPE’s well-established processes to support the government in planning and delivering education services are effective.

But significant challenges remain for working in one of the world’s harshest terrains for development. The next phase of GPE’s support will be integrated with the World Bank–administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund to make donor support more coordinated in helping to advance the government’s economic development priorities.

 

 

URL:

https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/afghanistan-reaching-most-vulnerable-children-community-schools