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The EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides announced today his objective to dedicate 4% of the EU humanitarian aid budget to education for children in emergency situations: "No child should miss out on education. We want to make education a priority in emergency situations so that more children can have access to learning, to teachers, to a brighter future. I am truly committed to this cause".
Commissioner Stylianides attends today the Oslo Summit on Education for Development, organised by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown, aiming at mobilising a new political commitment to reach the 58 million children who are out of school worldwide. Education in emergencies is one of the most underfunded areas in humanitarian aid. At present, less than 2% of the global humanitarian budget is made available for this purpose.
The EU has been supporting education in situations of emergency through the EU Children of Peace initiative, created in 2012 after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
To date, the EU has allocated more than €23 million for the EU Children of Peace projects, including the contributions of €500 000 from Luxembourg and €250 000 from Austria in 2014. By the end of this year, more than 4 million children will have benefitted from the initiative in 26 countries.
Read more about what the European Commission does for children in emergencies.
