Consultant-EiE Flagship Report on Climate Change and EiE

Summary

INEE as a founding member and co-chair of the Steering Group of the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies (EiE Hub), is recruiting a consultant to draft the 2023 EiE Hub Flagship Report on EiE and Climate Change. The EiE Hub publishes an annual flagship report that reflects the EiE Hub’s mission to support better data and evidence, as well as its mandate to drive political will, commitment and agenda-setting with governments and partners. The first flagship report in 2022 focused on a funding gap in EiE and was entitled “Education in Emergencies Financing in the Wake of COVID-19: Time to Reinvest to Meet Growing Needs”. For the 2023 flagship report, the EiE Hub intends to commission and publish a report on zooming in on the nexus across climate change and education in emergencies.

Background

In recent years, themes relating to climate change and disaster risk reduction, specifically in the context of climate change, have become increasingly important in global policy discussions across all sectors. COVID-19 has underscored how a global pandemic created a learning crisis. Still, there is insufficient awareness and urgency among the humanitarian, diplomatic and international community, in general, about how climate change fundamentally affects education and contributes to the global education crisis and how a resilient education sector is a crucial contribution towards climate change solutions. Greater understanding is needed of how, precisely, climate change disrupts learning, increases learning loss, and adds to learning poverty for the most disadvantaged children and youth, and about the significant contribution the education sector makes to climate change solutions. There is also an urgent call for ambitious action toward resilience-building in the education sector in the face of climate change. This should be at the forefront of decision-making.

Crisis-affected and displaced children and youth, along with their families, consistently identify quality education as a priority. They also express concern for the lack of recognition and fulfillment of children’s inalienable right to a healthy environment and the need for the scaling up and acceleration of investment in child- and youth-responsive climate change adaptation, as well as disaster risk reduction. Children and youth also recognize an urgent need to focus on reaching those most at risk.  This report seeks to respond to these demands.

The rapid and intensifying climate crisis threatens children’s rights to education, healthcare, food, and safety, among other things. There is an urgent need to address the risk to the right to education, considering that almost all the world’s 2.2 billion children face at least one significant climate-related risk, such as heatwaves, torrential rains, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution (UNICEF, 2022). Roughly 1 billion children are already at severe risk of facing at least three disasters simultaneously, alongside other factors endangering their future, including poverty, conflict, violence, forced migration, and lack of access to education, health care, or water.  Children and youth living in fragile settings, in particular, face growing risks.

Both sudden- and slow-onset impacts of the climate crisis on education are broad and complex. Extreme weather events and climate-induced displacement increase the risk of school drop-out as children and youth spend extended time outside classrooms. Extreme weather events, such as storms, torrential rains, and heatwaves, leading to floods and wildfires, not only expose children and youth and teaching staff to physical harm (especially in contexts where there is little investment in safe school infrastructure) but also damage school infrastructure and disrupt learning. Meanwhile, the impacts of heat and pollution significantly impact educational attainment. The incremental economic impacts of the climate crisis may cause children and youth to drop out of school permanently as families struggle to cope financially. Children and youth already impacted by crises, inequality, and discrimination, including girls, those with disabilities, and indigenous children and youth, are the most severely affected.

Scope of ork:

Generally, this joint report by EiE Hub members will:

-       build on existing research which outlines: 1) the relationship between climate change, disasters, resource scarcity and conflict, and increasing rates of forced displacement due to climate change impacts, as well as 2) the impact of the climate crisis on education for children and youth (including the role of education as a critical factor to addressing climate change), 3) the relationship and impact of climate finance and education responses.

-       bring into clear focus the specific obstacles that climate change poses to the education of children and youth in crisis settings, particularly in terms of access, quality, management, and inclusiveness of education, whether they are staying in affected areas or are displaced internally or across borders.

-       highlight urgent and transformative climate and preparedness actions required, stimulate thinking, shape the debate, and highlight the urgency and scale of this topic.

-       discuss how the education sector supports climate change solutions and describe how climate change can be integrated at all levels of the education system.

