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ISTANBUL, May 23 (KUNA) -- The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Monday launched a new fund to better coordinate support for and drive investment in education for children and youth affected by humanitarian emergencies and protracted crises.
Action now has to happen urgently because of the sheer scale of numbers of children impacted, said UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown, who presented the "Education Cannot Wait" fund at the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) that opened today in Istanbul, Turkey.
Specifically designed for education in emergencies, the fund aims to reach more than 13.6 million children and youth living in crisis situations, such as conflict, natural disasters and disease outbreaks, with quality education over the next five years, he added.
These young people are missing out on schooling and this is becoming a full-blown global crisis that will haunt the world for generations, Brown stressed.
"Education Cannot Wait" has a funding target of USD 3.85 billion over five years and seeks to bridge the gap between humanitarian interventions during crises and long-term development afterwards, through predictable funding. (end)
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