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EAA inks partnership deals to help Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Turkey
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Ailyn Agonia
DOHA
PRESIDENT of the Republic of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addoon Thursday underscored the need for greater access to education for displaced persons, especially the youth, to help create a more enabling environment for them.
Akufo-Addo was delivering his keynote address at the Education Above All Foundation's (EAA) high-level panel graced by Qatar Foundation Chairperson Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser held on the concluding day of 8th World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha.
The Ghanaian leader, who also co-chairs the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocates at the UN, called for concerted efforts globally to achieve this end.
He highlighted a UN report that shows the young refugees and internally displaced youths are five times likely to be out of school than the global average. The report further states, that only 22 percent of refugee adolescents are attending secondary school compared to the global average of 84 percent and only one percent of refugee youth make it to the universities compared to 33 percent of global average, according to the diplomat.
"Education is the key to human development and it creates social mobility. It is the hope of every parent that education would help children escape poverty and give them access to a good life. This, unfortunately, is not the case for the 66 million people forced to be displaced all over the world. Out of this, are 23 million described as refugees," he said.
Akufo-Addo referred to the situation in Africa where giving access to early childhood care and education becomes even more crucial in building the societies and economies of the African nations and preventing African youths from fleeing their countries in search of better opportunities.
"It is disheartening that African youth do not see future in their respective countries and are willing to cross the Sahara desert on foot and drown in the Mediterranean Sea in a desperate move for a better life," he said.
He added,"The only way to ensure prosperity in Africa is through transformed and diversified modern economy or in other words the industrial development of our continent. This, however, can only be achieved with an educated workforce. It is not natural resources, but people that build nations. Africans, especially youth of today, are the ones who are going to build Africa. That is why my country places high premium on education,"Akufo-Addo said.
On the sidelines of the event, EAA Foundation signed several new partnerships as part of its commitment to address the global education crisis and its goal of enrolling 10 million out-of-school children. The new partnerships will help over 3000 Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Turkey with full university scholarships, including tuition, accommodation, health insurance and a monthly stipend in partnership with SPARK and the Council of Higher Education in Turkey. It will also aid 30 Palestinian junior teachers from Gaza to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom in partnership with the British Council.
The high-level EAA plenary focused on the role of education in empowering refugee youths.
"I strong believe that education is the most under-funded policy. We have to step up our efforts to promote education as a basic need", said European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management HE Christos Stylianides. He also made a promise before the delegates to devote in 2018 about 10 percent of the EU's humanitarian budget to education in emergencies.
Also during the panel discussion, SDG Advocate for Health, Employment and Economic Growth Dr Alaa Murabit called for the need to ensure that centres of education and health like hospitals, schools and universities are declared safe zones that cannot be attacked during conflicts. She urged government and foreign institutions to deal with the underlying cause of the conflicts rather than just increasing funds for education policies and programmes. She also highlighted the need to focus on education of girls and women's health.
Exxonmobil Foundation President Kevin Murphy and President and CEO of Institute of International Education Dr Allan Goodman also took part in the discussions.