-       shape Geneva and global policy on the issue, convene the sector around an evidence-based analysis of current priorities from crisis-affected countries and operations, and streamline advocacy with global actors across the nexus, providing the target audience with concrete recommendations.

Target audience: policy and decision-makers across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, climate funds, development and humanitarian donors investing in climate action, Ministries of Education and Environment, as well as practitioners.

Format: engaging style for an already informed audience, with practical recommendations for different actors to help foster a constructive discussion on the issues; concise with infographics and visuals to present data, directing readers to existing resources.

Launch: the report will be launched at an in-person event in Q3 2023 – ahead of COP 28, planned for November 2023, at the United Nations Palais in Geneva, sponsored by EiE Hub member states. The ECW High-level Financing Conference in February 2022 will also organize a high-level session on climate change and EiE, which will inform this report.

The report will be structured as follows:

-       Start off with an up-to-date global overview of how climate change (both slow onset and sudden emergencies) is adding a layer of risks and affecting education in emergencies and protracted crises (highlighting perspectives and short case studies from the field and children and youth).

-       Evidence-based overview of the state of the situation at the operational level, i.e., how climate change affects education in emergencies, bringing together top-line figures:

o   Consolidating and analyzing readily available data on schools and learning material damaged and destroyed due to climate change-induced events, possibly linking education to the global topical discussions on loss and damages.

o   Including, whenever available, figures on disruption, school dropouts, learning poverty, and potential economic impacts.

-       Identify what is being done to address the problem by education in emergency actors, thereby strengthening the case for education as a key sector to invest in climate change action. Examples and best practices outside the EiE context may be featured as feasible. The structure and elements of this analysis (e.g., system-level (preparedness, adaptation, mitigation, response, recovery), school safety measures (incl. the use of the Comprehensive School Safety Framework), learning continuity and protection measures, resilience building, and DRR concerning climate change action) will be defined in the inception report by the expert consultant(s).

o   A dedicated section will highlight best practices and lessons learned in education to address climate change as part of broader mitigation and adaptation measures connected to long-term investment for recovery, reconstruction, and peace.

Recognizing the increasing prominence of global discussions on the triple planetary crises (climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution), the report will reference these discussions and establish their links to EiE. In doing so, the report will speak to and connect with further stakeholders.

Methodology and management arrangements

The methodology will include a desk and literature review, data analysis, an online survey, and key informant interviews. Whenever feasible, crisis-affected and displaced communities, youth, children, teachers, education stakeholders, and Ministries of Education will be included in the consultation. The consultations will be held virtually, primarily in English, with the possibility of additional UN languages, and include stakeholders that have a strategic role in influencing the EiE and climate change debate. The report will outline the methodologies used, including data sources and limitations.

Online survey: developed to gather data on perceptions of the issues addressed in the report held by different stakeholders. The online survey will be sent out to key stakeholders. The target is some 100 responders to enable the collection of meaningful data analysis from the results. Analysis of the survey results will be included in the final report as graphs and tables, which will be contrasted with the findings from the data analysis.

Virtual key informant (KI) interviews (20-30): this will include global and country/local level KIs. At the global level, to include EiE Hub members, humanitarian and development donors, and experts with a key role in EiE and climate change; at the field level, this may include key actors in heavily affected or preparedness situations and Ministries of Education. In total, there will be some 20-30 KIIs.

Guidance and support: The consultant(s) will work under the guidance and support of an EiE Hub Reference Group, including TWG members as well as others with a strong interest in this thematic area to produce the report. The Reference Group will provide strategic and substantive input on the research and the report development, including feedback on drafts of all the key outputs. The consultant(s) will provide regular updates to the RG on progress.

The report will be validated by a group of country-level actors to ensure EiE work remains driven by the realities of those closest to the children and youth supported by the sector.

Deliverables

The assignment will include the following deliverables:

• Inception report (max. five pages) to ensure mutual understanding of the consultant(s)’ plan of action and timeline for conducting the consultancy
• Interview guide
• Questionnaire of the online survey
• Online survey data in CSV or xlsx format
• Final report

The overall output will be the final report (max. 30 pages), including an executive summary, analysis, key findings, visuals, country examples, and specific recommendations aimed at the different target audiences.