For an effective education response that addresses children’s holistic needs, coordination and close collaboration between education and other clusters/sectors is required. An inter-sectoral approach to education is even more vital in emergency contexts than in normal situations, where education in safe spaces offers a means of providing a sense of normalcy, psychosocial support, and protection of children against harm, and a place for delivery of other vital services to children.

Vision of the education cluster in Afghanistan

 

 

Mission statement of the education cluster in Afghanistan

 

 

1. The Education Cluster and UN Humanitarian Reform Agenda

 

The ‘cluster approach’ was adopted in 2005 by the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC).

 

·         At the global level, the education cluster aims to strengthen system-wide preparedness and technical capacities to respond to humanitarian emergencies, while leading inter-agency coordination initiatives that strengthen global response capacity.

 

·         At the country level, the education cluster aims to establish a clear system of leadership and accountability for the key sectors of humanitarian activity thereby strengthening coordination under the leadership of the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator (UNHC). The role of cluster leads is to facilitate a process aimed at ensuring a well-coordinated, cohesive and effective humanitarian response.

2. Background to the Education Cluster in Afghanistan

 

Besides the long standing and recently re-accelerating conflict situation in Afghanistan, the country is also vulnerable to natural disasters, especially drought and earthquakes. Afghanistan’s emergency prone nature requires strong yet flexible cluster mechanisms to respond to a dynamic and complex emergency context at national and local levels.  To this point the education cluster commits to a dual mandate of: 

 

 

Objectives

 

The overall objective of the education cluster is to improve the quality and timeliness of education as an emergency response to cataclysmic events: localized or national; small or large scale; gradual, sudden onset or chronic.  It aims to achieve a well coordinated, coherent and effective emergency response through support to government, UN agencies, non-government and civil society organisations to organize themselves in advance and continuously for response.

 

To achieve these, the education cluster in Afghanistan is striving to achieve the following specific objectives:

 

Immediate Objectives

 

·         Support the Ministry of Education (MoE) to participate fully in the education cluster

·         OCHA 3W Tool for capacity mapping

·         Maintain a stockpile database

 

Mid-term Objectives

 

·         Engage with other clusters for essential program synergies

·         Establish national and sub-national coordination channels

·         Develop needs assessment and monitoring tools

·         Maintain a contingency and response plan

·         Capacity Building of cluster members and partners in emergency preparedness and response in education (e.g. INEE Minimum Standards, Disaster Risk Reduction, cluster tools, etc)

 

Long-term Objectives

 

·         Identify and share best practices on education in emergencies and early recovery

·         Build capacity of cluster members to rebuild education systems after an emergency

 

All response strategies and actions are reflected in the country strategies such as the Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP).

 

3. Leadership and Membership

 

·         UNICEF and Save the Children in partnership with the MOE provide joint leadership.

·         Membership is open to all agencies committed to coordinated education responses in emergencies in line with agreed good practice standards. The education cluster strives to include key humanitarian partners for the sector, respecting their respective mandates and programme priorities.

·         Military-related humanitarian partners cannot be members of the education cluster as per UN humanitarian principles.

 

Education Cluster members

 

·         Government: MOE.

·         NGOs: AAE, AIL, AKF, Aschiana, AWEC, BRAC, CIDA/CPSU, CARE, CHA, CiC, CoAR, HTAC, TdH, ToLH/CR, CWS, Handicap International, IMMAP, IRC, NRC, Save the Children, War Child  Holland, World Vision.

·         UN organisations and agencies: OCHA, UNESCO, UNICEF, WFP, UNHCR, UNOPS, UNAMA/RCO, and IOM .

·         Donors: CIDA and USAID.

 

4. Monitoring and Reporting

 

·    Monitoring mechanisms are being established to facilitate the assessment of the cluster impact and progress against response plans.

·    Regular reporting against cluster indicators of service delivery (quantity, quality, coverage, continuity and cost) and the role of clusters in closing gaps.

 

5.  Advocacy and Resource Mobilisation

 

·    Contribute key messages to broader advocacy initiatives of the UNHCT and others

·    Advocate to donors for funding to support cluster members to carry out priority activities

·    With resource mobilization support from the HC/UNHCT, cluster leads act as the “provider of last resort” in emergencies to meet agreed priority needs.

 

6.  Mode of Operation

 

Coordination and Linkages

 

·         Coordination among cluster members is through monthly meetings, e-mail and telephone communication.

·         The cluster’s coordination and linkage with other clusters  occurs through participation by cluster co-leads in inter-agency cluster coordination meetings, and by participation of a designated education cluster member in the protection; health; nutrition; water, sanitation and hygiene, and emergency shelter clusters.

·         Cluster coordination and linkage with the UNHCT occurs through the UNICEF Representative’s and/or the SC Alliance co-lead’s regular participation in HCT meetings.

·         Cluster coordination and linkage with regional or provincial education clusters will be through relevant/existing UNICEF and other partners’ education officers and MOE provincial and district officers.

·         Cluster coordination and linkage with the global education cluster is led by the cluster leads.

·         Cluster coordination and linkage with global education response actors during major and sudden onset disasters or new complex emergencies is provided by the cluster leads in collaboration with the MOE and education cluster members.

·         Any cluster coordination and linkage with military response actors is provided by the UNHCT in collaboration with the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) and other Government actors including the National Solidarity Programme and MoE Working Groups on Education.

 

Meetings and field missions

 

·          UNICEF and Save the Children (SC) as co-leads convene and chair the cluster meetings.  In the absence of UNICEF, SC as co-lead convenes and chairs cluster meetings.

·          Cluster meetings are held monthly every Tuesday during the second week of the month.

·         Extra ordinary meetings are convened to address urgent issues and emerging emergencies.

·         The cluster co leads are encouraged to incorporate cluster business (monitoring) into their regular field visits.