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The INEE Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery (INEE MS) contains 19 standards, each of which includes key actions and guidance notes. The purpose of the INEE MS is to improve the quality of educational preparedness, response, and recovery; to increase access to safe and relevant learning opportunities; and to ensure that the actors who provide these services are held accountable. The INEE MS are designed to be applicable to crisis response in many different situations, including emergencies caused by conflict, by natural hazards such as those induced by climate change, and slow- and rapid-onset crises in both rural and urban environments.
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INTRODUCTION
What is Education in Emergencies?
Education in emergencies (EiE) refers to the provision of equitable, inclusive, and quality learning opportunities for people of all ages in situations of crisis, from preparedness to response, and through to recovery. It includes early childhood development, primary, secondary, non-formal, technical, vocational, higher, and adult education. It can be delivered through different modalities, including in-person teaching and learning and the various approaches to distance education (i.e., high-tech, low-tech, no-tech). It also can occur in a variety of contexts (e.g., offline, online, or hybrid). In an emergency situation and through to recovery, quality education provides physical, psychosocial, and cognitive protection that can save and sustain lives. Common emergencies in which EiE is essential include conflicts, protracted crises, situations of violence, forced displacement, disasters related to natural hazards, and public health crises. EiE is a wider concept than “emergency education response,” which is an essential part of EiE.
Education is especially critical for the hundreds of millions of learners affected by crises, but it is often seriously disrupted, leaving them unable to enjoy the transformative effects of inclusive and equitable quality education. EiE promotes dignity and sustains life by offering these children, young people, and adults a safe learning environment.
Schools and other learning environments can be an entry point for identifying and supporting learners who need essential services beyond the education sector, such as protection, nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and health. For learners with disabilities, education can provide access to early detection, assistive devices and technologies, and intervention services. It can offer education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as referral services for those experiencing gender-based violence, which is particularly important for women and girls who are most at risk of such violence. Education saves lives by physically protecting learners from the dangers and exploitation often common in a crisis environment, and by providing nurturing care.
It gives learners life-saving information to help them strengthen their survival skills and coping mechanisms. Collaboration between the education sector and other relevant sectors such as WASH, protection, shelter, and mental health and psychosocial support is important in establishing safe, learner-friendly spaces.
Education also can lessen the psychosocial impact of crises by creating structure and routines, and by providing stability and hope for the future. It can help learners adapt and prepare them to thrive in a complex and unpredictable world. Education also helps to strengthen learners’ problem-solving and coping skills so they can make informed decisions about how to survive and to care for themselves and others in dangerous environments. It enables learners to develop critical awareness and to assert their agency in discussions of social justice and human rights, and through civic involvement and activism.
Communities also prioritize education during crises, as schools and other learning environments are often at the heart of the community. These spaces symbolize opportunity for future generations and hope for a better life.
Quality education can help learners and their families assert their dignity and build the life and the future they aspire to. It also can contribute directly to the social, economic, and political stability of a society. It reduces the risk of violent conflict by strengthening social cohesion and supporting conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
Crisis planning and response can offer opportunities for national authorities, local and national actors, communities, and humanitarian and development actors to work together to create more equitable and inclusive education systems.
Education is always a human right
Human rights and humanitarian and refugee law make up the body of international law and normative standards that guarantee and regulate human rights and other protections, both in peacetime and during crises. The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery (INEE MS) are based on human rights, specifically the right to education, as expressed in key human rights documents, such as the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (see Annex 3: Relevant Legal Instruments). The INEE MS aim to reflect the legal protections afforded to learners, education personnel, and education institutions by international humanitarian law.
The Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4, represent an important global commitment by the international community. These documents have developed and reaffirmed the right to education, giving specific attention to education during crises, including for displaced populations such as refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and asylum seekers. The two documents stress the following:
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Inclusion and equity
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Gender equality
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Providing access to quality early childhood education and to lifelong learning opportunities for all young people and adults
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Improving the quality of existing education programs
The INEE MS are also based on the Sphere Humanitarian Charter, the Protection Principles of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability. The Sphere Humanitarian Charter is based on the principles and provisions of international humanitarian law, international human rights law, refugee law, and the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Disaster Relief. It expresses the belief that all people affected by crisis have the right to receive assistance and protection in order to ensure that their living conditions enable them to live life with dignity and security.
The charter also cites the legal responsibility of states and warring parties to guarantee that right to protection and assistance. When the relevant authorities are unable or unwilling to fulfill these responsibilities, they are obliged to allow humanitarian organizations to provide protection and assistance. It is widely recognized that the provisions of human rights law that are applicable during armed conflict complement the protections afforded by international humanitarian law. In other words, the human rights law standards regarding what constitutes a “quality” education remain relevant in situations of armed conflict.
Human rights are universal and apply fully in emergency contexts. The right to education is both a human right and an enabling right, as education helps people develop the skills they need to achieve their full potential and exercise their rights, such as the right to life and good health. For example, once a person is able to read the safety warnings about landmines, they will know to avoid a field littered with mines.
As outlined in General Comment No. 13 of the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially marginalized adults and children can lift themselves out of income poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities. Education also plays a vital role in empowering women, in safeguarding children from exploitative and hazardous labor and sexual exploitation, in promoting human rights and democracy, and in protecting the environment.
Providing quality education to all is the responsibility of national authorities, the main duty bearers. They pass this responsibility on to education authorities, other relevant line ministries, and local education authorities. During emergencies, other actors, such as the UN, national and international NGOs, civil society, the private sector, and community-based organizations (CBOs), also can support education activities and share responsibility for the provision of education. The INEE MS provide a framework of good practice for all stakeholders to help achieve quality education.
In the INEE MS, education planning is based on the language and spirit of human rights law. The INEE MS bring to life the principles of participation, accountability, non-discrimination, and legal protection to provide quality education.
What are the INEE Minimum Standards?
The INEE MS contain 19 standards, each of which includes key actions and guidance notes. The purpose of the INEE MS is to improve the quality of education preparedness, response, and recovery; to increase access to safe and relevant learning opportunities; and to ensure that the actors who provide these services are held accountable.
The INEE MS are designed to be applicable to crisis response in many different situations, including emergencies caused by conflict, by natural hazards such as those induced by climate change, and slow- and rapid-onset crises in both rural and urban environments. No country or education system today is immune from crisis, and the INEE MS provide a common framework that can be applied in any economic, political, or social context.
The primary aims of the INEE MS are to provide a quality, coordinated humanitarian response in the education sector, and to help stakeholders protect the education rights and needs of people affected by crisis in ways that assert their agency and dignity.
The INEE MS provide guidance on how to prepare for and respond to emergencies in equitable ways to reduce risk, improve future preparedness, and lay the foundation for providing quality education. This guidance will enable handbook users to build back stronger education systems during recovery and development, and to achieve more cost-effective, sustainable outcomes for crisis-affected communities.