Ireland will provide additional support to help children in war zones and other disaster areas receive education. Not only do children facing humanitarian disasters face poverty and displacement, they all too often miss out on education which can have a devastating long-term impact on their lives. In areas of prolonged crisis, children can miss years of school.
Ireland supported Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN’s fund for providing education to children in humanitarian crises. This year, Ireland will provide ECW with €6 million to support its activities around the world.
Announcing the funding, Minister of State for International Development, Neale Richmond, said investing in education is critical to improving people’s lives in the long-term.
“As well as having to cope with displacement and further poverty, children in parts of the world facing humanitarian crisis also lose their access to education,” he said. “The long-term impacts of this are enormous. Without education, they and their families remain trapped in crisis and poverty. Ireland’s support for Education Cannot Wait provides a life-line to children displaced by war or disaster. It allows them to continue their education and gives them the chance to build better lives. Educating one child can lift whole communities out of poverty. It is essential and that is why Ireland is so committed to supporting education around the world.”
Globally, in 2025, 234 million crisis-affected children require urgent support to access quality education, an increase of 35 million children over the past three years. Nearly one-third of crisis-affected children of primary school age are out of school.
Education Cannot Wait supports the urgent education needs of children living in humanitarian crises including conflict, forced displacement, and climate-related disasters. In 2023, the organization reached 5.6 million children across 32 countries.
Education Cannot Wait was established at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016. It was launched in response to a call by Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, for a global emergency education fund.
