

With the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global leaders acknowledged that the education SDG will never be achieved without renewed commitment to education in crisis settings. The momentum to increase funding for education is promising and urgently needed. But without a more robust evidence base for Education in Emergencies (EiE), funders, implementers and policy-makers will lack the knowledge required to make sound decisions about the most effective programs in which to invest scarce time and resources. Without evidence, decisions will continue to be based on intuition, and most importantly, children in crisis contexts will continue to be denied the opportunity to receive a quality, safe education that we know offers them the chance to build the social-emotional and academic skills they need to survive and thrive.
In February 2016, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Global TIES for Children at New York University launched the Education in Emergencies: Evidence for Action (3EA) research-practice partnership. 3EA encompasses two programmes of work:
Iteratively implement and test practices to identify not only what works to improve CHILD and PIQ, but also how, for whom, and under what conditions.
Working in three countries affected by conflict or crisis – Lebanon, Niger, and Sierra Leone – the 3EA initiative is implementing a set of contextually appropriate, low-intensity interventions targeted at improving children’s stress, executive functioning, and basic literacy skills in emergency contexts.
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Design, adapt, test, and build capacity to embed high-quality CHILD and PIQ measurement tools and methods in field M&E systems as well as in impact evaluations.
The goal of the 3EA Measurement and Metrics Initiative is to accelerate stakeholders’ ability to generate actionable evidence in EiE settings by designing, adapting, testing, and building capacity to use high-quality children’s holistic learning and development (CHILD) and programme implementation quality (PIQ) measurement tools and methods. We will do so by conducting a scoping study of the field and ultimately convening a consortium of research-practice partnerships, first in the Middle East/North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) region.
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We are working closely with the International Rescue Committee to develop the interventions being tested in this study. In addition, we are collaborating with local ministry officials to ensure that the interventions are culturally-appropriate and feasible within the local context.